Refugees

Refugee: definition

§  Refugees are people who have left their homeland because they fear that they will lose their lives or freedom if they stay. People become refugees because one or more of their basic human rights has been violated or threatened.

§  International law defines a ‘refugee’ as a person who has fled from and/ or cannot return to their country due to well founded fear or persecution including war or conflict.

A person is a refugee if:

§  Refugees have to be outside their country of origin

§  Their reason for flight of

fear has to be persecution

§  The fear of persecution has to be well founded, i.e. they have to have experienced persecution or likely to experience it if they return

§  The persecution has to result from one or more of the 5 grounds listed in the definition;

§  They have to be unwilling or unable to seek the protection of their country.

Who protects refugees?

§  UNHCR

§  Protecting refugees is the core mandate of the UNHCR ( United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

§  Who do they help?

§  The UNHCR’s primary goal is to help and protect the rights of refugees but they also help

§  Stateless people

§  Women

§  The elderly

§  The disabled

§  They work in more then 110 countries and have helped over 34.4 million people reclaim their lives.

    Where are they involved?

§  They work in:

§  Africa

§  The Americas

§  Asia and the pacific

§  Europe

§  The Middle East

§  North Africa