THE CRISIS BY DATA

• 60% of the world’s refugees and 80% of the world’s Internally Displaced People (IDPs) reside in urban settings (statistics from 2016 UNHCR report).

• In 2019, one person became displaced every 3 seconds. That means that every minute, 20 people have become newly displaced. In one day, 30,000 people have become displaced.

THE CRISIS BY COUNTRY

South Sudan

The civil war in Sudan began in 2023, when clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted, resulting in the world’s largest displacement crisis with 14.3 million Sudanese people displaced by the end of 2024. Tensions between the two groups escalated upon the dissolution of Sudan’s transitional government, with the SAF and RSF staging a coup in October 2021. Following the coup, disagreements ensued between the group leaders on the direction of the country, sparking a power struggle that has stalled the country’s transition efforts. Prior to the conflict between SAF and RSF, Sudan was experiencing its highest levels of humanitarian need and displacement from the onset of the Darfur crisis in 2003. As of April 2025, 8.6 million people have been internally displaced by the conflict in Sudan, becoming the largest child displacement crisis, with nearly 5 million children displaced.

MYANMAR

The humanitarian crisis in Myanmar began in 2017, when violent military crackdowns targeted the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Rakhine State. Mass killings, sexual violence, and the burning of entire villages forced over 742,000 people to seek refuge in Bangladesh, with millions more displaced both internally and to neighboring countries since then. The crisis escalated in February 2021, when Myanmar's military launched a coup and brutally cracked down on dissent, destroying whole villages and massacring civilians and opposition fighters. Children have had to endure grave violations: UNICEF reported in August 2024 that many had been targeted or caught in the crossfire. Humanitarian access to Rakhine remains difficult, with critical services such as access to safe water and healthcare jeopardized. As of March 2025, more than 3.6 million people were displaced within Myanmar and 1.5 million refugees and asylum-seekers fled the country.

VENEZUELA

Since 2014, Venezuela has faced a sustained exodus of migrants and refugees, with more than 7.7 million people—roughly 20% of its population—fleeing the country. Even today, an average of 2,000 Venezuelans leave each day. Long reliant on oil, Venezuela’s economy collapsed when global oil prices plummeted in 2014, triggering political and economic turmoil from which the country has yet to recover, even amid increases in oil prices. Widespread repression, democratic backsliding, severe shortages of food, medicine, and basic services, inflation, and escalating violence have driven this mass displacement. Of those who have fled, about 6.5 million (85%) now reside in neighboring Latin American countries; however, their capacity to provide basic services has become increasingly strained. Additionally, migrants in the region struggle to meet basic needs, including food, housing, healthcare, and education, and the increasing cost of living, lack of documentation or regular status, and high unemployment rates, leaving Venezuelan migrants particularly vulnerable. 

AFGHANISTAN

The crisis in Afghanistan is one of the longest displacement crises in recent history, dating back more than 40 years, when the first Afghan refugees fled their country from the Saur Revolution in 1978 and the Soviet Union’s invasion in 1979. By 1984, there were over 5 million Afghan refugees displaced in neighboring countries, Pakistan and Iran.

PALESTINE

Since the partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, Palestinians have endured forced displacement, occupation, and systematic denial of basic rights. When UNRWA began operations in 1950, it served around 750,000 Palestinian refugees; today, about 5.9 million are registered and eligible for UNRWA services. Nearly one-third, more than 1.5 million people, live in 58 recognized Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza. Since the October 2023 Hamas attacks, the situation has intensified. Israel subsequently launched a deadly military campaign in Gaza that has killed over 50,000 Palestinians and displaced an estimated 1.9 million Gazans- nearly the entire population. At the end of 2024, 2 million people remained internally displaced. On August 22, 2025, the Famine Review Committee officially declared famine in Palestine due to blockading and obstruction of aid by the Israeli government. Children, who make up half of Gaza’s population, bear the brunt of this trauma, facing malnutrition, disease, and death.

UKRAINE

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, creating what has become the largest and fastest displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. As a result of missile and rocket attacks, there has been widespread death and infrastructure destruction, leading one-third of Ukraine’s total population to become forcibly displaced. Approximately 3.9 million people are internally displaced, and another 6.9 million are fleeing to other countries, with Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic serving as primary host nations.