Muslim countries host approximately 52 percent of the refugees being helped by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the largest number in the world, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said Thursday. This figure does not include the Palestinian refugees, who are taken care of by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), it said. For this reason, the OIC said it is organizing an international ministerial conference on “Refugees in the Muslim World” in cooperation with the UNHCR in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on May 10-11. The main objectives of the conference are to highlight the role of OIC host countries in assisting large numbers of refugees as well as the mandate and responsibility of the UNHCR toward refugees. The conference also seeks to promote awareness of the scope and nature of the refugee problem in OIC member states and other parts of the world. It encourages the international community, including OIC member states, to promote and create the “condition for refugees reintegration in their home country”. According to UNHCR statistics, the OIC's 57 member states hosted about 17,761,399 refugees at the end of 2010. In most cases, refugees in Muslim countries stay in refugee villages and urban areas where they have to make a living instead of being confined in closed refugee camps. Equally significant is that most refugees in OIC member states remain close to their own country, the OIC said. “(This) means that there are countries close to home that are willing to accept them and offer them shelter and safety,” the OIC said. Meanwhile, international monitors said Thursday that conflicts, including the uprisings in the Arab world, last year forced 3.5 million people to leave their homes. A total of 26.4 million people were internally displaced at the end of 2011, a fall from 27.5 million the previous year, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC). But the number of newly displaced people, including 830,000 who fled during the Arab uprisings, rose 20 percent compared to 2010. In Libya, 500,000 fled their homes to other areas during the conflict which led to the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, the IDMC said.
