A/HRC/4/30 page 19 A. Fleeing from hunger 54. Hundreds of millions of people have been forced from their homes and lands for numerous reasons, but few have managed to cross international borders to another country. Around the world today, while there are millions of migrants who have moved within their own countries (whether through forced or voluntary migration), there are only about 190 million international migrants, living and working in a country other than their country of birth, which is only about 2.9 per cent of the global population.46 There are even fewer refugees, with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimating that, at the end of 2000, there were 9.2 million refugees around the world (defined as those who have crossed an international border fearing persecution). The vast majority of these refugees have left their countries, but remain in neighbouring countries in Africa or Asia. Only about 800,000 refugees are actively seeking asylum and refugee status in North America, Europe as well as in developing countries in 2006.47 Many countries are setting up more barriers to reduce those eligible for asylum.48 55. According to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, all Governments are obliged to grant refugee status to those who qualify for international protection. Refugees are those who have to flee due to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion” (art. 1). Under this understanding, refugees are different from other migrants in that they are forced to leave their homes because of a change in their social environment which makes it impossible to continue their lives as they have known it before, usually involving a coercive force and political persecution. However, there is no such protection for other people who voluntarily leave their homes in search of a better life or better livelihood in another country. According to the UNHCR, an “economic migrant” is a person who voluntarily leaves their country, on the basis of economic, rather than political reasons, in order to take up residence elsewhere.49 It is the voluntary and economic nature of this choice that define someone as an economic migrant. Economic migrants may be accepted into another country, but this is at the discretion of each country’s migration policy and is usually based on the country’s own national interest. Unlike refugees, States have no legal responsibility to accept economic migrants because it is believed that they have not been forced to leave their countries. 56. Many migrants do choose voluntarily to leave their homes and lands in search of a better life in another country. In a world where the richer countries are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer, migration is an obvious response. A new study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) of the United Nations University, shows how 46 IOM, World Migration Report 2005. 47 UNHCR, State of the World’s Refugees 2006. 48 Ibid. 49 UNHCR Handbook http://www.hrea.org/learn/tutorials/refugees/Handbook/hbpart1.htm.