The UN Refugee Agency

Refugee or migrant Refugee or Migrant - word choice matters. © UNHCR GENEVA, July 11 (UNHCR) – With more than 65 million people forcibly displaced globally and boat crossings of the Mediterranean still regularly in the headlines, the terms 'refugee' and 'migrant' are frequently used interchangeably in media and public discourse. But is there a difference between the two, and does it matter? Yes, there is a difference, and it does matter. Refugees are persons fleeing armed conflict or persecution. Refugees are defined and protected in international law. The protection of refugees has many aspects. Migrants choose to move not because of a direct threat of persecution or death, but mainly to improve their lives by finding work, or in some cases for education, family reunion, or other reasons. For individual governments, this distinction is important. Politics has a way of intervening in such debates. In fact, they happen to be both. By Adrian Edwards, Geneva

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency with the mandate to protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people, and assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. UNHCR‘s mandate does not apply to Palestinian refugees, who are assisted by UNWRA. History[edit] Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations the international community was acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In the late 1940s, the IRO fell out of favor, but the UN agreed that a body was required to oversee global refugee issues. UNHCR's mandate was originally set out in its statute, annexed to resolution 428 (V) of the United Nations General Assembly of 1950. Function[edit] Palestine refugee mandate[edit] Awards[edit]

UNIFEM You would've heard in the news recently about a deal between the Australian Government and Malaysia over asylum seekers. Malaysia has agreed to take hundreds of asylum seekers who enter Australian waters by boat. In return, Australia will take thousands of already processed refugees from Malaysia. So, is it a good deal? Tash takes a look CONTESTANT: Number 17 please. AUDIENCE MEMBER: I reckon I've got 800. HOST: So the offer is 4,000. CONTESTANT: Deal! HOST: Congratulations! NATASHA THIELE, REPORTER: Deals are made by countries all the time. The government wants to stop boats from entering Australian waters illegally, so they've done a deal with Malaysia. There are many opinions about whether the deal is a good one for Australia. Some people think offering thousands of genuine refugees the chance to live in Australia is a kind thing to do. So why would some people say no deal?

Why Flee Syria? With the refugee crisis worsening as many Syrians attempt to flee to Europe, many people may find themselves wondering just how the war in that country got so bad, and why so many are fleeing now. Here, then, is a very brief history of the war, written so that anyone can understand it: Syria is a relatively new country: Its borders were constructed by European powers in the 1920s, mashing together several ethnic and religious groups. Since late 1970, a family from one of those smaller groups — the Assads, who are Shia Alawites — have ruled the country in a brutal dictatorship. Bashar al-Assad has been in power since 2000. This regime appeared stable, but when Arab Spring protests began in 2011, it turned out not to be. On March 18, Syrian security forces opened fire on peaceful protestors in the southern city of Deraa, killing three. Perhaps inevitably, Syrians took up arms to defend themselves. It worked. By 2014, Syria was divided between government, rebel, ISIS, and Kurdish forces.

Gapminder: Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view. UN declares famine in southern Somalia amid worst drought in 60 years A young child in a pediatric ward adjacent to the Ifo refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. The UN has officially declared famine in two southern Somalia regions with more than 12 million people battling hunger. Photo: Oli Scarff Source: Getty Images Food emergency: A Somali refugee receives treatment in a tented emergency ward of Ifo Hospital, which lies over the border in Kenya. THE UN has officially declared famine in two southern Somalia regions as the world slowly mobilises to save the 12 million people battling hunger in the region's worst drought in 60 years. The US urged the al-Qaida-inspired rebels controlling the area to allow the return of the relief groups they expelled two years ago while aid groups warned many would die without urgent action and funding. UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordination for Somalia Mark Bowden declared that southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions had been hit by famine. "If we are not able to intervene immediately, tens of thousands more Somalis may die."

Two Billion Miles [interactive] Australia's aid program The Australian Government’s development policy Australian aid: promoting prosperity, reducing poverty, enhancing stability and performance framework Making Performance Count: enhancing the accountability and effectiveness of Australian aid outline key aspects of our aid program. Documents Australia's development policy and performance framework are available in PDF and Word formats. The need for change The world has changed—and our aid program is changing too. Today, many developing countries are growing rapidly, with aid representing an increasingly small proportion of development finance. Where we work The Australian aid program now focuses more clearly on our Indo-Pacific region. What we do: re-shaping the aid program The purpose of the aid program is to promote Australia’s national interests by contributing to sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. A strategic framework will guide the re-shaping of Australia’s aid program over coming years. More details on the priority areas:

The Refugee Project Every day, all over the world, ordinary people must flee their homes for fear of death or persecution. Many leave without notice, taking only what they can carry. Many will never return. The Refugee Project looks beyond the crises that are currently making headlines and allows viewers to explore all refugee migrations around the world since 1975. About the Data Under international law, the United Nations is responsible for protecting asylum seekers around the world. The Refugee Project does not consider the large number of economic migrants and other undocumented populations, nor does it show the millions of internally displaced persons in troubled countries around the world. Recognition The Refugee Project was selected for MoMA’s Design and Violence exhibition, where it was written about by the UNHCR’s High Comissioner, António Guterres. Compare refugee population visually by country The circles expand when a country experiences war, turmoil, famine, or repression, and people flee.

Australian Aid Australian Aid is the Australian Government agency responsible for managing Australia's overseas aid program. Australian Aid provides advice and support to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, presently the Hon. Julie Bishop MP on development policy, and planned and coordinated poverty reduction activities in partnership with developing countries. History[edit] The agency saw a variety of names and formats. It also saw repeated cuts to aid contributions during its lifetime, as the level of 0.47% of gross domestic product during the Whitlam years was slashed to 0.33% under the Hawke and Keating governments, and has at times been even lower under the Howard government. In 2005 John Howard committed Australia to double Australian aid to about $4 billion a year by 2010. On 18 December 2008, the William J. Operation[edit] Total Australian Official Development Assistance in 2005-06 was A$2,605 million, not all of it administered by AusAID. Projects[edit] Over the past 40 years: Food aid[edit]

Ten things you didn’t know about refugees With 45.2 million displaced by violence, persecution or rights abuses, the number of refugees is higher than at any time since 1994, says UNHCR Today is World Refugee Day - and the latest statistics from the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) show world refugee numbers are higher than at any time since 1994. As U.N. refugee chief Antonio Gutteres put it at a recent news conference: “Each time you blink, another person is forced to flee.” UNHCR’s annual report shows that some 45.2 million people were uprooted by violence, persecution or rights abuses as of the end of last year, but the numbers also challenge some common misconceptions about refugees and displacement. Here are 10 things you may not have known. 1. Until you do, you’re just a person who’s been uprooted within your own country - or an internally displaced person (IDP), to use the aid world jargon. The difference matters because it’s only by crossing a border that you gain the protection of international laws and conventions. 2. 3. 4.

Médecins Sans Frontières Core documents outlining MSF's principles are the Charter,[5] the Chantilly Principles, and the later La Mancha Agreement.[6] Governance is addressed in Section 2 of the Rules portion of this final document. MSF has an associative structure, where operational decisions are made, largely independently, by the five operational centres (Amsterdam, Barcelona-Athens, Brussels, Geneva and Paris). Common policies on core issues are coordinated by the International Council, in which each of the 24 sections (national offices) is represented. The International Council meets in Geneva, Switzerland, where the International Office, which coordinates international activities common to the operational centres, is also based. The organization actively provides health care and medical training to populations in about 70 countries and frequently insists on political responsibility in conflict zones such as Chechnya and Kosovo. Creation[edit] Biafra[edit] 1971 establishment[edit] New leadership[edit]

UNHCR Population Statistics Welcome to the UNHCR Population Statistics Database The database currently contains data about UNHCR's populations of concern from the year 1951 up to 2014 and you can use it to investigate different aspects of these populations: their general composition by location of residence or origin, their status (refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, etc.), their evolution over time, and so on.. In each of the screens in the system you start by selecting the sub-set of data you are interested in, choosing one or more countries or territories of residence and/or origin. You can focus on specific types of population by checking the boxes for only those you are concerned with, and you can summarise the data by checking the boxes for only those data items by which you wish the data to be broken down. General notes A number of statistics are not shown in this system but are displayed as asterisks (*). UNHCR's populations of concern