Intolerance, terrorism fears and tighter asylum controls are undermining the international system for dealing with refugees, the UN high commissioner for refugees said here Wednesday.
There was widespread confusion over migrants and refugees and the world was falling short of meeting the needs of millions of internally displaced people, Antonio Guterres said.
"One of the main problems we face in order to safeguard asylum seekers is a growing intolerance, happening everywhere," insisted the former Portuguese prime minister.
"We are witnessing the rebirth of irrationality," he said, citing xenophobia. "This is creating a difficult environment in which the foreigner is sometimes hated and feared. To promote tolerance is a duty of us all."
Guterres' comments came as he launched the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees's new assessment, "The State of the World's Refugees: Human Displacement in the New Millennium" at a central London press conference.
The book, which tackles how the changing dynamics of displacement over the past five years have affected the international asylum regime, said the refugee system had reached a critical juncture.
At 9.2 million people, the number of refugees was at its lowest level for 25 years, mostly due to the end of several conflicts and several large-scale repatriations, notably four million people returning to Afghanistan.
However, the numbers of internally displaced people - refugees within their home state - had swelled to 25 million people and represented the "biggest failure in terms of humanitarian action", Guterres said.
There were about 175 million international migrants in 2005, including refugees and some 838,000 asylum seekers.
But the distinction between illegal immigrants and refugees and asylum seekers had been blurred, Guterres said, with "asylum fatigue" setting in some countries.
He urged states to reconcile their legitimate concerns, such as migration controls, with their legal and humanitarian obligations towards uprooted people.
Guterres said he totally disagreed with the "mixing of refugees and asylum with the problems of terrorism.
"Refugees are victims of terrorism," he outlined.
"If I wanted to put a bomb in the United States, the most stupid thing to do would be to arrive at JFK Airport in New York and ask for asylum. I would have no chance at all to act as a terrorist," he said, because the asylum system requires documentation and registration.
He added that the American system was much more open than any in Europe.
The high commissioner also voiced his concern that international aid workers and forces protecting refugees were increasingly finding themselves in the firing line as they carried out their duties in conflict zones.
The book said that the provision of international protection and the application of international human rights and humanitarian principles were being "increasingly challenged by political, social and economic realities".
"Core elements of refugee status ... are being questioned. More and more, asylum seekers are portrayed not as refugees fleeing persecution and entitled to sanctuary, but rather as illegal migrants, potential terrorists and criminals - or at a minimum, as 'bogus'.
"Increasingly, asylum policies are being driven by security concerns and the need for enhanced migration management."
The agency said rich and poor countries alike were using a host of methods to dodge due process in their handling of refugees.
Some developed states were obstructing or deterring the arrival of asylum seekers, by demanding documentation, or stopping them at sea before they set foot in their destination country, it added.
Despite the obstacles, the book said millions of refugees returned home to states like Afghanistan, Angola and Sierra Leone.
However, there remained 33 protracted cases around the world where groups of at least 25,000 people had been in exile for more than five years.
It said there were still no solutions in sight for such people.