More than four million Iraqis are now living away from home, including about 800,000 who fled the war-torn country since sectarian violence intensified just over a year ago, according to the latest data released by the UN refugee agency.
About 95 percent of fleeing Iraqis remain in the Middle East, with nearly 2 million living in Syria and Jordan.
The number of Iraqis in Western states, mainly Europe, also surged by 77 percent (22,200) in 2006.
The displacement includes 1.9 million people who are living in Iraq, most of whom are sheltering with friends and relatives who have little space or food to share.
Most of the refugees and the internally displaced live in acute poverty with little access to health and education.
The UN refugee agency, which describes the refugee crisis in Iraq as the biggest population exodus since the displacement of the Palestinians following the creation of Israel in 1948, says that that the humanitarian crisis in Iraq is worsening, with more than 50,000 people fleeing the war-torn country each month.
"Iraq is not just a deeply controversial political and security issue, but a profound and no doubt lasting humanitarian crisis affecting millions of civilians," UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said on Tuesday at the opening of a two-day UNconference highlighting the plight of Iraqi refugees.
Apparently, the international community focused on the turmoil inside Iraq and ignored this humanitarian crisis, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told government and aid officials from 60 countries attending the meeting in Geneva.
"There is not enough attention on the fact that four million people have been displaced and they live in very, very difficult circumstances inside and outside Iraq,” Guterres said.
"It is time that the international community responded with genuine solidarity and unstinting aid to displaced Iraqis and to the states hosting them," he added.
Guterres said more is needed to be done inside Iraq to prevent people from leaving the country. He also paid tribute to Jordan and Syria's "generosity" to Iraqi refugees, underlining that the two countries had provided refuge "without any meaningful support from outside."
The United Nations wants commitments from wealthy countries, above all the U.S. and EU, to support Jordan and Syria and to accept some of the most vulnerable refugees themselves.
Aid officials warn that legal escape routes for Iraqi refugees were being cut off by several states, while regional authorities inside Iraq started to turn away displaced people, further fuelling the exodus from the country.
The U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement that Iraq’s neighbors were "closing off escape routes" for refugees by introducing restrictions, including a seven-billion-dollar high-tech barrier it says Saudi Arabia is building on its border with Iraq.
Another agency, the International Organization for Migration, warned that about half of Iraq's 15 central and southern governorates were turning away displaced people arriving from other areas.
"Those fleeing violence and threats need assistance urgently, as do host communities," said Rafiq Tschannen, the IOM's chief of mission in Iraq. "If they can't get it inside Iraq, they will end up becoming refugees in neighboring countries which are already sheltering about two million Iraqis and greatly stretched.”
In a video message, the UN chief Ban Ki-moon told Tuesday’s meeting that Iraq’s neighbors must not close their borders to refugees.
"I hope this conference will galvanize international support to provide them with more protection and assistance and I hope it will mobilize resources in establishing much needed protection space… For neighboring countries this means keeping borders open and upholding the principle of no forced return," Ban added, while also extending his appeal to more distant asylum countries.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said that the United States and the United Kingdom bear a particular responsibility to help people displaced inside and outside Iraq because they generated the conflict there.
"They undertook a war that has directly caused thousands of deaths, widespread fear and suffering, and forced displacement," HRW refugee director Bill Frelick sad in a statement.
"This precipitated a sectarian conflict that has caused additional violence, persecution and displacement on a massive scale," he added.