Refugees at highest ever level, reaching 65m, says UN
The number of people displaced by conflict is at the highest level ever recorded, the UN refugee agency says.
It estimates that 65.3m people were either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced at the end of 2015, an increase of 5m in a year.
This represents one in every 113 people on the planet, the UN agency says.
Meanwhile, the UN refugee chief says a worrying "climate of xenophobia" has taken hold in Europe as it struggles to cope with the migrant crisis.
The influx of people, the biggest since World War Two, has led to greater support for far-right groups and controversial anti-immigration policies.
In its annual report marking World Refugee Day, the UN said it was the first time the number of refugees worldwide had passed the 60m mark.
Over half of the total comes from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.
Despite the huge focus on Europe's migrant crisis, the UN said 86% of the world's refugees were being sheltered in low and middle income countries.
Turkey is the biggest host country for refugees worldwide, with 2.5m people, followed by Pakistan and Lebanon.
More than 1,011,700 migrants arrived in Europe by sea last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), although other agencies put that number much higher.
Some 35,000 arrived by land, the IOM said.
The preferred destinations for most of them were richer northern countries like Germany and Sweden.
This is reflected in the UN's figures for new asylum applications in 2015, which show that Germany was the largest single recipient, followed by the United States and Sweden.
Most Syrian refugees in Turkey are covered by the Turkish government's temporary protection scheme so do not count as asylum claimants.
Source: bbc.com
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