UN: Sahel violence could drive more refugees toward Europe

By JAMEY KEATEN
Associated Press

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the U.N. refugee agency says Europe should be more much worried than it is that larger numbers of people from Africa’s Sahel region could seek to move north. Those refugees would be escaping violence, droughts and floods, and threats to food security caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The comments from Filippo Grandi came as the U.N. refugee agency on Thursday issued its report on global migration. It found that over 89 million people had been displaced by factors like conflict, climate change, violence, and human rights abuses by 2021. That number has risen to more than 100 million this year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.