A world of pain in three stories. This is the refugee crisis today.

The scale of a humanitarian crisis is often expressed in statistics, but it is better measured in the lives and fates of real people.

Real people like Darlys, a Venezuelan mother of a seven-year-old boy with severe kidney disease, who escaped the economic hardship and insecurity of her home country in search of medical help, only to end up on the streets of the Colombian city of Maicao.

Or Betty, who fled South Sudan with her four children and two of her nieces to Bidi Bidi refugee camp in Uganda. Along the way she came across six more children, unaccompanied and hiding in a burnt-out car, and took them under her wing. With no one else for them to turn to, Betty has become their foster mother.

Or Myshara, a 13-year-old Rohingya girl and aspiring teacher whose education came to an abrupt standstill when she, like hundreds of thousands of others, ran from the violence in Myanmar. Today, as she shelters in the world's largest refugee settlement, in Bangladesh, Myshara helps to lead a project designed to bolster other children's mental health as they come to terms with the terrible losses they have endured.

These are people whose lives, hopes and ambitions have been shattered by conflict, persecution, poverty and instability. Some have managed to recover and rebuild, or have at least begun that process. Many more still struggle in the face of harsh conditions, inadequate resources and what must seem to them to be an indifferent and sometimes hostile world.

But the latest statistics, revealed in UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, published today, also tell a story. Worldwide, the number of forcibly displaced people surpassed 70 million in 2018 - double the level of 20 years ago - including 25.9 million refugees, the highest level yet recorded. The story behind these figures is one of a failure to prevent conflict, promote tolerance and lay the foundations for lasting peace - a crisis of political leadership that has resulted in the numbers of refugees growing year after year, setting new and unwanted records.

Some people have been driven from their homes only recently, such as the millions of Venezuelans who have flowed into numerous other countries in southern and central America. Other conflicts have lasted decades - witness, for example, the millions of Afghans who have been uprooted over the past 40 years. And with about half of all refugees under the age of 18, the legacy of violence and poverty stretches across generations.

No one can...