Migrant Workers Camp in Bangkok: Source http://www.flickr.com /photos/12392252@N03/3528219760/
Not since World War II have there been more than fifty million refugees and displaced people in the world.
On 19 June 2014 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced that this total had been exceeded in 2013.
Half of those displaced are children.The primary cause of this increase in human suffering are violent conflict in places such as Syria, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.
With fifty million refugees and displaced people in the world it is fair to call it a global crisis. yet the global response has been business as usual. Some countries have actually reduced their refugee quotas despite the global crisis.
What makes someone like Angelina Jolie take an interest in the lives of refugees? What makes anyone take interest? In this video Angelina visits refugees in Afghanistan. It's clear that there is no "foreignness" in how she relates to them. She sees them as people who are suffering, and to whom we should respond. Financially, we reward Angelina Jolie enormously…
Update November 2016: Since this post back in 2015, Australia has announced a special humanitarian intake for Syrian refugees. According to information published by the Department of Border Protection, in the 2015-16 year, 17,555 humanitarian visas were issued including almost 3800 to Syrian refugees. In a discussion paper issued for the 2015-16 year, the Department estimates that the 2019 program…
The anonymous words below come from the reflections of a young person who arrived in Australia as a refugee. She was when she wrote in Australian immigration detention. Her words were submitted to the national inquiry currently being undertaken by Australian Human Rights Commission into children in immigration detention. Links to national inquiry and her full submissions are provided below. …
Article 13(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says that everyone has the right to leave any country. Increasingly countries are cooperating to violate this human rights by preventing aslyum seekers and others from leaving a country to seek refuge in another country. Some examples are: Egypt: which prevents Africans from leaving Egypt in attempting to enter Israel. On…
