UN: 70.8m people displaced in 2018

ROME - Almost 70.8 million people were forcibly displaced last year, a 2.3-million increase compared to 2017, according to a report released in Rome on Wednesday by the United Nations Refugee Agency, or UNHCR.

Ahead of the World Refugee Day, celebrated worldwide on June 20, the UN agency in Rome provided the latest figures in its annual Global Trends report.

The number of people forced to leave their homes, and often their countries, due to war, unrest, or persecution has never been so high in the last seven decades, the report stated.