The Refugee
Imagine living in a country where your ethnicity, religion, or political view is perceived as a threat by the ruling authority. Imagine your life when that authority cracks down on the threat they perceive you represent by persecuting you and your family. The discrimination against you escalates until the day you learn they killed your brother--and now they are coming for you. Imagine concluding in a matter of minutes that you must take your family and run. Your only hope for safety is to cross the border into a neighboring country where those who persecute you have no authority.
For 15.2 million people world-wide, variations of this story is how their refugee story begins.
The term “refugee” refers to a special international legal status granted to people by the United Nations. This status is defined as someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
In other words, a refugee is someone who fled his country for his life and cannot safely return. Receiving the status of refugee both dramatically saves and changes one’s life.
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How many people are refugee?
Currently, 43.3 million people are forcibly displaced from their homes due to persecution and armed conflict. 15.2 million people currently reside in refugees camps all over the world.
What is the process for receiving refugee status?
Once they arrive at the safety of camp, refugees undergo an intake process according to guidelines set forth by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR). Their story and identity is documented as much as possible, and an evaluation is made as to whether they meet the criteria of a refugee. That is qualify according to UN definition of a refugee as some who, “owing a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."
Who are the leading refugee producing refugee countries?
Former Palestine......................................................3,000,000
Afghanistan...............................................................2,500,000
Sudan............................................................................600,000
Myanmar.......................................................................586,000
Congo-Kinshasa..........................................................440,000
(source: Refugee Reports May 2004, Vol. 24, No. 3)
What is the process for receiving refugee status?
Who are the leading refugee producing countries?
What’s the difference between refugees, immigrants, IDP’s and?
