The growing problem of displacement comes amid numerous global conflicts and a rising political backlash to migration in much of the West. Though Grandi described the Biden administration’s goals to resettle 125,000 refugees within the United States as a “shining example of U.S. generosity,” he also characterized new restrictions on asylum put in place by the United States as a possible violation of international humanitarian law.
Speaking to the Associated Press, Grandi said that the United States faces the “most complex challenge” of any developed nation regarding refugees, alluding to the southern border. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In its Global Trends report released Thursday, the U.N. refugee agency highlighted calamities in Sudan, where internal violence led to nearly 11 million people uprooted by the end of 2023. Other “key displacement situations” outlined in the report include escalating violence in Myanmar, internal displacement and food insecurity in Afghanistan, and a resurgence in fighting amid nearly 20 years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Syria remains the largest displacement crisis worldwide, as nearly 14 million Syrians had been displaced within and outside of the country by the end of 2023. Also by the end of 2023, 1.7 million people — three-quarters of the population, and mostly Palestinian refugees — had been displaced in the Gaza Strip, according to the report.
The “forcibly displaced” category includes refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people and other individuals classified as in need of international protection. The largest rise in these displacement figures is of internally displaced people, or individuals who aim to escape conflict while remaining in their home country. Over five years, this number has increased by nearly 50 percent and stood at 68.3 million by the end of 2023.
The U.N. report noted that if the displaced had their own country, it would be the 12th largest in the world — roughly as populous as Japan.
President Biden announced last week new measures to shut off migrants’ access to asylum when illegal border crossings meet emergency levels, or above an average of 2,500 per day. People at the border ineligible for protection will now be returned either to their home countries or Mexico, unless they can express a convincing fear of persecution that would then qualify them for more rigorous screening and a possible exemption.
The restrictions will remain in effect until two weeks after those daily numbers fall to or drop below 1,500. The last time migrant figures dropped that low was in July 2020 during the covid-19 pandemic, the Associated Press reported.
The American Civil Liberties Union said immediately after Biden’s announcement that it would challenge the new measures in court and filed a suit Wednesday on behalf of immigrant rights groups, saying that Biden’s executive action differs minimally from a similar move by the Trump administration that the courts blocked.
