Asha

Some basic info...

Here are some very basic pieces of info about refugees in Egypt (or in general):

1) There are approximately 14 million refugees worldwide. However, keep in mind that the definition of a refugee according to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Statuf of Refugees, a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, memebership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality or habitual residence and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that countr of to return to it." The 14 million therefore, doean't include displaced people within countries.

2)The majority of refugees are from Africa or the Middle East.

3) Almost 25% of the world's refugees are Palestinians.

4) Half of the world's refugees have been "warehoused" in camps for more than 10 years.

5) In Egypt, there are about 22,000 people who have been granted refugee status by UNHCR. The majority of these people are from Sudan and Somalia.

6) Along with the above there are 50,000 to 70,000 Palestinian refugees currently living in Egypt.

7) Less than 1% of the world's refugees are resettled in "Western" countries.

posted by mir @ 1:25 AM