11 million refugees worldwide

2005-06-15 07:51

Washington - The number of refugees around the world rose by one million in 2004, to 11.5 million, according to the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

People fleeing Sudan's troubled Darfur region to Chad and Iraqis crossing into Syria contributed to the increase, the private aid group said in its annual survey being released on Wednesday.

Last year the committee started a campaign to end the protracted encampment of refugees, a practice it labelled "warehousing."

Under the 1951 international Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, they have a right to live their lives as normally as possible, but governments often lack the political will to provide those rights, the report said.

"In particular, the campaign seeks to persuade states to allow refugees to work, to run businesses, to practice professions, to own property, to move freely and chose places of residence in countries of asylum and to have travel documents," the report said.

In an introduction, Lavinia Limon, the committee's chief executive, wrote, "The authors of the 1951 convention chartered a course based on individual human dignity, but in the ensuing 50-plus years we have been sidetracked ... into believing that political and economic considerations are more important than human dignity."

For the first time, the report includes letter grading of countries' performances and highlights both good and bad behaviour dealing with refugees' rights.

For example, under the right to earn a livelihood, Chad, Congo, Ecuador, Iraq, the United States and Israel, the West Bank and Gaza get A grades for best; Algeria, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Russia and Tanzania receive F grades for worst.

Other key statistics in the report show nearly seven million refugees have been warehoused 10 years or more. The report says the total number of internally displaced people is 21.3 million, an increase of 3.16 million since the previous year.

Most of the world's refugees are women, and the report urges the upholding of women's property rights in the context of ending poverty, promoting equality of the sexes, reversing loss of environmental resources and improving the lives of slum dwellers.

- AP