Of the world's 25 million children displaced from their homelands, only 102 are under protection in Mexico, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Friday.

In an interview with foreign journalists here, the UNHCR's public information officer in Mexico, Mariana Echandi, said the children under protection in Mexico were from Colombia, El Salvador, Congo, Sudan and Iraq.

Wars, political persecution and religious intolerance had driven the children out of their countries, she said.

Her comments followed the introduction of a book tilled "La pequena Carlota" (Little Carlota), which narrates the personal experience of a refugee girl.

Echandi said refugees have begun to use the same routes and mechanisms to move from one country to another, so it was necessary to protect from deportation those who would be at risk if they returned to their home countries.

According to UNHCR estimates, there are 25 million refugee children worldwide from more than 50 nations, including Afghanistan, Sudan and Iraq, of which the agency serves only 9 million. Children under the age of 18 make up 45 percent of the global refugee population.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2008)