A refugee is a person 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..."
The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees

Latest Statistics on Refugees Worldwide:

20.8 million total

8.4 million are refugees who have fled their countries due to civil wars and ethnic, tribal and religious violence and who cannot return home

6.6 million are internally displaced persons - people forced to flee their homes, but who have not crossed a border

2.4 million are stateless people

1.6 million are returnees

773,000 are asylum seekers

960,000 are others of concern

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What is a refugee?
An Internally Displaced Person?
An asylum seeker?

UN Refugee Agency: Protecting Refugees - Questions & Answers

Wikipedia: Refugee

The Council on Foreign Relations: Refugees -- Questions & Answers

Human Rights Watch: Refugess and Displaced Persons

Amnesty International: Refugees and Migrants

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Mercy Corps and Refugees

Mercy Corps was started in response to the plight of refugees. The organization was founded in 1979 as the Save the Refugees Fund, a task force organized by Mercy Corps Founder Dan O'Neill in response to the plight of Cambodian refugees fleeing the famine, war and genocide of the Killing Fields. This fledgling organization helped focus America's attention on the humanitarian crisis and provided lifesaving aid to hundreds of thousands of Cambodians.

By 1981, the organization had expanded its work to other countries and was renamed Mercy Corps International to reflect its broader mission. Mercy Corps quickly shifted from simply providing relief assistance to focusing on long-term solutions to hunger and poverty. Its first development project began in Honduras in 1982.

Since then, Mercy Corps has grown and evolved, gaining national and international recognition for quick-response, high-impact, cost-effective programs around the globe. Mercy Corps continues to respond to humanitarian crises and assist refugee populations with an eye towards their long term development needs. Since 1979, the organization has delivered more than $1 billion in relief and development assistance, including food, shelter, health care, agriculture, water and sanitation, education and small business loans.

For more on the history and work of Mercy Corps, both past and present, see Wikipedia and also visit the Mercy Corps website. Global Envision is an initiative of Mercy Corps.

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Some of the principal global organizations involved with refugees:

Amnesty International:
Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization with the stated purpose of promoting all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards.

Human Rights Watch:
Human Rights Watch is a U.S.-based international human rights non-governmental organization headquartered in New York City that conducts advocacy and research on human rights issues.

International Rescue Committee:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global leader in emergency relief, rehabilitation, protection of human rights, post-conflict development, resettlement services and advocacy for those uprooted or affected by conflict and oppression.

United Nations Refugee Agency:
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country.

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Statistics & Graphics:

The latest Global Map of refugee patterns.

UNHCR's latest figures and archived reports.




Contributed by Global Envision Intern, Sofia Redford.

To read another Global Envision article about refugees, see On World Refugee Day, United States Leads World in Darfur Aid.



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