As Refugee Week begins with a series of events to create awareness about the hardships and needs of refugees, the UN refugee agency identifies the growing, long-term situation of forced displacement across borders.

Refugee Week from 18-24 June 2012 is being launched in the UK around the theme ‘Different pasts, shared futures', celebrating the longstanding contribution refugees have made to Britain's cultural diversity...

Meanwhile UNHCR's Global Trends 2011 report launched to coincide with Refugee Week at a global level shows the root causes of the problem and how the plight of refugees is no picnic.

The growth in numbers falling into refugee status lies in forced displacement in conflict and humanitarian crisis zones and that 2011 with an explosion of rebellions via the Arab Spring has largely been the cause for a record year in the growth of refugee numbers.

More people became refugees in 2011 than at any time since 2000, with the large scale predicament in 2011 starting with the humanitarian crisis in late 2010 in Côte d'Ivoire.

Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and other crisis zones have contributed to a staggering 4.3 million people newly displaced in 2011 says the UNHCR with a full 800,000 of these fleeing their countries and becoming refugees.

In these cases many individuals can become actually stateless due to the dissolution of states, formation of new states, which is another problem, making it even harder to access support...

"2011 saw suffering on an epic scale. For so many lives to have been thrown into turmoil over so short a space of time means enormous personal cost for all who were affected," explains the UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres...

Overall, Afghanistan remains the biggest producer of refugees generating 2.7 million followed by Iraq (1.4 million), Somalia (1.1 million), Sudan (500,000) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (491,000).

The findings show the results of military conflict and intervention beyond the death and destruction that is metred out...

UNHCR reveals about four-fifths of refugees head to neighbouring countries, also showing the burden placed on these countries in terms of health and other resources.

Some of the largest refugee populations include Pakistan (1.7 million people), Iran (886,500), Kenya (566,500) and Chad (366,500).

In Europe Germany ranks as one of the largest hosting countries with 571,700 refugees....

By close of 2011, the total refugee population under UNHCR’s responsibility was 35.4 million people.

UNHCR is using World Refugee Day to roll out a new campaign: Dilemmas, that depicts the tough choices facing refugees, most of which are forced upon them.

Campaign PSAs involving UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassadors including Barbara Hendricks, Yao Chen, Khaled Hosseini, Fiorella Mannoia are being broadcast.

UNHCR reports many of its appeals are currently underfunded...

300,000 Malians uprooted by conflict and insecurity in the north of their country are among those currently needing urgent help.

One of the other main findings from the UNHCR study is that a person who becomes a refugee is likely to remain one for several years either in a refugee camp or in an urban environment...

Of the refugees under UNHCR's responsibility almost three quarters have been in exile for at least five years awaiting a solution.

"Refugees don't have a choice you do" is one of the slogans of the charity's current Dilemmas campaign...