UNHCR releases refugee statistics

The number of refugees globally remained unchanged at 12 million in 2001, with half a million people fleeing their countries during the year and nearly as many returning home, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, said on Tuesday. In a 2001 refugee report, UNHCR said refugees from Afghanistan and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) were the largest groups fleeing their country that year. In Africa there were a number of new, large-scale movements with some 188,000 people fleeing to neighbouring countries, the report said. It said the main outflows concerned refugees from Angola, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, Burundi, Liberia, Rwanda and Senegal. At the same time, however, some 267,000 African refugees were able to return home, including to Sierra Leone, Somalia, Eritrea, Burundi, Rwanda, Angola, Ethiopia and Sudan. In addition to refugees, UNHCR also works on behalf of returned refugees, asylum seekers, certain groups of internally displaced persons (IDPs), stateless persons and others affected by war and conflict, it said. It noted that although the number of IDPs of concern to the agency dropped by more than 800,000 during the year, there were some worrisome developments involving new internal displacements in 2001. Besides Afghanistan and Colombia, other major displacements during the year occurred in Liberia, where there were 112,000 newly displaced, and FYROM, with 74,500 but by the end of the year 58,200 of those in FYROM had gone home, the report said. For full 2001 statistics see http://www.unhcr.ch/statistics