As the world prepares to mark World Refugee Day on June 20, the scale of human displacement has reached a grim milestone. 

According to the UN Refugee Agency’s latest annual Global Trends report, 123.2 million people were forcibly displaced in 2024,  the highest number ever recorded.

To put it simply, one in every 67 people on Earth is currently uprooted from their home due to war, persecution, violence, or human rights violations.

According to Eujin Byun, global spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the latest figures tell us that displacement is no longer a temporary emergency.

“Displacement is increasingly becoming a defining condition of the modern world, driven by the international community’s failure to resolve long-standing conflicts,” Byun tells TRT World.

“Not a single major conflict was resolved in 2023, despite there being a record number of active wars.”

While the displacement figure has dipped slightly — to 122.1 million by the end of April 2025 — the overall trajectory remains unbroken. 

Over the past year alone, nearly seven million people were displaced, continuing a trend that has surged for 13 consecutive years.

A key part of the problem is that “while the number of displaced people has almost doubled since 2015, international funding (to provide relief to the displaced) hasn’t kept pace,” Byun says.

“Humanitarian operations remain overstretched and under-resourced, leaving essential services like shelter, food, and healthcare in constant jeopardy,” she explains.

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Internal displacement

A significant share of those displaced — about 60 percent, or 73.5 million people — haven’t even crossed borders. They remain internally displaced within their own countries, often trapped in conflict zones or cut off from humanitarian assistance. 

That figure has risen by 6.3 million in the past year alone.

Nowhere is this more devastating than in Gaza, where over 90 percent of the population — more than 2 million people — have been forced from their homes by Israel’s ongoing genocide. 

Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, and civilians have been forced to flee multiple times within the tiny coastal enclave.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has described the situation as among the worst it has ever witnessed.

“We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. 

“We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.”

Asked what the international community can do, UNHCR spokesperson Byun stresses that both immediate and long-term strategies are urgently needed. 

In the short term, countries must scale up emergency assistance to meet basic needs, especially for women and children.

“But beyond emergency relief, sustainable solutions are essential,” Byun says.

“For those returning to fragile contexts like Syria or Afghanistan, comprehensive support is needed to help them rebuild their lives. This includes investing in infrastructure and job opportunities, and also easing the burden on host countries, most of which are low- or middle-income nations already hosting the majority of the world’s refugees.”

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Key displacement situations 

Globally, the number of refugees stands at 42.7 million. 

That figure includes around 31 million under the UNHCR’s mandate, 5.9 million Palestinian refugees supported by UNRWA, and another 5.9 million people in need of international protection.

In addition, 8.4 million people around the world are still waiting for decisions on their asylum claims, a 22 percent increase from last year. 

The 2025 Global Trends report highlights several regions where the situation has become particularly dire. In Sudan, an ongoing civil war has pushed nearly 600,000 people into neighbouring countries in the past year alone, raising the total number of Sudanese refugees to 2.1 million.

In Myanmar, nearly 5 million people are now forcibly displaced. Hundreds of Rohingya refugees died at sea last year while attempting to flee Myanmar. 

Syria continues to account for one of the largest displaced populations globally. Yet the country has also seen a notable number of returns in recent months. Since December, more than 1.7 million people have gone back — many to areas that remain fragile, underdeveloped, and lacking in basic services.

According to Byun, these patterns reflect both “a hunger for home and a profound lack of safe, viable conditions for return”. 

Without long-term investment in infrastructure, jobs, education, and healthcare, such returns remain precarious and potentially unsustainable.

“What’s needed now is a shift in how the world thinks about displacement. Emergency aid will always be vital, especially as more people continue to flee, but it’s not enough,” says Byun.

“Efforts must focus on conflict resolution and peacebuilding. At the end, displacement solutions should be viewed as investments in global and regional stability, not only as humanitarian acts.”

This week’s World Refugee Day is a chance to rethink not just how the world responds to displacement, but how it prevents it.

“The international community must balance immediate humanitarian response with bold investments in peace, stability, and long-term development,” the UN Refugee Agency reiterates.