Refugees and displaced persons

In 1997, the number of persons of concern to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) totalled 21 million. Of those, some 12 million were refugees, 3.3 million were repatriating refugees in the early stages of their reintegration, 3.6 million were internally displaced persons and 1.2 million others were humanitarian cases, for the most part victims of conflict. During the year, more than 676,000 refugees returned voluntarily to their countries of origin, highlighting the fact that repatriation was the preferred solution for many of the world’s refugees.