UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations refugee agency warned on Friday that 2013 could become a record year for the highest levels of forced displacement ever seen, owing to unusually large numbers of new refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs).

The first half of 2013 is described as “one of the worst periods for forced displacement in decades,” by the Mid-year Trends 2013 report produced by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Some 5.9 million people were forced to flee their homes in the first six months of the year, compared with 7.6m for all of 2012. The biggest producer of new displacement was Syria.

Sharp rises were seen in the number of new refugees — 1.5m during the first six months of 2013 compared to 1.1m for all of 2012 — and in the number of people newly displaced within their own countries – 4m people compared with 6.5m for all of 2012.

Pakistan was named the largest refugee-hosting country in the world with 2.6m refugees from Afghanistan and more constantly flooding.

There were also more than 450,000 asylum applications, although this was about the same levels from the same period a year ago, said UNHCR.