Couple randomly attacked, 1 stabbed, by group of teens in Toronto, police say
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
War, violence, persecution, human rights violations and other factors caused nearly 3 million people to flee their homes last year, even though the COVID-19 crisis restricted movement worldwide, the U.N. refugee agency said in a report Friday.
In its latest Global Trends report, UNHCR said the world's cumulative number of displaced people rose to 82.4 million -- roughly the population of Germany and a new post-World War II record.
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations' high commissioner for refugees, said conflict and the fallout from climate change in places such as Mozambique, Ethiopia's Tigray region and Africa's Sahel area were key drivers of refugees and internally displaced people in 2020.
Such factors added hundreds of thousands to the overall count, the ninth consecutive annual increase in the number of forcibly displaced people.
The millions who have fled countries such as Syria and Afghanistan due to protracted wars or fighting have dominated the UN agency's tally for years.
"This is telling, in a year in which we were all locked down, confined, blocked in our homes, in our communities, in our cities," Grandi said in an interview before the report's release. "Almost 3 million people have had to actually leave all that behind because they had no other choice."
"COVID-19 seems to have had no impact on some of the key root causes that push people to flee, he said. "War, violence, discrimination, they have continued, no matter what, throughout the pandemic."
UNHCR said 1 per cent of all humanity is now displaced, and there are twice as many forcibly displaced people than a decade ago. Some 42 per cent of them are under 18, and nearly 1 million babies were born as refugees between 2018 and 2020.
"Many of them may remain refugees for years to come," the agency's report said.
UNHCR, which has its headquarters in Geneva, said that 99 of the more than 160 countries that closed their borders because of the coronavirus did not make exceptions for people seeking protection as refugees or asylum-seekers.
Grandi acknowledged the possibility that many internally displaced people who couldn't leave their own countries will eventually want to flee abroad if the pandemic eases and borders reopen..
"A good example is the United States, where already we have seen a surge in people arriving in recent months," Grandi said, referring to a a U.S. provision called Title 42 that let authorities temporarily block asylum-seekers from entry for health reasons. "Title 42 will be lifted eventually -- and I think this is the right thing to do -- but this will have to be managed."
Asked about U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris' recent trip to Central America, where she told people hoping to migrate to the U.S. "do not come," Grandi expressed hope that the remark was not reflective of overall U.S. policy.
"I think that messaging indeed, as it was reported, is stark, and maybe shows only one part of the picture now," Grandi said, adding that he had heard a "more complex response" from other officials in Washington when he was there recently.
Among recent hotspots, Grandi said hundreds of thousands of people were newly displaced in Mozambique and the Sahel last year, and up to 1 million in the Tigray conflict that started in October.
"I'm worried that if the international community is not able to stop these conflicts, we will continue to see the rise in the numbers," he said.
The report said that at the end of last year there were 5.7 million Palestinians, 3.9 million Venezuelans and an additional 20.7 million refugees from various other countries displaced abroad. Another 48 million people were internally displaced in their own countries.
Some 4.1 million more sought asylum.
Turkey, a neighbor of Syria, has taken in the most refugees in absolute numbers -- 3.7 million.
The figure is more that twice that of the No. 2 host country, Colombia, which borders Venezuela. Afghanistan's neighbor Pakistan was third.
David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, said the UNHCR counts should be "a wake up call for the international community." He appealed in particular to the European Union.
"The triple threat of conflict, climate change and COVID-19 continues to destroy lives and livelihoods, demanding a truly global response," Miliband said. "As one of the world's wealthiest and most stable regions, the EU can and must be at the forefront of these efforts."
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, decried an "epic failure of humanity" and said many more people are on the move today than at any time during World War II.
"The majority of people fleeing today are on the move because of manmade conflicts," Egeland said. "What is lacking is the political will and leadership to end these wars."
------
Lederer reported from the United Nations in New York.
A man has been transported to hospital after police say he was stabbed in a random attack carried out by a group of teens in Toronto on Friday night.
Dozens of Ontarians are expressing frustration in the province’s health-care system after their family doctors either dropped them as patients or threatened to after they sought urgent care elsewhere.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
One of greatest climbing guides on Mount Everest has scaled the world's highest peak for the 29th time, extending his own record for most times to the summit, expedition organizers said Sunday.
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
Amid significant criticism from advocates, Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities Minister Kamal Khera is defending her government's long-promised, newly unveiled Canada Disability Benefit, calling the funds an "initial step," but without laying out a timeline for future expansion of the program.
With carriers' flight volumes above the 60th parallel hovering below pre-pandemic levels, Canadian North’s first Inuk CEO now bears the task of balancing those financial and logistical challenges with the needs of communities for which she feels a deep affinity.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme says he wants the government to look at drafting a new law that would make it easier for police to pursue charges against people who threaten elected officials.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
The threat of zebra mussels has prompted the federal government to temporarily ban watercraft from a Manitoba lake popular with tourists.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
Just as she had feared, a restaurant owner from eastern Quebec who visited Montreal had her SUV stolen, but says it was all thanks to the kindness of strangers on the internet — not the police — that she got it back.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.