Of the millions of people trying to escape warfare or ISIS this year, the greatest number of refugees this year came from Iraq, the International Organization for Migration said.
About 3.2 million people have fled their homes “due to intense fighting between Iraq government forces and the Islamic State group,” the IOM said in a newly released report.
About 70,000 people have returned home, but “new displacements continue,” the organization said.
The terror of ISIS and Syria’s bloody 4-year-old civil war have contributed to the largest refugee crisis in a generation.
Well over 1 million migrants have entered Europe. Many made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea, often in overcrowded boats operated by smugglers.
Of those who tried to cross the Mediterranean, at least 3,695 have drowned or disappeared, according to IOM figures. That’s a rate of more than 10 deaths each day this year.
