Prince Hassan bin Talal has said that 80% of the world’s refugees are Muslim, blaming conflicts across the Middle East for contributing to the displacement of 65 million people.

In a speech at the World Youth Forum in Sharm el Sheikh, Prince Talal added that the population of Jordan has massively increased since the 1990s due to an influx of refugees, jumping in size by 78%.

He emphasised that Jordan hosts a vast number of refugees who have fled from different conflicts across the region and that the Middle East is “a living witness to the impossibility of achieving peace and security through military means alone”.

“The more human suffering we see in conflict areas, the more we need to apply the new global humanitarian order, which puts human dignity and security before economic growth and political power,” he added.

According to the UNHCR, the UN body responsible for refugees, we are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record, with 65.6 million forcibly displaced people around the world, including 22.5 million refugees.

The war in Syria, which is now in its sixth year, has created 5.5 million refugees, many of them hosted in Jordan and other neighbouring countries.

The decades old Arab-Israeli conflict, continued unrest in Afghanistan and, more recently, the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar have all contributed to the devastatingly large number of Muslim refugees.