65.6 mn people displaced worldwide, 84% living in poor countries, says UN

UNHCR hoped wealthy countries would be encouraged to accept more refugees, invest in peace promotion

A record 65.6 million people are either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced across the globe, the UN refugee agency said on Monday.

The estimated figure for the end of 2016 is an increase of 300,000 on 2015, according to its annual report.

It is a smaller increase than 2014-15, when the figure rose by five million, reports the BBC.

But UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said it was still a disheartening failure of international diplomacy.

"The world seems to have become unable to make peace," Grandi said.

"So you will see old conflicts that continue to linger, and new conflicts erupting, and both produce displacement...forced displacement is a symbol for wars that never end."

Grandi also warned of the burden being placed on many of the world's poorest states, as some 84 per cent of the world's displaced people are living in poor and middle-income countries, the BBC reported.

The UNHCR said it hoped Monday's record-breaking numbers would encourage wealthy countries to think again: Not just to accept more refugees, but to invest in peace promotion, and reconstruction.