Syria topped Afghanistan as the country with the largest refugee    population under United Nations care, as the countrys civil    war raged for a fourth year.  
    By June 2014 more than 3 million Syrians, over 10 percent of    the population, had fled their country. That accounted for 23    percent of all refugees registered with the UN Refugee Agency,    the organization said in a new report released today.  
    Afghanistan slipped to second with 2.7 million refugees, after    topping the ranking for more than three decades, according to    agencys Mid-Year Trends 2014 report, a preview of an annual    report on global displacement trends. Somalia ranked third with    1.1 million refugees, followed by South    Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar and    Iraq.  
    More people were displaced worldwide at the end of 2013 than    during World War II, driven mainly by the worsening conflict in    Syria, the agency said in its earlier report. There is no    political settlement in sight as sectarian tensions intensify,    rebel groups remain fractious and regional and global proxies    continue their deadlock.  
    As long as the international community continues to fail to    find political solutions to existing conflicts and to prevent    new ones from starting, we will continue to have to deal with    the dramatic humanitarian consequences, UN High Commissioner    for RefugeesAntonio Guterres said in an e-mailed statement.  
    With 1.4 million people crossing borders as refugees and    another 4.1 million displaced within their own countries in the    first half of last year, the agency said it is now assisting a    record 46.3 million people.  
    The report doesnt include about 5 million Palestinian refugees    registered with the UN Relief and Works Agency, which is    dedicated solely to their needs and is independent from the UN    Refugee Agency.  
    To contact the reporter on this story: Sangwon Yoon in United Nations at syoon32@bloomberg.net  
    To contact the editors responsible for this story: John Walcott    at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net Andrew Davis, Douglas Wong  
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Syria Overtakes Afghanistan as Largest Source of Global Refugees