Fleeing Home

A refugee is someone who is forced to leave their country of origin because it is no longer safe for them to be there. There are many different reasons why people are forced to leave their homes. These might include:

• Violence by armed guerilla groups or by government or military forces
• Civil war
• War between different nations/races/religions
• Persecution of minority political/racial/religious groups
• Persecution of people because they belong to a particular social group (homosexuality, for example, is persecuted in some countries)
• Human rights abuses
• Genocide
• Foreign occupation of their homeland

From Algeria and Angola to Tibet, Turkey and Vietnam, refugees come from all over the world. Haiti's devastating earthquake, the floods in Pakistan, and the ongoing conflicts in Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan are just a few examples of recent world news events which you might have heard about that have forced many people to flee their homes.