What does it mean to be a refugee?

According to the modern definition of the UN’s 1951 convention, a refugee is defined when an individual is outside the native country of nationality and has no means to return to home because of the fear of being persecuted. The reason for persecution might be the individual’s race, religion and sometimes even nationality. Other reasons include political opinion or membership in a social group. These are all related to war and violence either directly or indirectly.

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Refugee Mass Among Children

Every refugee story is unique with an uncertain outcome and vulnerable journeys. According to a rough estimation, half of the world’s refugees are labelled as children. Many of these children are unaccompanied by an adult which led to them to fall prey to problems such as child labour and sexual exploitation.

Migrant And Refugee

The words migrant and refugee are very different and hold polar opposite meanings. If an individual has left the native country and settled in another country without any objective of persecution, he or she will be termed as ‘migrant’.
When problems such as natural disasters, wars force people to move to another country, international law identifies these fleeing conflict and violence as refugees.

Situation After Fleeing The Country

When someone flees the country, the journey of that person holds a large amount of uncertainty. These people have minimal access to necessities such as shelter, food, water. In such cases, the departures of these refugees are purely accidental leading them to have no time to carry all their belongings. The most possible route for their travelling island and sea. If worse comes to worst, these people have to trust smugglers for transportation.

Refugee Camp

Most of the refugees flee to the city and their first idea in that city is the refugee camps. These refugee camps are run by local governments who provided temporary shelter to these refugees. They provide shelter only up to a certain period where the inhabitants can either return to their own country or settle in the host or any other foreign country.

Asylum

Once in a new country, the first step of the inhabitant is to apply for asylum. They will be tagged as ‘asylum seeker’ until and unless the application of ‘refugee’ is accepted. Although the countries together agree on one definition of refugee, each host country with its unique guidelines is obligated to go through the request for asylum to decide whether the applicant is entitled to be a refugee or not.

Duties Of Host Country

After the individual has been recognized as a refugee, the refugee must provide minimum common treatment and non-discrimination.
Reality is different; these refugees are the fatal victims of discrimination and racism. The refugee children are out of school as a result of the lack of funding of educational programs.

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