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2006 Global Trends: Refugees, Asylum-seekers, Returnees, Internally Displaced and Stateless Persons

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The 2006 Global Trends report is the fourth edition in the series. It is published ahead of the 2006 Statistical Yearbook, to be issued later in the year, which will provide a more detailed analysis of the 2006 data. It reviews the trends and changes in 2006 in the global populations for which UNHCR has been entrusted with a responsibility by the United Nations General Assembly. These include refugees, returnees and stateless and internally displaced persons (IDPs), collectively referred to in the report as "persons of concern".

Limited to populations for which UNHCR has a mandate, the report thus does not purport to depict a comprehensive picture of global forced displacement. For example, some 4.3 million Palestinian refugees who fall under the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are not included in the report. Likewise, the conflict generated internally displaced persons covered in the report are limited to those benefiting directly or indirectly from UNHCR's protection and assistance activities.