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Alarming numbers: 70,800,000 refugees globally

Last year saw more than 13.6 million refugees added to the global numbers - or 37,000 new displacements every day of the year.

The numbers are out - and they don't make good reading. The total number of refugees worldwide reached a record 70.8 million by the end of 2018, an alarming statistic. That's almost 1 per cent of humanity uprooted from its residence of choice and made to settle elsewhere. These are not people like you and me - expats - who have temporarily left the shores of their homeland in search of better quality of life, job opportunity, or to experience the greener grass on the other side.
These 70,800,000 individuals, on the other hand, have been forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. They can't return to their home even if they wish to - at least not immediately unless there is a resolution of the problems that forced them out in the first place - and they can't really call their current place of residence their home. In effect, they have no home. Ironically, if this number of people were to be citizens of one country, it'd be the 20th most populous in the world, right after Germany, which incidentally is the fifth-largest recipient of refugees, after Turkey, Pakistan, Uganda and Sudan.
Last year saw more than 13.6 million refugees added to the global numbers - or 37,000 new displacements every day of the year. Even more depressing is the statistic that every other refugee is a child. It's World Refugee Day today, and data shared by the UN Refugee Agency should act as a stark reminder to the world of the deepening crisis: the number of refugees is up 75 per cent in 10 years, from 40.3 million in 2009. The theme for this year's World Refugee Day 2019 is #StepWithRefugees - Take A Step on World Refugee Day. Let's do just that. Donate, hire, volunteer, raise funds. let's take a step - it doesn't matter how big or small - but a step in solidarity with refugees from around the world.