WASHINGTON, Jun 16 (IPS) – Forty-two million people were forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution worldwide in 2008, said a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) released Tuesday.
The annual “Global Trends” report total includes 15.2 million refugees, 823,000 asylum-seekers, and 26 million internally displaced people uprooted within their own countries.
Although the overall total of uprooted people represents a decrease of about 700,000 over the previous year, new displacements in 2009, not reflected in the report, have offset that decline.
“In 2009, we have already seen substantial new displacements, namely in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Somalia,” said UNHCR chief Antonio Guterres.
“While some displacements may be short-lived, others can take years and even decades to resolve,” he added. “We continue to face several longer-term internal displacement situations in places like Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia. Each of these conflicts has also generated refugees who flee beyond their own borders.”
Tags: Antonio Guterres, Pakistan, refugees and displaced people, Swat valley and Malakand, UNHCR report
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