CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTS
November, 1996 |
In recent years the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world has grown rapidly, raising concerns among governments and international agencies about the need to shelter and protect these unfortunate people. Worldwide, in 1995 the number of refugees was estimated at about 15 million, five times their number in 1976 (235). Another estimated 3 million people have fled their home countries but are not formally recognized by governments as refugees (but are included in this category in this report). These include an estimated 700,000 Palestinians in Jordan and 350,000 Burmese in Thailand. As noted, internally displaced persons probably number at least 20 million, although estimates are unreliable (322). Refugees. At least three-fourths of the world's refugees are in developing countries (235, 290). Africa and the Near East each contain over 30% of the total—more than 5 million in each region (235, 322). Africa had only about 400,000 refugees in 1960 (187), but the continent has seen large-scale refugee movements in recent years. Refugees sometimes move in both directions between neighboring African countries. For example, in 1995, 15,000 refugees from Mauritania lived in Mali, while 35,000 from Mali lived in Mauritania (235, 322). Among refugees in the Near East, Palestinians are the largest group. Most have settled in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, or the West Bank. The second largest refugee group consists of Afghanis who fled to Iran and Pakistan when the Soviet Union intervened militarily in Afghanistan in 1979. In 1995 Iran had about 2 million refugees, more than any other country. Two-thirds of them were Afghanis (235, 290) (see Table 1). Other regions have fewer refugees, but several countries have substantial numbers, nonetheless. In Asia, for example, Pakistan has an estimated 870,000 refugees, mostly from Afghanistan. Of the estimated 320,000 refugees in India, over one-third are from China. Most of the 100,000 refugees in Nepal are from Bhutan. Internally displaced persons. Many countries have substantial numbers of people who have fled ethnic or religious strife, civil disorder, and other threats in their communities and sought safety elsewhere within their own country (see Table 2). Sudan, after years of civil war, contains more internally displaced persons than any other country, an estimated 4 million people, or about one-seventh of its total population. Other countries that are estimated to have at least 1 million internally displaced persons are Angola, Iraq, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Turkey, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where an estimated one-quarter of the population are either refugees or internally displaced persons (255, 322). In 1993 an estimated 12% of Rwanda's people were displaced within the country (205).
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