[A section of Dadaab Refugee camp in Kenya. A report released recently indicates that Kenya is among countries bearing refugee burden. Photo/independent.co.uk]
A World Bank report cites Kenya among states bearing the large burden of hosting forcefully displaced refugees.The report comes at a time the country is repatriating thousands of refugees from Daadab Refugee Camp, the largest in the world.
More than 65 million people have been displaced in of several conflicts especially in developing states according to the report released on Wednesdayin Washington.
The report was compiled after various visits to 10 conflict zones that account for the majority of the forcibly uprooted refugees in the last 25 years.
The report dubbed "Forcibly Displaced - Toward a development approach supporting refugees, the internally displaced, and their hosts" was done in partnership with UN Agency for Refugees, UNHCR.
The report further responds to the growing need to better manage these crises as an important development challenge, part of an overall effort to reduce poverty and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
World Bank, and other development agencies, will be using the report to address the longer term, social and economic dimensions of displacement.
Countries Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, Colombia, the Caucasus and the former Yugoslavia account for bulk of the refugees.About 15 countries have consistently been hosting the majority of refugees, among them Kenya
At the end of 2015, Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, Syria's neighbors, hosted 27 % of all refugees worldwide while Pakistan and Iran, Afghanistan's neighbors, hosted 16 %.Ethiopia and Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan's neighbors, hosted 7%, the report released yesterday by the agency in Washington said.