c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Some 13.6 million people worldwide sought refuge or asylum in foreign lands in 1997, the lowest number in a decade, according to a recently released report. However, another 17 million were internally displaced by war and persecution.

And for the fourth consecutive year, Palestinians comprised the largest displaced people group, with some 3.7 million _ or 28 percent of all refugees _ looking for a new place to live in 1997.

The report,”World Refugee Survey 1998,”is the annual assessment of conditions affecting refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people by the U.S. Committee for Refugees, the Washington-based organization that has worked for the rights of the”uprooted”for 40 years.

The 13.6 million refugees and asylum seekers counted in 1997 was the lowest figure since 1987, when the committee numbered 13.3 million refugees.”Anytime you see an improvement, you use that to bolster your own spirits, and hope it’s a trend that will continue,”said Jeff Drumtra, a USCR policy analyst.

The largest number of refugees during the last 10 years _ some 17.6 million _ occurred in 1992, when the end of the Cold War created a mass exodus from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

The declining numbers can primarily be attributed to the”new phase of the post-Cold War era,”Drumtra said.”In the early ’90s, when the Cold War came to an end, it created a certain amount of instability … which was measured by a significant increase in the number of refugees worldwide,”he said.”… Some of that political upheaval has apparently worked it’s way through the system.” Drumtra, who specializes in the African refugee situation, is especially encouraged by the declining number of refugees on that continent.”The number of refugees in Africa is half what it was three years ago,”he said.”This is an astounding decline.” Drumtra attributed the improving situation for refugees in Africa on the stabilization of crises in Rwanda, Somalia and Ethiopia, as well as the end of the civil war in Mozambique.

Still, Africa witnessed the greatest movements of people last year, the report said.

In Brazzaville, Congo, some 750,000 were uprooted by civil war and another 500,000 throughout Congo and Zaire were displaced by fighting. In Uganda, 200,000 were displaced by rebel attacks and counterinsurgency. However, on a positive note, even though 50,000 fled Burundi last year, 90,000 others were repatriated, and 200,000 Rwandans returned to their country as well.”People do go home,”Drumtra said.”Refugees are people who don’t want to be refugees, they don’t want to be uprooted. … Many go home when they are still in danger. They want some sort of normality. They don’t want to be sitting in some dirty, overcrowded refugee camp.” Because of the huge number of people involved and the sensitivity of the refugee issue in many nations, exact figures are often hard to come by and controversial, the report admits.”… Government tallies cannot always be trusted to give full and unbiased accounts of refugee movements,”the report said.”… We arrive at these figures after careful scrutiny of every reliable source available to us, supplementing that information with our own first-hand investigations. In the end, many numbers prove to be very solid, but others are educated guesses.” After the Palestinians, Afghans were the second largest group of refugees and asylum seekers, with 2.6 million; followed by Bosnians, 557,000; Iraqis, 526,000; and Somalis, 486,000.

Iran, which took in some 1.9 million refugees last year, was the top host country; followed by Jordan, 1.4 million; West Bank and Gaza, 1.3 million; Pakistan, 1.2 million; and Yugoslavia, 550,000.

In 1997, 491,000 refugees and asylum seekers were in the United States either permanently or temporarily. The largest groups were 185,000 Salvadorans and 112,000 Guatemalans awaiting resolutions of their asylum claims; and 27,000 citizens of the former Soviet Union who were admitted for permanent resettlement as refugees, Drumtra said.

Despite the apparently improving situation, Drumtra said he and others working with displaced people remain concerned about the unknown number of asylum seekers who are turned away from countries, especially those in Europe, that impose increasingly restrictive policies on refugees.”Some asylum seekers are denied access and are forced to remain in their own countries, in danger,”he said.”And they don’t get any of the protection and assistance that would bring them onto the statistics as refugees.”

DEA END PAQUETTE