11 Facts about Refugees

Monday 28 January 2013

Consider how radically your world would change if, without notice, you were forced to leave your home and possessions behind and relocate to an area where you don’t know anyone and have no idea when you will eat next. This is the reality of millions of people across the world.

1. A refugee is a person forced to leave his or her country because he or she is unable to live at home or because he or she fears harm. This can be due to fighting, religious or racial persecution, or natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods.
2. An internally displaced person (IDP) is a person who has been forced to leave his or her home, often for the same reasons as a refugee; however, IDPs find another place to live within their own country. They usually live in makeshift camps where hundreds of other IDPs live because they have nowhere else to go.
3. There are around 10.6 million refugees in the world, 1 million asylum seekers and 25.8 million internally displaced people (IDP).
4. Most refugees and IDPs are in Asia and Africa, where about 9.2 million refugees and 18.1 million IDS are found.
5. During flight from areas of conflict, families and children continue to be exposed to multiple physical dangers, such as sudden attacks, shelling, snipers and landmines. Often, they must walk for days with only limited quantities of water and food. Under such circumstances, children become acutely undernourished and prone to illness. They are often the first to die.
6. Refugee/IDP camps are temporary shelters where 14 million refugees and up to 25 million IDPs live today. Sometimes people can end up living in one for well over a decade.
7. Refugee camps often lack water, electricity, sanitation and health care. They are usually overcrowded and unhygienic. Children are especially at risk of malnutrition in refugee camps, and disease can spread very quickly.
8. About 80% of internally displaced people are women and children. About half of the world’s refugees are children.
9. Refugee and IDP children are more vulnerable to those forcing children to become child soldiers or to traffickers selling children as slaves. (There are already 5.7 million child slaves worldwide.)
10. An estimated 300,000 underage child soldiers are currently serving in armies and militias around the world, some of them plucked straight from refugee camps. Untold numbers of older, but still vulnerable youths, have also been recruited.
11. In times of war, the disintegration of families and communities leaves women and girls especially vulnerable to violence. Rape is a continual threat, as are other forms of gender-based violence, including prostitution, sexual humiliation and mutilation, trafficking and domestic abuse.

Sources:
UNICEF
United Nations