Refugee Numbers Increasing

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, says refugee numbers were going down until 2005. He says the reason is that peace agreements ended wars in places such as Sudan, Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone and allowed millions of people to return home.

But, in the past few months, he says, there have been many arrivals of new refugees in Eastern Africa. He says people from Chad, Sudan, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia and others are fleeing to escape war at home, making the refugee crisis worse.

Guterres says displacement is on the rise everywhere. He attributes this to extreme poverty, aggravated by soaring food and energy prices, the growing impact of climate change, which is causing spreading drought in Africa, and civil conflict. He says mass migration is leading to an erosion of tolerance in communities and between communities.

"The recent events in South Africa or the trend in many European countries for pressure for legislation restricting migration or asylum," said Guterres. "It is a global problem in developed and developing world. We are witnessing these factors of tension-security, economy, poverty, but also environmental degradation. These factors contribute to the spread of feelings of intolerance and in some more extreme situations of xenophobia."

Figures from 2006 show the UNHCR cares for almost 10 million refugees worldwide. This is a 14 percent increase from the year before.