United Nations
Information Centre | Nepal
UNHCR Global Refugee Tally At 26-Year Low While Internally Displaced Increase
Abstract:
While the number of refugees worldwide has reached a 26-year low, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported today that its annual global count of uprooted people rose last year to nearly 21 million, primarily because of the agency’s expanding role in caring for the world’s internally displaced. UNHCR’s “2005 Global Refugee Trends” report says that despite a drop in refugee totals from 9.5 million in 2004 to 8.4 million last year, the overall number of concern to the agency has increased by 1.3 million from 19.5 million to 20.8 million. Much of the increase is due to a rise in the number of people living in refugee-like situations within their own countries. UNHCR now counts 6.6 million conflict-generated internally displaced people in 16 countries as being “of concern,” compared to 5.4 million in 13 countries at the end of 2004.“As we approach World Refugee Day on June 20, the good news is that global refugee numbers are the lowest since 1980; that last year saw the smallest mass outflows of new refugees into neighbouring states in 29 years; and that more than 6 million refugees have been able to go home since 2002,” said High Commissioner António Guterres. “We’re finding lasting solutions for millions of refugees through voluntary repatriation, through local integration in countries of first asylum, and through resettlement to third countries.” “But the bad news is that the international community still has a long way to go in resolving the plight of millions of internally displaced people in places like Darfur, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” Guterres added. “While we have helped hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people go home in Liberia, the Russian Federation, the Balkans and elsewhere, millions more are still living like refugees within their own borders. They need much more help than they currently get, and UNHCR intends to do its share.”
Publisher: UNHCR Type / Script:
Press Release  in  English
Keywords:
 GLOBAL REFUGEE, REFUGEE ASSISTANCE, LOCAL SETTLEMENT, REFUGEE-RECEIVING COUNTRIES, RELIEF CORRIDORS, REFUGEE PLACEMENT, REFUGEE PROTECTION, REPATRIATION OPERATIONS, CIVIL REGISTRATION, LEGAL STATUS, NATURAL REACTION, CHILD REFUGEES, INTERNALLY DISPLACED, BORDERS, UPROOTED PEOPLE, DEVELOPING NATIONS
Thematic Group:
UNHCR, (2006)
Thesaurus:
13.01.00 - Protection Of And Assistance To Refugees And Displaced Persons
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Feeder: DEEPIKA DHAKAL, Editor: , Auditor:
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