Under a hot sun, a crowd gathered by the smouldering remains of the mud-brick hut. They looked at the broken pots, charred clothes and blackened kitchen utensils. One pointed to a stuffed toy nestled in the cinders.

Towering above was Nelson's Column, one of London's most famous landmarks.

The onlookers - a gaggle of school kids and a few puzzled tourists - had come to Trafalgar Square to feed the pigeons. Instead they found a mock refugee camp straight out of western Sudan - with a replica of a torched village hut thrown in for good measure.

This was "Experience Darfur", an exhibit staged by the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, to mark World Refugee Week. By taking over Trafalgar Square for a day, they hoped to raise awareness of the plight of 11.4 million people worldwide living under UNHCR protection.

"Obviously, it's very incongruous," said Laura Padoan, a UNHCR spokeswoman who showed me round the pale blue tents and exhibits of relief items. "We're surrounded by London landmarks, and then to see something so foreign just sort of transported into Trafalgar Square.

"It's really to convey the message that most of the world's refugees aren't seeking asylum in Western Europe. Most refugees are still in developing countries."

UNHCR statistics out this week show that conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq - among other war zones - have driven up the number of world refugees for a second straight year in 2007.

In addition to the 11.4 million who have crossed borders to become officially registered as refugees, tens of millions more have been displaced within their own countries. The total number of people uprooted by conflict in 2007 rose to 24.4 million.

"What we're showing today is the exact equipment and the exact rations that UNHCR provides," Padoan said. "It's not a lot."

From the Toyota Land Cruiser - that ubiquitous aid worker vehicle - to the rations of pulses, rice and high-energy Plumpy'nut peanut paste, "Experience Darfur" gave a pretty good insight into refugee life.

Bemused Londoners could register to get UNHCR wristbands – a valuable commodity in many war zones, where recognition as a refugee guarantees legal protection and access to life-saving supplies.

They could peer inside the modest tents that might house families of 12 people or more in Darfur and eastern Chad. They could look at pictures drawn by Darfuri children and get water from a communal tap.

"One person can survive on 9 litres of water every day," Padoan said. "When you first hear that figure you think it’s not so little, but for drinking water, cooking, washing and sanitation, 9 litres is very, very little."

Yahia Elbashir was a refugee in Darfur’s biggest camp – Kalma, near the South Darfur capital Nyala - until he came to London in 2005.

"They’ve done a fantastic job," he said of the exhibit, as a couple of girls with punk-pink hair and leather jackets browsed around behind him.

"It’s a real, live humanitarian crisis. It’s good for people to see how difficult life is. The entire community depends on handouts from international agencies, for food, clean water, health, sanitation, education for kids."

Londoner Paul Iwala, 41, was taking photos of the torched village hut.

"It looks like an art installation, really," he said. "To highlight war, and living on the fringes, and living like a nomad."

I caught up with Katrina White, a 51-year-old gallery assistant checking out the U.N. World Food Programme rations.

"Every so often the media does pick up the story, but then it drops back," she said.

According to UNHCR volunteer Karen Wagscaff, a lot of Western media continues to portray refugees as illegal immigrants who compete for jobs and sponge off state resources.

"Certain sections of the press in the UK misuse the term refugee," she said. "I think a lot of people have never seen a refugee camp up close. If you see things on TV you get a different perspective. You get immune to it."

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