now the number of people fleeing wars violence or civil disorder rose again last year even as the coronavirus pandemic brought much of the world to a standstill by the end of 2020 there were 82.4 million people who were forcibly displaced from their homes that's according to the united nations refugee agency and as you can see that is double the number that it was a decade ago more than two-thirds of those officially recognized as refugees came from just five countries syria venezuela afghanistan south sudan and myanmar our next report takes us to pakistan which has hosted hundreds of thousands of afghan refugees for four decades a small grocery store in this refugee camp in pakistan every day he checks his income and expenses he was about the same age as this child when his family fled afghanistan some 40 years ago today it's a distant memory we had to get out of afghanistan there was a war going on so when the situation became worse we fled pakistan we've been able to live here ever since afghanistan after the soviet invasion in 1979 he has lived in the camp ever since it's one of 20 in this province alone more than a million afghans live in pakistan they're largely on their own [Music] i would be lying if i said we got financial support the truth is we don't get any aid from the pakistani government now for the first time pakistan is registering the afghan refugees residing in the country registered refugees are issued a biometric identity card many children born here have never been registered at all it's hoped the data will give international aid agencies a clearer picture of the needs in the refugee community this exercise we are collecting a most updated information of afghan refugees such as education level vocational skills also maybe language also vulnerability and this updated information is also going to assist us to better design from our activities not only in pakistan but in afghanistan when they return to afghanistan pakistani authorities have tried to encourage refugees to return home nadine jazz is interviewing families to see if they're ready to make the move after nato troops leave afghanistan their new id cards are only valid until 2023 in a questionnaire they're asked if the situation in afghanistan normalizes then do they want to leave ninety percent of the refugees answer with a no they do not want to go back to their home country for baha'i khan one thing is clear he will only return home if there's peace they are the caminantes or walkers millions of them have left venezuela fleeing the country's humanitarian crisis now some of them are going back the pandemic and political turmoil in neighboring colombia has prompted a wave of venezuelans worn down by economic hardship to make the journey home i left with the goal of succeeding and helping my family but now prices are too high in colombia i could not make ends meet luis arias just made it back to venezuela after walking for two weeks with his family from the colombian capital bogota they survived on goodwill along the way but that dried up when they crossed the border the situation at home is dire ngos say that the country needs much more international aid to stave off crippling hunger financing has been way below what is necessary in regards to the dimensions of the crisis in the country the numbers are shameful even the aid that does reach venezuela is hard to distribute activist efforts are often hampered by fuel shortages violence corruption and political meddling according to the world food program venezuela is among the four worst countries in the world with food insecurity and the u.n predicts that by the end of this year seven million people could have left venezuela making it the second largest migration after syria yet humanitarian aid for venezuela is at its minimum andreina bermudez thought about joining the exodus but says the risk was and is too high with young children through her eldest daughter's school her family received food and educational supplies from unicef until december now they're hoping more aid can restart the program i noticed that when we received the aid many parents were happy and thankful mostly for the food because we could give the children in our school a balanced meal to make ends meet this stay-at-home mom relies on what she can't find today a neighbor has extra eggs for sale but the supply of cheap food is sporadic we cannot buy imported products in regular supermarkets at dollar prices so we have to settle for small markets near home vegetable merchants and places that sell at better prices that is the venezuela the caminantes are walking home to a country still ravaged by economic decline it's people still struggling to feed themselves still waiting for international help can speak now to chris melser he's a spokesperson for the un's refugee agency good morning chris thank you for joining us we just saw a report there with afghans who who fled conflict and your report shows the bear's mentioning again that the number of people who have been forced to flee their homes rose again despite the pandemic so what are the biggest drivers behind this rise yeah this is indeed these were very very depressing numbers and you already mentioned that um more than two-thirds of the refugees are only from from five countries and the most of the of the refugees are still from syria six point seven million um the another hotspot is for example is venezuela where also millions of people flew that country afghanistan south sudan these are all these these drivers of the development um the the plus is this year not not that big like in other years but yes 82.4 million this is the the complete all the inhabitants of germany or um one percent of the human kind is is now refugee or internal displaced person and chris where are the majority of these refugees ending up and are they able to stay where they end up well the last question is a very important question still the biggest host country for refugees is turkey with 3.7 million refugees who found protection there most of them from from syria colombia is another country who accepted millions of people pakistan as you mentioned in the um in the report uganda and germany is number five with 1.2 million refugees farming protection in germany but don't make a mistake 86 percent of all the refugees 86 are in developing countries and these are very often also countries who also suffer of problems with malnutrition and other things but anyway they are hosting almost 9 out of 10 refugees another staggering number chris is that more than 40 percent of those who are fleeing are children many are born as refugees many are stateless what kind of impact does that have on these children's futures this is also depressing and i was many refugee camps in bangladesh i'm just returned from ethiopia and i've heard from several refugees around the world actually parents telling me forget us we are a lost generation they do something for our children give them education they have a chance well we don't want to give up the parents generation as well but indeed education is the key factor for the for the children so these refugees will not stay refugees that they become engineers pilots doctors whatever um handyman but at least that they have a future and that's why this is also priority for us unfortunately quite often we do not have enough money to give more than just basic education yeah that is indeed troubling and chris i want to ask you about something we saw in a report the prospect of refugees returning back to their home countries we've also seen denmark for example declare parts of syria safe for refugees to return so they're canceling residency permits so what happens to refugees who do return so what are conditions like for them well this is very very different from from country to country when it comes to syria we don't think that syria is in any way um a safe place again that you can return refugees against their word to syria in other places it might be possible for example about a quarter million of refugees returned last year and this is of course a glimmer of hope but unfortunately for for most of the refugees and about three quarters of all refugees stay in the neighboring countries always and i hope to go back where they where they come from very soon for many of them this is unfortunately um not a near-time solution and i do want to come back to germany because you mentioned that this is a country that also hosts millions of asylum seekers it did register fewer asylum seekers last year but the u.n high commissioner for refugees philippa grandia said inclusion is key so just briefly if you can chris what is needed here to these tools that are needed to make uh refugees in germany feel at home we just talked to paul landfield he's a refugee in austria but i think it's the same thing um who came from hungary modern 60 years ago and he's now a well-known journalist in austria and he said integration is a key because refugees are a treasure so that's why refugees learn the language try to to to use your chances that also the host community the germany on that case austria used this treasure integrate the people teach refugees language and so on and then this is the best you can do because integration is one part of the solution for the worldwide refugee problem chris melzer from the unhcr thank you for sharing your insights with us today you