OTTAWA—The United Nations’ refugee agency says one in every 113 people around the world is either an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee.

The agency says by the end of last year, 65.3 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes, nearly twice the population of Canada. The number easily set a new postwar record, as the UN agency warned that European and other rich nations can expect the tide to continue if root causes aren’t addressed.

“If these 65.3 million persons were a nation, they would make up the 21st largest in the world,” the agency said.

But few of those displaced find new permanent homes around the world.

And the number of those who eventually receive citizenship in their new countries is vanishingly small: More refugees became citizens of Canada than any other country last year, with 25,900 granted citizenship, but that represents the vast majority of a relatively tiny number of naturalizations recorded worldwide, the agency reported.

The sobering statistics were contained in the agency’s annual global trends report, released Monday to mark World Refugee Day.

Of the world’s displaced people, about 12.4 million were newly uprooted, due to ongoing persecution, conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations that continue to plague countries around the world.

In 2015, more than a million people reached Europe, fleeing conflict and persecution in places like Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan.

Canada has consistently been among the lead nations in resettling refugees, with the Liberals’ Syrian program helping raise those numbers in 2015.

Approximately 32,000 refugees were granted citizenship worldwide last year, the agency reported. No other nation came close to Canada’s naturalization totals, though there are many gaps in the data as destination countries do not always distinguish when citizenship is granted to a refugee versus a non-refugee.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, who has widely praised Canada’s refugee resettlement program, said the rising number of displaced people isn’t the only concern.

“More people are being displaced by war and persecution and that’s worrying in itself, but the factors that endanger refugees are multiplying too,” he said in a press release.

“At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year; on land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders. Politics is gravitating against asylum in some countries.

“The willingness of nations to work together not just for refugees but for the collective human interest is what’s being tested today, and it’s this spirit of unity that badly needs to prevail.”

Grandi said policy-makers and advocacy groups admittedly face daunting challenges in helping the largest subset of displaced people: Some 40.8 million internally displaced in countries in conflict. Another 21.3 million were refugees and some 3.2 million more were seeking asylum.

This fall, Canada will co-chair a special summit on the refugee crisis in New York.

With files from The Associated Press

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

More on thestar.com:

On World Refugee Day, thousands wait in Greek limbo

Visa officer, refugee meet again in tearful reunion 30 years later

Read more about: