Refugee

An Armenian refugee woman with her son. (Armenian Genocide)

A refugee camp in Chad, linked to the Darfur conflict.

In 1951, the United Nations (UN) law called Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, said a refugee was a person who is forced to leave their country due to natural disasters or war and conflict

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 their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.

In 1967 the Conventions’ 1967 protocol and by regional conventions in Africa and Latin America to include persons who had fled war and violence in their country. A person who is seeking to be recognized as a refugee is an asylum seeker. In the United States a recognized asylum seeker is known as an asylee.

A refugee is a person who has to leave his or her country. This can be because of different reasons:

• It is no longer safe to stay, there might be a natural disaster such as flood or famine, war, or civil unrest
• There might be persecutions going on.
• The person is unable to sustain himself or herself economically.
• The person might have been expelled
• The person might have to leave for religious reasons

Refugee Media

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  Konrad Schumann, an East German border guard, fleeing East Germany towards West Germany in 1962

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  Refugees from Herzegovina, painting by Uroš Predić in 1889 made in the aftermath of the Herzegovina Uprising (1875–77)

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  Turkish refugees from Edirne, 1913

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  Children preparing for evacuation from Spain during the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939.

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  Czech refugees from the Sudetenland, October 1938

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  Polish child refugees and war orphans in Balachadi, British India 1941

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  Russian refugees Battle of Stalingrad 1942

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  Polish refugees in Tehran, Imperial State of Iran, at an American Red Cross evacuation camp 1943

• Andy Lamey talks about the refugee crisis on Bookbits radio.

Other page

• Political asylum
• Refugee camp