Refugees and Asylum Seekers: Who are they?
Each year millions of people throughout the world leave their home country looking for a better life, fleeing poverty, persecution and other human rights violations. The 1951 United Nations Convention defines a refugee as a person who has fled his or her country because of ‘a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion’. 1 in every 115 people on earth has been forced into flight and a new refugee is created every 21 seconds. 80% of the world’s displaced people are women and children. Refugees re-settle all over the world. However, the distribution of refugees between rich and poor nations is very unequal. Tanzania hosts one refugee for every 76 Tanzanians, whilst the figure for Britain is 1:530. In 2001 Australia will receive only 12 000 refugees through its humanitarian program. This number has remained static for three years, despite the ever-increasing numbers of refugees’ worldwide.
