IRC responds to record number of people displaced in 2020

June 17, 2021 —  The International Rescue Committee responds to UNHCR’s report on the number of people displaced in 2020:

Melanie Ward, IRC’s Executive Director for the UK, said:

“That record numbers of people - 82.4 million - have fled their homes last year should be a major wake up call for the UK Government. It is a tragedy of our times that rising hunger and record levels of displacement have become a defining feature of the world today. Yet the UK Government’s ill-judged and unrealistic Borders Bill, together with its cuts to the aid budget - and steadfast refusal to return to 0.7% - are only adding to this context of pain and suffering. Some of the IRC’s lifesaving programmes in wartorn countries like Syria have been forced to close. Lives are already being lost as a result of the devastating cuts. This is not what Global Britain should be about. The Government should take immediate action by living up to its obligations on aid and on refugee resettlement slots, and a fundamental re-think of the Border Bill.”