UN: 65 million displaced by global conflicts last year

by TheHill.com - 06/20/16 8:55 AM ET

A record 65.3 million people were displaced at the end of 2015 due to global conflicts and persecution, according to a United Nations report released Monday.

That’s the first time the figure has surpassed 60 million and compares to 59.5 million reported a year earlier in the report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

{mosads}The total figure, released to mark World Refugee Day, includes more than 40 million people who were forced to flee their homes but remained in their countries, an increase of 2.6 million people from 2014.

The report found there were than 21 million refugees worldwide at the end of December, as well as 3.2 million people from industrialized countries awaiting decisions on asylum.

President Obama noted that the 65 million people displaced were comparable to the combined population of California and Texas and that about half of the world’s refugees are children.

“The scale of this human suffering is almost unimaginable; the need for the world to respond is beyond question,” Obama said in a statement.

Obama said the U.S. provides more humanitarian aid for refugees than any other country, but in order to respond to the issue, “today’s unprecedented challenge requires all of us to do more.”

The president plans to convene a summit on refugees at the UN General Assembly in September and is urging other nations to contribute more money, grant jobs and help resettle refugees.

Debate has swirled in Europe and in the U.S. over resettling refugees, including the 4.9 million displaced by the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of Obama and Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton for supporting the resettlement of thousands of refugees in the U.S.

Obama on Monday defended the policy of accepting refugees, saying it “reflects our American values and our noblest traditions as a nation, enriches our society, and strengthens our collective security.”

“The millions of refugees who have resettled here through the years have brought similar dreams of a better tomorrow. Each has enriched the diverse mosaic that is America. Their lives and their many accomplishments stand as a clear rebuke to the bigotry and brutality they fled, and serve as a powerful example of the human will to endure, hope, and achieve,” he said.

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