Wars, conflicts, violence and persecution will force at least 4.2 million people to flee their homes by the end of 2027, a Danish humanitarian organisation warned on Thursday.
This figure, which does not take into account the current situation in the Middle East, comes on top of the approximately 117 million people already forcibly displaced worldwide, according to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) in its annual report.
The DRC’s projections are based on data available at the end of 2025 and therefore precede recent developments in the Middle East, which are “driving new displacements and making the humanitarian situation worse,” the organisation said.
The report also notes that new displacements are increasingly spread across several countries rather than concentrated in a few major crises.
“The international community is facing a catastrophic failure to protect the world’s most vulnerable,” said DRC Secretary General Charlotte Slente, noting that violence against civilians increased significantly in 2025.
“For families fleeing war with nothing but the clothes on their backs, there is little hope: the international safety net that once existed has gaping holes as humanitarian assistance shrinks,” she added.
