By Fatih Erel

GENEVA

The world’s forcibly displaced population rose 2.9 million last year, with a record high 68.5 million people forcibly displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, or violence, said a new UN report on Tuesday.

According to the report by the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, an estimated 16.2 million people were newly displaced last year.

Worldwide there are now some 25.4 million refugees, 40 million internally displaced people, and 3.1 million asylum-seekers, the report said.

"Significant new displacement, affecting millions of people, was seen in particular from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Myanmar as well as continuing displacement due to the Syria crisis," the report said.

By the end of 2017, about 3.1 million people were awaiting a decision on their applications for asylum, about half in developing regions.

Turkey hosts the largest number of refugees

According to the report, for the fourth consecutive year, Turkey hosted the largest number of refugees worldwide, with 3.5 million people -- most of them fleeing the Syrian civil war. Pakistan came second with 1.4 million, followed by Uganda with 1.4 million and Lebanon with nearly a million.

More than two-thirds of all refugees worldwide came from just five countries: Syria with 6.3 million, Afghanistan with 2.6 million, South Sudan with 2.4 million, Myanmar with 1.2 million, and Somalia with 986,400.

About half of last year’s refugee population were children under 18.

A total of 173,800 unaccompanied and separated child refugees and asylum-seekers were reported last year, and 45,500 unaccompanied and separated children sought asylum on an individual basis.