Record 70.8 million people displaced at end of 2018: UN

An estimated 3.3 million people have left Venezuela since the start of 2016, according to the UN.[AFP]

More than 70 million people were counted last year as displaced from their homes, a record that underestimates the real number of refugees and asylum seekers, the UN said Wednesday.

In its annual global trends report, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) described the figure of 70.8 million at the end of 2018 as "conservative", particularly because the number of people who fled Venezuela's devastating crisis is undercounted.