Iraq 'fuels refugee increase'
Tuesday, 19 Jun 2007 08:13
Many Iraqi people have fled their homeland, says the report
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The number of refugees in the world has increased for the first time in five years, with a new report blaming the crisis in Iraq for the rise.
Refugee numbers swelled 14 per cent to almost ten million by the end of last year, a new study released by the United Nations' refugee agency reveals.
The report claims the current war in Iraq is largely responsible for having driven the number of refugees under the agency's mandate to the highest level since 2002.
By the end of last year some 1.5 million Iraqis had fled their homeland to seek refuge in other nations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in its global trends report for 2006.
Neighbouring countries Syria and Jordan were the primary destinations for Iraqis leaving their homes.
People from Afghanistan continued to form the largest group of refugees living outside their homeland, with 2.1 million Afghans under the UNHCR's mandate last year.
However refugee figures released by the agency exclude some 4.3 million Palestinian refugees, who come under the mandate of a separate UN body.
Besides Iraq, conflicts in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, East Timor and Sudan were also blamed for a growth in the number of internally displaced people in the world.
The UNHCR report said the number of such civilians under its protection, or assisted by the organisation, reached a "record" high of 13 million by the end of 2006.
According to estimates a total of some 24.5 million people are thought to have fled conflict, but remained within their own countries, last year.
The rise in the world's internally displaced population is cited in today's report as the key reason for the "sharp increase" in the overall number of people who came under the UNHCR's various mandates last year.
In 2006 the UN agency was responsible for almost 33 million people – up from 21 million in 2005.
"As the number of those uprooted by persecution, intolerance and violence around the world increases, we must face the challenges and demands of a changing world, while remaining faithful to our mandate of defending the rights of refugees and other people we care for," said the UN high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres.