ROME, June 20 (Xinhua) -- A global deal on refugees was urgently needed, as the number of people forcibly driven from their home by war, persecution, and violence reached 68.5 million in 2017, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said here on Wednesday.
The new record high marked a 2.9 million increase against 2016, and included an estimated 16.2 million of new displaced people. More specifically, some 11.8 million individuals were newly displaced inside their own country, and 4.4 million were new refugees and asylum seekers.
These were some of the figures provided by the UNHCR in its "Global Trends" annual report, unveiled on Tuesday, and presented at Rome's Foreign Press Association to mark the World Refugee Day.
Refugees fleeing their countries due to war and persecution accounted for 25.4 million of the 68.5 million last year. Furthermore, minors represented at least 52 percent of the overall figure, marking a 41 percent increase compared to 2009.
"We are at a watershed, where success in managing forced displacement globally requires a new and far more comprehensive approach, so that countries and communities are not left alone in dealing with this," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi stressed in the report.
In fact -- despite a misperception widely spread across Europe, Italy included -- some 85 percent of all refugees at the end of 2017 were granted protection in developing countries, according to UNHCR.
The report showed that nine of the ten largest refugee-hosting countries belonged to developing regions, with Turkey (3.5 million), Pakistan (1.4 million), Uganda (1.4 million) and Lebanon (998,900) topping the ranking, and Germany (970,400) as sole "representative" of developed countries.
Thus, the need for a global approach to manage the phenomenon was pressing, according to the UN officials.
"The UNCHR is engaged in discussing (the issue) in these days, both internally and with the International Organization for Migration (IOM)," UNHCR Representative for Southern Europe Felipe Camargo told Xinhua.
"The aim is to elaborate a proposal on migrant and refugee disembarking system and on redistribution of responsibilities, which could eventually be integrated in the debate on migration on-going within the European Union," Camargo explained.
Details of such blueprint were not yet available, but its basic principle would "obviously remain that of solidarity and responsibility sharing," according to the official.
In a statement released on the eve of the World Refugee Day, UNHCR's Grandi had already mentioned that "in a matter of months, a new Global Compact on Refugees will be ready for adoption by the United Nations General Assembly."
