World refugee population certain to rise

An elderly Iraqi woman waits for a bus that would take her to neighboring Syria, in central Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, June 20, 2007. A recent UNHCR report said that the situation in Iraq had forced up to 1.5 million Iraqis to seek refuge in other countries, particularly Syria and Jordan. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )

21 June 2007

GENEVA -The number of people driven from their homes by violence, natural disasters and poverty increased last year for the first time since 2002 and is almost certain to rise further due to deepening conflicts across the world, the U.N. refugee chief said.

"We are very concerned that many conflicts today are not being solved and are becoming worse and worse, resulting in many displacement situations," U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.

In a report released Tuesday, the UNHCR said the number of refugees reached 9.9 million at the end of 2006 — a 14 percent increase over the 8.7 million refugees recorded in 2005. It was the highest number since 2002, when there were 10.6 million refugees.

The report said the increase was largely due to the war in Iraq, which by the end of 2006 had forced up to 1.5 million Iraqis to seek refuge in other countries. The report said some 50,000 Iraqis continue to flee the country each month, mostly for Jordan and Syria, which complain that the refugees are exhausting their limited resources.

Tariq Ziad, a former Iraqi civil servant who fled to Jordan after receiving death threats, said he exchanged problems linked to war and violence with the misery of being an illegal alien.

He said he faced the "constant threat" of being sent back to Iraq, and struggled to feed his six children because he has had no regular income.

The UNHCR report said the largest group of refugees were the 2.1 million Afghans still living outside their homeland. The Iraqis were second, followed by 686,000 Sudanese, 460,000 Somalis, and about 400,000 apiece from Congo and Burundi.

The refugee total omits the 4.3 million Palestinians living in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, who are under the auspices of a separate agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. The total number of refugees under both agencies is more than 14 million.

Guterres said Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya, that the rising number of Sudanese returning to their homes in southern Sudan is a hopeful sign. A 2005 peace deal ended a 21-year civil war between the government and southern rebels, allowing the refugees to head back to the region.

He said a comprehensive peace deal is the key to ending the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, where a separate war between the government and rebels has killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes since 2003. He said the peace deal was just as important as plans to send a joint U.N.-African Union force to the region.

"Without a comprehensive peace agreement with all the actors, even a very strong force will not be able to guarantee security for all concerned," Guterres said.