Number of forcibly displaced people dips to 118m: UN

GENEVA, June 11 (AFP): The number of forcibly displaced people dropped for the first time in a decade last year, as more opted to return home despite often unsafe and unstable conditions, the UN said Thursday.

At the end of 2025, 117.8 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced from their homes, marking a decline of 5.4 million compared to a year earlier, the UN refugee agency said.

The agency said the number of people who had been forced to flee due to war, violence and persecution remained "unacceptably high", urging action to dramatically reduce long-term displacement over the next decade.

In its annual report, UNHCR explained that the declining displacement number was linked to "a sharp increase" in the number of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) returning home.

In all, 14.7 million displaced people returned to their places of origin in 2025, said the report.

They included 4.4 million refugees who crossed back into their home countries, marking the second highest number of refugee returns since records began 60 years ago.