Over 65 million displaced – new world record ?
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With over 65 million people displaced worldwide by the end of last year, easily setting a new postwar record, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warned on Monday that European and other rich nations can expect the tide to continue if root causes aren't addressed. In a year when more than a million people arrived on European shores, UNHCR said continued conflicts and persecution in places like Syria and Afghanistan fueled a nearly 10-percent increase in the total number of refugees and internally displaced people in 2015. The figures contained in the Geneva-based agency's latest Global Trends Report were issued on Monday, to mark the June 20 World Refugee Day. The report showed that for the first time since World War II, the 60 million mark was crossed, even topping the equivalent of the total U.K. population of about 64.6 million. “I hope that the message carried by those forcibly displaced rea...
With over 65 million people displaced worldwide by the end of last year, easily setting a new postwar record, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) warned on Monday that European and other rich nations can expect the tide to continue if root causes aren't addressed. In a year when more than a million people arrived on European shores, UNHCR said continued conflicts and persecution in places like Syria and Afghanistan fueled a nearly 10-percent increase in the total number of refugees and internally displaced people in 2015. The figures contained in the Geneva-based agency's latest Global Trends Report were issued on Monday, to mark the June 20 World Refugee Day. The report showed that for the first time since World War II, the 60 million mark was crossed, even topping the equivalent of the total U.K. population of about 64.6 million.
“I hope that the message carried by those forcibly displaced reaches the leaderships: We need action, political action, to stop conflicts,'' said U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. In a message for World Refugee Day, he noted that each year his agency seeks to find a glimmer of hope in the global statistics they publish but this year the hopeful signs are hard to find. “Against this tragic backdrop,” he said, “divisive political rhetoric on asylum and migration issues, and disturbing levels of xenophobia, are together threatening the international agreements which protect those forced to flee war or persecution.”
UNHCR noted that on an average, 24 people had been displaced every minute of every day last year _ or 34,000 people a day _ up from 6 every minute in 2005. Global displacement has roughly doubled since 1997, and risen by 50 percent since 2011 alone _ when the Syria war began. About 11.5 million people from Syria had fled their homes: 6.6 million within the war-ravaged country and 4.9 million abroad. More than half of all refugees came from three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia, and more than half of all displaced people were children, UNCHR said.
Turkey was the top host country for the second year running, taking in 2.5 million people _ nearly all from neighboring Syria. Afghan neighbor Pakistan had 1.6 million, while Lebanon, next to Syria, hosted 1.1 million. UNHCR said the total figures of forcibly displaced people amounted to about one in every 113 people on the planet.
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Chuck Robbins, the chief executive of the multinational digital communications conglomerate Cisco, signs the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a document by the Pontifical Academy for Life, on April 24, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Apr 24, 2024 / 11:06 am (CNA).The CEO of Cisco Systems signed the Vatican's artificial intelligence ethics pledge on Wednesday, becoming the latest technology giant to join the Church's call for ethical and responsible use of AI.Chuck Robbins, the chief executive of the multinational digital communications conglomerate, met privately with Pope Francis on April 24 before signing the Rome Call for AI Ethics, a document by the Pontifical Academy for Life. Pope Francis meets with Chuck Robbins, the chief executive of multinational digital communications conglomerate Cisco, on April 24, 2024, at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican MediaThe document, first published by the pontifical academy in February 2020, has previously been signed ...
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null / Credit: Brian A Jackson / ShutterstockCNA Staff, Apr 24, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).Catholics Charities Corporation in Ohio was found partially negligent this week in the 2017 death of a 5-year-old boy who was being supervised by one of the organization's caseworkers at the time he died.A jury in Cuyahoga County ruled in the wrongful death suit that the Catholic charity group was 8% responsible for Jordan Rodriguez's September 2017 death, local media reported. Rodriguez's body was discovered buried in his mother's backyard three months after he died.The boy's mother and her boyfriend earlier pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from his death, including involuntary manslaughter. Jordan was developmentally disabled and incapable of speaking.In the civil wrongful death trial this week, Catholic Charities Corporation was ordered to pay $960,000 into Jordan Rodriguez's estate. Several ...
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