The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday said 68.5 million people are now displaced due to war, violence and persecution.

Crises in areas including South Sudan, Congo and Syria, as well as mass migration of Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar raised the overall number from 65.6 million in 2016.

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Around 70 percent of those currently displaced are from just 10 countries, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said. The figure included some 40 million internally displaces people worldwide, with Colombia, Syria and Democratic Republic of Congo making up the largest numbers.

One person displaced every two seconds

"If there were solutions to conflicts in those 10 countries, or in some of them at least, that huge figure, instead of rising every year, could start going down," Grandi said.

Read more: The voice of the Rohingya refugees

The UN report showed 16.2 million people were newly displaced last year, including those forced to flee for the first time as well as those who were already displaced.

This equates to some 44,400 people being pushed out of their homes every day, or one person every two seconds, UNHCR said.

The number of refugees who returned to their home country was 667,400 compared to 552,000 in 2016, accounting for 3 percent of the refugee population.

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Impact on Europe visible

The report said 85 percent of refugees are in developing countries, many of them "desperately poor." Most came from Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Congo.

It also said the impact of refugees coming to Europe in 2015 and 2016 was reflected in the growing refugee populations in countries as their asylum applications were gradually processed. In Germany, the refugee population increased by 45 percent.

Read more: How do refugees in Germany view Seehofer's tougher migration plan?

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Seeking refuge A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces in the north of Myanmar's Rakhine State triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh. About 400 people have been killed in the clashes in Buddist-majority Myanmar.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Mass evacuation A Rohingya man passes a child though a barbed wire border fence on the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar accused the Rohingya insurgents of torching seven villages, one outpost, and two parts of Maungdaw town.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Buddhist refugees on their way south The crackdown by Myanmar forces also sparked a mass evacuation of thousands of Buddhist residents of the area. Tension has long been high between the Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists, leading to bloody rioting in 2012. Rakhine Buddhists, feeling unsafe after the upsurge in fighting, are moving south to the state's capital, Sittwe, where Buddhists are a majority and have greater security.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh No entry Bangladeshi border guards block people from crossing. Thousands of Rohingyas have sought to flee the fighting to Bangladesh, with nearly 30,000 crossing over. Bangladesh, which is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya said it will not accept any more refugees, despite an appeal by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Humanitarian crisis An aid worker with an international agency in Bangladesh reports: "What we're seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick. This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It's mostly women and children." The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Myanmar and classified as illegal immigrants, despite claiming roots there that go back centuries.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Not welcome in Bangladesh A group of Rohingya refugees takes shelter at the Kutuupalang makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Bangladesh's unwillingness to host more refugees became apparent in the government's plan to relocate Rohingyas to a remote island that is mostly flooded during the monsoon season.

The flight of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh Stranded in no man's land Rohingya children make their way through water as they try to come to the Bangladesh side from no man's land. Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees are believed to be stuck at the border to Bangladesh. Author: Nadine Berghausen



law/kms (AFP, AP)