UN: Venezuelans, other refugees face huge pandemic hardships

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the U.N. refugee agency says he is “very worried” about the impact of the new coronavirus in Latin America, where millions of Venezuelans have fled upheaval at home and could face hardship among lockdowns and other restrictive measures to fight the pandemic. The comments came as UNHCR issued its annual “Global Trends” report, which found that the number of asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and refugees shot up by nearly 9 million people last year. That is the biggest rise in its records, and produced a total of 79.5 million people, accounting for 1% of all humanity amid conflict, repression and upheaval.