UN warning on World Refugee Day

The number of refugees worldwide is expected to rise further, the UNHCR says

The reasons why people flee their homes are becoming increasingly complex and interlinked, the UN has warned as it marks World Refugee Day.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there are about 11m refugees worldwide and 26m internally displaced people.

It says that nowadays people do not just flee persecution and war.

Other reasons include injustice, exclusion, competition for scarce resources and the human consequences of dysfunctional states, it says.

Angeline Jolie appears in the World Refugee Day video

Earlier this week, the UNHCR said in a report that the number of refugees worldwide had increased to 11.4 million at the end of 2007.

It said that volatile situation in Afghanistan and Iraq were behind much of the rise.

It was the second year in succession the number had gone up, after five years of falling, the agency said.