GENEVA (Web Desk) – Pakistan hosts 1.5 million refugees, making it one of the world’s top four countries that host refugees, reveals United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) annual Global Trends Report: World at War.
The UNHCR report said that worldwide displacement hits all-time high because of wars and persecution of minorities in their homeland. “It said the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago,” said the report.
While the world observes World Refugee Day, the UNHCR believes the situation of refugees is likely to get worse with time. The report revealed that half of the refugees worldwide are children.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that there are up to 1.8 million IDPs as a result of conflict and violence in Pakistan. The country has also experienced large-scale displacement as a result of disasters brought on by natural hazards, mainly floods. From 2008 to 2013 disasters displaced a total of 13.76 million people, IDMC reported.
