GENEVA - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Friday reported the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people worldwide has exceeded 50 million people for the first time in the post-World War II era.
The UNHCR annual global trends report, issued on the World Refugee Day,showed as many as 51.2 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2013, fully 6 million more than the 45.2 million reported in 2012.
The report said the massive increase was driven mainly by the war in Syria, which at the end of last year had forced 2.5 million people into becoming refugees and made 6.5 million internally displaced. Major new displacement was also seen in Africa, notably in Central African Republic and South Sudan.
"Peace is today dangerously in deficit. Humanitarians can help as a palliative, but political solutions are vitally needed. Without this, the alarming levels of conflict and the mass suffering that is reflected in these figures will continue," the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
He called for international community to overcome its differences and find solutions to the conflicts of today in South Sudan, Syria, Central African Republic and elsewhere.
According to the report, the refugee numbers amounted to 16.7 million people worldwide.
Overall, the biggest refugee populations by source country are Afghans, Syrians and Somalis, together accounting for more than half of the global refugee total. Pakistan, Iran and Lebanon, meanwhile, hosted more refugees than other countries.
In addition to refugees, 2013 saw 1.1 million people submitting applications for asylum, the majority of these in developed countries. Germany became the largest single recipient of new asylum claims.
Syrians lodged 64,300 asylum-seeking claims, more than any other nationality, followed by asylum seekers from Democratic Republic of Congo (60,400) and Myanmar (57,400).
The report noted internal displacement amounted to a record of 33.3 million people, accounting for the largest increase of any group in the global trends report.
It also pointed out, for UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations, helping these people represents a special challenge as many are in conflict zones. (Xinhua)