UN COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES REPORTS ON STATE OF THE WORLD’S REFUGEES

REPORT WARNS OF WORSENING GLOBAL DISPLACEMENT

NEW YORK, May 31 (UNHCR) – The head of the UN refugee agency, António Guterres, warned today that factors causing mass population flight are growing and that the coming 10 years will see more and more people on the move becoming refugees or internally displaced persons.

In comments marking the launch of a flagship UNHCR book, The State of the World’s Refugees: In Search of Solidarity, Guterres said displacement from conflict is becoming compounded by a combination of causes; including climate change, population growth, urbanization, food insecurity, water scarcity and resource competition. All these factors are interacting with each other increasing instability and conflict and forcing people to move. In a world that is becoming smaller and smaller, finding solutions, he said, will need determined international political will.

REFUGEE SEARCHING MACHINE

LOST AND FOUND FOR REFUGEES

nullRefugees Signing up for the Service

At the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

By MOLOUK Y. BA-ISA

Published: Feb 15, 2012 21:56 Updated: Feb 15, 2012 21:56

Lebanon, Iraq, Libya and now Syria — violence in so many places in the Middle East has torn loved ones apart. Men and boys may be forced into hiding. Women and children run for their lives. Too often it’s impossible to go back to the place that once was home.

According to the UN’s High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2010 the number of people forcibly displaced worldwide reached 43.7 million. This includes internally displaced people (IDP) and those who have crossed their national borders and become refugees. Every minute, eight people flee their homes to escape conflict or persecution. Famine also drives people to the desperate decision to abandon everything.

In 2005, David and Christopher Troensegaard Mikkelsen met Mansour, a young Afghan refugee. Mansour had reached safety in Copenhagen, but he was desperate to find his family. David and Christopher wanted to help but soon found out how hard it was to search for missing relatives. Since none of the family tracing programs used collaborative technology, a lot of time was spent filling out the same forms in different offices. This silo effect meant that information wasn’t shared and families weren’t being reunited.

“In a very short time we were able to see that the best way for us to bring people together was through technology,” said David Mikkelsen.