Tuesday, June 20, 2006

World Refugee Day

Today is World Refugee Day.

The UNHCR site has a wide range of articles about refugees and a list of activities around the world today to recognize their plight. (You can even catch of video of a message by goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie.)

Latest statistics indicate that of the 20.8 million people of concern:

8.4 million are refugees who have fled their countries due to civil wars and ethnic, tribal and religious violence and who cannot return home
6.6 million are internally displaced persons - people forced to flee their homes, but who have not crossed a border
2.4 million are stateless people
1.6 million are returnees
773,000 are asylum seekers
960,000 are others of concern

CNN also has a special site set up and Anderson Cooper's show tonite will be a two hour special addressing the issues. (Note that the CNN site states: '15 million without a home'. Maybe they should have consulted the UNHCR's site for the correct stats.)

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