Human Wrongs Watch
Geneva – Global forced displacement figures already stood at a 15-year high at the end of 2010, with 43.7 million people uprooted by conflict and persecution worldwide. Recent events indicate that this number is likely to rise again by the end of the year. The number of stateless people is estimated to be at least 12 million, according to UN.

In Search of Identity: an ailing 75-year-old Bihari sits alone in his room in a camp in Bangladesh | Credit: UN
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Antonio Guterres, called on the international community to assume its shared duty to protect and assist millions of forcibly displaced and stateless people around the world.
Guterres noted that “dramatic events have forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge across borders in 2011. More than three quarters of a million people became refugees, following upheaval and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.”