Report says world has 35 million refugees

Almost 35 million displaced people were living in refugee camps or other temporary shelters last year, including a growing number who were unable to leave their countries, according to the 2003 World Refugee Survey, released May 29.

The number of those uprooted from their homes but still living in their countries rose from 17 million in 1998 to 21.8 million in 2002, while the number of those seeking protection outside their countries has steadily dropped from 16.3 million in 1994 to 13 million last year.

The situation for these refugees and the internally displaced is dire, advocates say.

“Increasingly, refugees are not offered any options, but are warehoused around the world so that generations of refugees are growing up in camps, their life in limbo, no hope for the future, many of them hungry,” said Lavinia Limon, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Refugees, a program of the Immigration and Refugee Services of America.

“These are very human tragedies,” Limon said. “These are individuals suffering what most of us can’t imagine.”