U.N. Urges Governments to Keep Borders Open to Refugees

Governments around the world should keep their borders open to refugees, the head of the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday, as new data showed the number of refugees rising to its highest level in 50 years.

"My appeal to all states of the world is to keep the borders open to all those who seek protection," Antonio Guterres told reporters in Rome after touring the Italian island of Lampedusa along with U.S. actress Angelina Jolie.

Tens of thousands of boat people from North Africa have arrived on Lampedusa so far this year, with many fleeing continuing upheaval in Tunisia after a revolution there in January as well as the escalating conflict in Libya.

"The most relevant contribution that states can give to refugee protection when there is a conflict is to keep the borders open," said the normally Geneva-based Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

"We have the highest number of refugees in the last 50 years," he added.

Asked about calls from within Italy's anti-immigration Northern League party for refugee boats from Libya to be sent back, he said the country was now in a civil war adding: "We do not consider it is acceptable to push back any boat."

The UNHCR said in a report released on Monday that the total number of refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons, had not ceased to grow with the figure reaching nearly 44 million people in 2010.