Lost in limbo

摘要

The global stock of refugees, those who escape war or persecution by crossing a border, has steadily shrunk in recent years. The UNHCR, the UN agency with the job of looking after most of them, counted 10.5m around the world last year, well down from a peak of about 16m in the early 1990s. But few are cheering. In part this is because millions more are uprooted but do not count as refugees if they stay within their own countries, such as most of the 2.7m Darfuris made homeless by fighting in western Sudan.