More refugees and less funds, says the UNHCR

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ALMOST 60 million people in the world have been forced to abandon their homes due to conflicts. While the need for humanitarian assistance increases, countries are in increasingly short supply of resources, according to the study published on this week (June 18) by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR, ACNUR in Spanish).
“The world is at war,” said ACNUR representative Antonio Guterres. “There are extensive regions that are in complete chaos. The problem is that humanitarian agencies do not have the resources or the money to deal with the increasing necessities of millions of refugees.”
The annual report, titled ‘World at war,’ denounces the continued growth in forced relocations in 2014, when 59.5 million of people were forced to leave their homes, while in 2013, the figure was 51.2 million and a decade ago, 37.5 million.
“Last year we announced that for the first time since the Second World War, there were more than 50 million displaced people due to conflicts in the world,” said Mr Guterres. “In only a year, there has been an increase by 16 per cent and 60 per cent in the last decade.
“The most worrying fact is that the process is speeding up astonishingly. In 2010, conflicts forced 11,000 people to abandon their homes daily; in 2011, 14,000; in 2012, 23,000; in 2013, 30,000 and by the end of 2014, the daily number was 42,500.”
Despite this incessant growth, funds for humanitarian agencies are decreasing.
Mr Guterres explained that out of the €7 billion agreed to be allocated to humanitarian purposes by governments, they received only €3 billion, saying: “We did not reach even half of what we needed, and this obviously has serious consequences for refugees.”
He requested all countries to give shelter to refugees and not expel immigrants, as well as combat xenophobic outbreaks and discriminating behaviour from their citizens.

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