Global refugee number hits record high of 46.3 million
The number of displaced people being assisted by the United Nations' refugee agency reached an all-time high of 46.3 million in the middle of last year, the agency said in its biannual report published Wednesday, Sputnik News reported.
"In 2014 we have seen the number of people under our care grow to unprecedented levels," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres.
“As long as the international community continues to fail to find political solutions to existing conflicts and to prevent new ones from starting, we will continue to have to deal with the dramatic humanitarian consequences," he added.
The UN agency blamed wars in the Middle East and Africa for the surge in the number of refugees, saying it provides assistance to people who have fled conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar and Iraq among other hotspots.