In its latest report on worldwide displacement, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees puts the number of forcibly displaced persons in 2015 at an all-time high of 65.3 million. About 12.4 million people were newly displaced last year, which means that every minute, 24 people were forced to flee their homes.

If the forcibly displaced were to constitute a country of their own, they would make up the world’s 21st biggest nation.

It is not difficult to imagine the colossal human pain and grief behind these staggering numbers -- the millions of lives interrupted, numerous families torn apart and childhoods destroyed.

As characterized by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the current global refugee crisis is not just a crisis of numbers, but also a crisis of global solidarity.

Among the forcibly displaced, the refugee problem warrants the world’s special and immediate attention.

Generally speaking, a refugee is defined as a displaced person who has been forced to cross national borders and who cannot return home safely for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

The UNHCR reports that the total number of refugees has increased for a fifth consecutive year, bringing the number to 21.3 million at the end of 2015, the highest level on record.

For many in the global North, the plight of the refugees was brought into sharp relief last year when Europe was confronted with a flow of refugees unmatched in recent history.

In 2015, more than 1 million people arrived in Europe, and while the numbers this year seem to be dropping, it is difficult to expect a lasting respite in the refugee flow in the near future.

The dramatic surge in refugees knocking on Europe’s doors is mostly due to the deteriorating situation of wars and conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The vast majority of the refugees who arrived in Europe by sea in 2015 originated from these three countries. As a result, last year about 442,000 first-time asylum claims were filed in Germany alone, more than double that of 2014, thus converting it into the world’s largest recipient country of asylum applications. Similarly, many other European countries reported huge on-year increases in their number of asylum applicants, for example, Finland (over nine times as high), Hungary (over four times) or Austria (over three times).

The response of the European Union to the greatest influx of refugees since World War II has at times come under heavy criticism.

Against a backdrop of aging and shrinking populations and persistently low economic growth, it is understandable that many European governments are creaking under the strain of coping with the enormous task of taking in large numbers of refugees.

In response, many countries took hard-line measures such as introducing border controls, erecting fences and partially suspending public transport. In politics, anti-immigration parties are on the rise. On June 23, a majority of Britons voted to leave the EU, not least because of rising fears that an invasion of refugees would threaten the country’s economy and security. Moreover, the refugee crisis, in combination with a recent spate of Islamic State group-inspired terror attacks that shook Europe, seems to have boosted anti-Muslim sentiment across the continent.

With much of the world‘s attention focused on the crisis unfolding in Europe, it might come as a surprising fact that 86 percent of the world’s refugees under the UNHCR‘s mandate are hosted by developing countries.

About 7 million refugees are hosted by the top five host countries, namely Turkey (2.5 million), Pakistan (1.6 million), Lebanon (1.1 million), Iran (980,000) and Ethiopia (740,000).

With no immediate end in sight to conflicts in countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan or Yemen, the deepening humanitarian disasters will continue to push migration flows toward countries considered to be more stable.

Korea is no stranger to receiving and resettling refugees.

Annually, more than a thousand refugees from North Korea are resettled in South Korea. Since 1994, about 12,000 people have sought asylum in South Korea, and as of 2015, it was host to about 1,500 forcibly displaced persons.

Last December, the country received its first batch of refugees from Myanmar as part of a UNHCR resettlement program, under which it is obliged to receive 60 more refugees over the next two years.

Given the recent global rise in forcibly displaced persons, the number of non-Korean asylum applicants in South Korea is expected to rise in coming years.

With the painful memory of the Korean War and its millions of internally displaced persons in the not too distant past, there is a strong case for Seoul to take on an active role in the protection of refugees.

In this regard, it is necessary for our national authorities to make concerted efforts to forge a more concrete and determined response in preparation for future situations.

An important step that authorities can take is to redouble efforts to streamline the domestic procedure of resettling asylum seekers and bringing the process up to international standards.

Furthermore, active participation in international efforts to resolve worldwide wars and conflicts, the main push-factors of forcible displacement, will contribute toward allowing more refugees to return to their countries of origin.

The current refugee crisis presents the international community with the difficult challenge of coming up with a response that is sustainable, effective and truly global in its scope.

In recognition of the need to strengthen international governance of this issue, the UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold the High-Level Meeting to Address Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants on Monday.

On the following day, US President Barack Obama will host the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees. It is hoped that these meetings will provide an opportunity for global leaders to reach a lasting consensus on the concrete commitments that each country should make in order to alleviate the crisis. 

By Park Hee-kwon, ambassador to Spain