LONDON - Tents, sacks of food and a replica of a burnt-out village hut appeared in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday as a tourist hotspot became a refugee camp to highlight the plight of millions of people displaced in Darfur and elsewhere.
The display, set up to mark World Refugee Day this week, came as the U.N. refugee agency reported a record 11.4 million people were driven from their home countries last year.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said numbers were rising again after several years of decline in which refugees returned to countries including Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola.
"Now, unfortunately, with the multiplication of conflicts and the intensification of conflicts, the number is on the rise again," said Guterres, standing amid white U.N. tents erected in the square as part of the "Experience Darfur" exhibition.
"People being forced to move, unfortunately, will be one of the characteristics of the 21st century," he said.
In its annual report released Tuesday, the UNHCR said 11.4 million people were forced to leave their countries in 2007, compared to 9.9 million in 2006. Another 26 million were displaced within their own countries by conflict or persecution, up from 24.2 million the year before.
Nearly half the world's refugees are from war-torn Afghanistan and Iraq. UNHCR said there are 3.1 million displaced Afghans, most in neighboring Pakistan and Iran, and 2.3 million Iraqi refugees, mostly in Syria and Jordan. Another 2.4 million Iraqis are internally displaced, an increase of 600,000 since the start of 2007.
The number of internally displaced people grew last year in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Yemen, as well as in the Central African Republic and Chad, where thousands of refugees have crossed the border from the Sudanese region of Darfur.
Up to 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced since ethnic African tribesmen took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated government five years ago. The government is accused of responding by unleashing the tribal militia known as janjaweed, which have committed the worst atrocities against Darfur's local communities.
Most refugees end up in neighbouring countries
Around half a million Sudanese have sought refuge abroad, the UN report said, including some 300,000 in Chad, and violence has also spilled across the border from Darfur.
"Darfur is like an earthquake," Guterres said. "It has an epicenter in Darfur itself, but then the waves spread and instability is created also in the countries around, as is the case in Chad and the Central African Republic. And that's why it is so urgent for the international community to be engaged to make sure there is a political solution in Darfur, to bring stability to the whole region."
Organizers of the mock refugee camp said they hoped it would bring the situation in Darfur home to politicians at Parliament, a few hundred yards away, as well as to Londoners and tourists visiting Trafalgar Square.
"The burning house had quite a strong impact. It was quite emotive," said 22-year-old student Charlotte Snowdon, who stopped by the exhibition. "When you see something and can experience it for yourself, it makes you understand it more."
The UNHCR report also said that in Colombia, where the government has fought a decades-long war with left-wing guerrillas, as many as 3 million people have left their homes, while more than 550,000 have become refugees in other countries.
Most refugees end up taking shelter in neighbouring countries. UNHCR said the top refugee-hosting countries included Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Germany and Jordan.
The group said 647,000 asylum applications were made around the world in 2007, a 5 percent increase on 2006 and the first rise in four years. The top destinations for asylum seekers were the United States, South Africa, Sweden, France, Britain, Canada and Greece.
It is not just war that drives forced migration. Guterres said bad governance, environmental degradation and rising food prices were generating instability and "new patterns of forced displacement" in many regions.
The report did point to progress in some areas, noting that 2.8 million refugees and displaced people returned home in 2007.
