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UN: There are 43 mln refugees and IDPs in world

01 June 2012 09:03 (UTC +04:00)

â€œThe world is creating displacement faster than it is producing solutions, and this means one thing only: More people trapped in exile over many years, unable to return home, to settle locally, or to move elsewhere,â€ said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, AntÃ³nio Guterres, in relation to the publication.

â€œGlobal displacement is an inherently international problem, and as such needs international solutions â€“ and by this I mainly mean political solutions,â€ he added.

The 2012 publication notes that there are currently 43 million people who have been forced to flee their homes due to a combination of causes. These include conflict, climate change, population growth, urbanization, food insecurity, water scarcity and resource competition. 80% of the 43 million live in the developing world.

The new publication notes the increase in the number of internally displaced persons which now amount to 26 million, more than half of the worldâ€™s displaced population. In comparison, around 15-16 million of the displaced persons are refugees and a further million are asylum-seekers. The publication points out that more people are displaced annually by natural disasters than by conflict and warns of a gap in international protection when it comes to people who flee across borders to escape the impact of climate change or natural disasters as they are not recognized as refugees under international law.