According to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, 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 their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country.
The concept of a refugee was expanded by the Conventions’ 1967 Protocol and by regional conventions in Africa and Latin America to include persons who had fled war or other violence in their home 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.
Refugee was defined as a legal group in response to the large numbers of people fleeing Eastern Europe following World War II. The lead international agency coordinating refugee protection is the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which counted 8.4 million refugees worldwide at the beginning of 2006. This was the lowest number since 1980.[1] The major exception is the 4.3 million Palestinian refugees under the authority of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), who are the only group to be granted refugee status to the descendants of refugees according to the above definition.[2] The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants gives the world total as 12,019,700 refugees and estimates there are over 34,000,000 displaced by war, including internally displaced persons, who remain within the same national borders. The majority of refugees who leave their country seek asylum in countries neighboring their country of nationality. The "durable solutions" to refugee populations, as defined by UNHCR and governments, are: voluntary repatriation to the country of origin; local integration into the country of asylum; and resettlement to a third country.[3]
As of December 31, 2005, the largest source countries of refugees are the Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Iraq, Myanmar, and Sudan. The country with the largest number of IDPs is Sudan, with over 5 million. According to UNHCR estimates, over 4.2 million Iraqis have been displaced since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, with 2 million within the Iraq and 2.2 million in neighbouring countries.[4][5] At least 60,000 Iraqis are losing their homes and becoming refugees every month.[6] This has become the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since the upheaval that greeted the creation of Israel nearly 60 years ago.[7] A May 25, 2007 article notes that in the past seven months only 69 people from Iraq have been granted refugee status in the United States.[8]
Refugee Manipulations: War, Politics and the Abuse of Human Suffering - Fred Tanner et al (2003)
Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Traumatized Asylum Seekers, Refugees, War and Torture Victimes - John P. Wilson (2004)
Women, Violence and War: Wartime Victimization of Refugees in the Blakans - Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic (2000)
Refugees and the Rich-World Fortress - Sarah Stephen (2005) (Resistancebooks.com)
Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees - Caroline Moorehead
The Middle of Everywhere - Mary Pipher
Displacement, Asylum, Migration - Oxford Amnesty Lectures 2004
Refugees in a Global Era - Philip Marfleet
A Life Removed - Rose George
The Ethics and Politics of Asylum - Matthew J. Gibney
Political Asylum Researh and Development
The UN Refugee Agency
Red Cross
Documentaries:
Iraq Refugee Documentary (online)
Armenia & Azerbaijan - Refugees Documentary (2006)
Darfurian Refugees Give Testimonials
Global Coverage: Colombian Refugees
Vietnam Boat Refugees (2007)