Exceeds 11 million in 2007: world's refugees, half in two war zones: 2 million Iraqis & 3 million Afghans fled to Pakistan, Iran

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Conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan drive up world refugee numbers, accounting for more than half of the world’s refugees in 2007. More than two million Iraqis have sought refuge in Syria and Jordan, and three million Afghans have fled to Pakistan and Iran, the refugee agency said. Iraq and Afghanistan are behind a rise in the number of refugees worldwide for the second year in a row.

The U.N. refugee agency says the number of people fleeing violence and repression worldwide has risen to 11.4 million, largely due to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. VOA's Sonja Pace reports from London on UNHCR's status report for 2007.

Launching the report, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said that for the second year in a row the number of people fleeing their countries and displaced from their homes is on the rise. "We have today 11.4 million refugees worldwide, but we have 26 million people displaced within the borders of their own countries," he said.

Guterres says conflicts are largely to blame. Refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan alone make up half the world's total. The 11.4 million tally does not include the millions of Palestinians living as refugees in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.

Guterres describes a band of conflict and instability that includes mostly Muslim countries. "Now, together with the Palestinians more than half of the group of refugees are concentrated in the same area," he said. "That area starts in Afghanistan, it includes Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, Chad and Somalia. And this is an area of great concern for us all and I can only ask the international community to be more and more involved together, acting together to make sure that these conflicts find an end."

The U.N. agency says global refugee numbers had fallen for five years before rising again in 2006 and 2007.

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Photos courtesy of VOA News and adnkronos.com

Original Source: VOA News and NY Times