Information About Refugees

Information About Refugees

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. Refugees were 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 8,400,000 refugees worldwide at the beginning of 2006. This was the lowest number since 1980. At the end of 2007, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants calculated the world total as 14,047,300 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. The United States is one of the top destinations for refugees and asylum seekers, with approximately 151,200 refugees living within its borders at the end of 2007. During FY 2007, 48,281 people were admitted to the United States through the Department of State's Refugee Resettlement Program. Links For more information about refugees, asylum seekers, resettlement, and related issues, please visit:

• International Rescue Committee
• The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Refugees
• United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• International Organization for Migration
• U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Office of Refugee Resettlement
• U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

 To learn more about volunteering and to submit an application, scroll over the Public Service heading in the table of contents to the left of this webpage, scross over Refugee Assistance Program, and click on Volunteer.