68.5 mn people forcibly displaced worldwide: UN

According to the Global Trends report, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency said the number of forcibly displaced people was increased to 68.5 million by the end of 2017.

The number of forcibly displaced people rose by almost three million.

Among them were 16.2 million people who became displaced during 2017 alone, which is equivalent to 44,500 people being displaced each day, or a person becoming displaced every two seconds.

As per the report, refugees who have fled their countries to escape conflict and persecution account for 25.4 million.

The reasons why the world's population of displaced people keeps rising are- US immigration agents seizing children from parents at the southern border, Italy's new populist coalition forcing refugees to turn elsewhere, an anti-migrant backlash threatening to fracture Germany's government, The Strait Times reported.

Close to 174,000 refugees are children, who were separated from their families.

Wrecked by seven years of war, Syria accounts to the highest number of displaced people.

Five countries- Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia, which together account for less than two per cent of the world population, accounts for 68 per cent of the global refugee population.

UNHCR's Global Trends report is released worldwide each year ahead of World Refugee Day (20th June).

It tracks forced displacement based on data gathered by UNHCR, governments, and other partners.