Global refugee total now at 11.4 million, U.N. says

The number of refugees worldwide increased to 11.4 million in 2007, 1.5 million more than the 2006 total, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a recently report, according to The Washington Post.

The report cites the war in Iraq and the conflicts in Columbia, Darfur, and Somalia as large factors in the spike, which follows a decade-long decline.

“For a number of years the number of refugees worldwide was decreasing due to the success of massive voluntary operations in Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola,” U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said. “The number of refugees and internally displaced has started to rise again” during the past two years.

The article notes that, “Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Jordan shoulder the heaviest burden, together playing host to nearly 5 million refugees, mostly Afghans and Iraqis.”

For the full article, click here.