The United Nations’ High Commissioner for Refugees said Monday that it’s “inevitable” that the European Union will continue to receive requests for refugees, after a record high 65.3 million people were displaced around the world in 2015.
“There is no plan B for Europe in the long run. Europe will continue to receive people seeking asylum. Their numbers may vary … but it is inevitable,” said High Commissioner Filippo Grandi in the UN’s new Global Trends report to mark World Refugee Day.
He also added that European policies enacted against refugees were “spreading a negative example around the world.”
The 65.3 million refugees in 2015 means that one person in every 113 worldwide was forcibly displaced. More than half of all refugees came from three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. The number of people displaced worldwide has risen 50 percent since 2011.
“I hope that the message carried by those forcibly displaced reaches the leaderships: We need action, political action, to stop conflicts,” said Grandi. “The message that they have carried is: ‘If you don’t solve problems, problems will come to you.'”
More than a million people fled to Europe in 2015, while Turkey took in the most people, 2.5 million. Pakistan took in 1.6 million refugees, while Lebanon hosted 1.1 million.
This is the first time that the 60-million threshold has been crossed. The report said on average, 24 people were displaced every minute of everyday last year, up from six every minute in 2005.
Germany received the highest number of asylum requests (441,900), which increased its refugee population by 46 percent from 2014.
Just over half of all refugees in 2015 were children, the UNHCR said.
