Amid pandemic, number of people forced to flee homes has risen, says U.N.

FILE PHOTO: Venezuelan refugees walk to a school, where a temporary shelter is installed, to receive medical assistance and humanitarian aid from the Colombian Red Cross, in Arauquita, Colombia March 28, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The number of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution and human rights abuses has doubled in the past decade to reach 82.4 million at the end of last year, the United Nations said on Friday.

"In the year of COVID, in a year in which movement was practically impossible for most of us... 3 million more people have been forcibly displaced," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told Reuters.