Number of people forced to flee war, violence to hit record in 2015

The number of people displaced by war and violence is set to hit a record high this year, the UN said Friday, warning one in every 122 people worldwide had been forcedto flee their home.

The UN refugee agency released a report showing rocketing numbers of people living as refugees, asylum-seekers or displaced within their countries during the first half of2015, and indicated that the full-year figures would be devastating.

"We're talking only about the first six months. We believe things will be much worse in the second six months," UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres told reporters in Geneva.

Nearly one million migrants and refugees have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe this year, sparking the continent's biggest migration crisis since World War II.

At the same time, conflicts raging in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere are continuing "to generate staggering levels of human suffering," UNHCR said in a statement, warning that "2015 is likely to exceed all previous records for global forced displacement." 

Last year, the number of displaced soared to a record 59.5 million worldwide, and Friday's report indicated that this year the figure "has far surpassed 60 million".

That basically means that one in every 122 people on the planet is today someone who has been forced to flee their home, the agency pointed out.