The number of people of forcibly displaced from their homes by conflict or persecution reached a 15-year high in 2010. The United Nations refugee agency reports the number of refugees climbed to nearly 44 million, with 83 percent being sheltered in the world’s poorest countries. Pakistan, Iran and Syria were home to the most refugees. Germany was listed as the industrialized country with the most refugees, sheltering nearly 600,000.

António Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees: “If one looks at what’s happening in today’s world, we are seeing a multiplication of new crises—since the beginning of the year, Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, Syria, Yemen. And at the same time, it seems that old crises never end. Look at what’s happening in Afghanistan, more than 20 years of fighting; in Somalia, again, 20 years of fighting; in the Democratic Republic of Congo. New crises multiply. Old crises never end.”