Released to coincide with World Refugee Day, a new U.N. report found that a staggering 80 percent of forcibly displaced people around the world are being hosted by developing nations rather than more economically-stable countries who would be better prepared to absorb them.
Prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR), the 2010 Global Trends report shows that many of the world's poorest nations are also hosting massive refugee populations. With an estimated 1.9 million displaced persons within its borders, Pakistan hosts the refugees, with Iran and Syria coming in close behind, at about 1.1 million and 1 million respectively.
"In today’s world there are worrying misperceptions about refugee movements and the international protection paradigm,” UNHCR head António Guterres is quoted by the Christian Science Monitor as saying. “Fears about supposed floods of refugees in industrialized countries are being vastly overblown or mistakenly conflated with issues of migration. Meanwhile it’s poorer countries that are left having to pick up the burden.”
Of course, the data looks likely to shift in the coming year, as the report does not include those displaced by this year's conflicts in Libya or Syria, TIME reports.
For more information about the report, click here.
View photos of major refugee-hosting nations, along with the estimated number of refugees living within their borders, below.
Major Refugee Hosting Countries
Watch a video report on UNHCR's findings here: