Number of displaced people in world reaches over millions

Geneva: The number of people displaced by conflicts has reached a record high of 38 million people, equivalent to the population of major metropolitan cities such as Beijing, London or New York, the UN and the Norwegian Refugee Council, (NRC) said.

"These are the worst figures for forced displacement in a generation, signaling our complete failure to protect innocent civilians," Efe cited NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland as saying on Wednesday.

Data from the annual report prepared by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, part of NRC, was presented by Egeland on Wednesday in Geneva, along with the deputy head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Volker Turk.

The report indicated that for the third consecutive year, internal displacement figures are alarmingly high as well, as 11 million people were forced out of their homes by violence in 2014.

"Global diplomats, UN resolutions, peace talks and cease-fire agreements have lost the battle against ruthless armed men who are driven by political or religious interests rather than human imperatives," Egeland said.

"This report should be a tremendous wake-up call. We must break this trend where millions of men, women and children are becoming trapped in conflict zones around the world," the former UN secretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs urged.

The trend makes internally displaced people feel even more insecure and hopeless, pushing them to cross borders and become refugees, Turk said commenting on the report.