[JURIST] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website] on Thursday warned [UN Report] of the record high number of refugees around the world as a result of increasing global conflicts. According to data collected by the UNHCR in 2014 the number of refugees grew from roughly 51 million in 2013 to 60 million in 2014. The data suggests that 1 in every 122 persons is displaced throughout the world. In a press release [press release] earlier in the week UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres stated “It is terrifying that on the one hand there is more and more impunity for those starting conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the international community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve peace.” The report also details that over half the worlds refugees are children. Mr. Guterres also stated “with huge shortages of funding and wide gaps in the global regime for protecting victims of war, people in need of compassion, aid and refuge are being abandoned.” Guterres stated that this global crisis calls fro a larger humanitarian response and tolerance and protection for the individuals in these situations.

The world is facing its worst refugee crisis since World War II [JURIST report]. Refugees from the conflicts in Africa and the Middle East have generated a tremendous humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean with hundreds of deaths in recent months. In April top UN human rights officials and the International Organization for Migration issued a joint statement calling on the EU to create a new rescue operation program [JURIST report] for migrants attempting to traverse the Mediterranean and to commit to greater receipt of refugees. Also in April UN rights experts warned [JURIST report] the EU that repression of irregular migration cannot be the only solution to the recurrent grave problem of masses of people drowning at sea. In February AI urged countries around the world to show public support to Syrian refugees [JURIST report] through resettlement and other humanitarian admission programs