9781422281406

Critical World Issues

Refugees

Critical World Issues

Abortion Animal Rights The Arms Trade Capital Punishment Consumerism Drugs Equal Opportunities Euthanasia

Food Technology Genetic Engineering Genocide Human Rights

Poverty Racism Refugees Terrorism

Critical World Issues

Refugees

Harry Miller

Mason Crest Philadelphia

Mason Crest 450 Parkway Drive, Suite D

Broomall, PA 19008 www.masoncrest.com ©2017 by Mason Crest, an imprint of National Highlights, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Printed and bound in the United States of America. CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #CWI2016. For further information, contact Mason Crest at 1-866-MCP-Book. First printing 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

on file at the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-1-4222-3660-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4222-8140-6 (ebook) I ncludes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4222-3337-5 (hc) ISBN 978-1-4222-8622-7 (ebook)

1. Southwestern States—Juvenile literature. 2. Arizona—Juvenile literature. 3. California—Juvenile literature. 4. Nevada—Juvenile literature. I. Title. F785.7.L37 2015 979—dc23 2014050200

Critical World Issues series ISBN: 978-1-4222-3645-1

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Table of Contents 1: What Is a Refugee? ............................................7 2: What Causes Refugees? ....................................27 3: Who Helps Refugees? ......................................49 4: What Happens to Refugees? ............................63 5: Problems That Refugees Face ..........................79 Appendix: Refugees in Historical Context ..........89 Organizations to Contact ......................................98 Series Glossary....................................................102 Further Reading..................................................104 Internet Resources ..............................................106 Index....................................................................108 Photo Credits/About the Author........................112

KEY ICONS TO LOOK FOR :

Text-dependent questions: These questions send the reader back to the text for more careful attention to the evidence presented there.

Words to understand: ;OLZL ^VYKZ ^P[O [OLPY LHZ` [V \UKLYZ[HUK KLÄUP[PVUZ ^PSS increase the reader's understanding of the text, while building vocabulary skills.

Series glossary of key terms: This back-of-the book glossary contains terminology used throughout this series. Words found here increase the reader's HIPSP[` [V YLHK HUK JVTWYLOLUK OPNOLY SL]LS IVVRZ HUK HY[PJSLZ PU [OPZ ÄLSK Research projects: Readers are pointed toward areas of further inquiry connected to each chapter. Suggestions are provided for projects that encourage deeper research and analysis. Sidebars: This boxed material within the main text allows readers to build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspectives by weaving together additional information to provide realistic and holistic perspectives.

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1

What Is a Refugee?

M ina is a European refugee now living in the United States. As a teenager, she was forced to flee her home in Bosnia, part of the former Yugoslavia, dur- ing fighting among different ethnic groups. She says: “My name is Mina Kovacevic, and I am a Muslim from Sarajevo, in Bosnia. In May 1992, two months after the war began, I left my home and homeland. Many of my neighbors had been killed. My mother, father, two sis- ters, nephew, and I spent twenty-four hours a day in a bomb shelter. We were among forty people — mostly women and children — hiding in a small, dark room lis- tening to the shooting and shelling. “My sister had been undergoing chemotherapy. But

During the 1990s the country of Yugoslavia, which had been created after World War I, broke apart into many separate countries, accompanied by warfare that targeted civilians. These are a few of the more than 200,000 ethnic Albanians who were displaced during the conflict.

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we knew that even if we got her to the hospital, there would be no treatment for her. So we decided to try to leave. Our car and others were stopped by Serb soldiers. They ordered us to pull off to the side of the road and told us we were being held as hostages. The soldiers

Words to Understand in This Chapter

asylum— a place of safety and refuge provided by a host country to refugees. asylum seekers— people who have applied for refugee status and are waiting to see if they will be granted protection as a refugee. citizen— a member of a country or other political community. civil war— a war between opposing groups within one country. convention— a legal agreement to behave in a certain way, made between two or more countries. deportation— the forced removal of a person from one country to another. detention center— a place where asylum seekers are held while their cases are investigated. internally displaced person— a person who has been forced from their home, but is still within their home country’s borders. malnourished— lacking foods necessary for good health. migrant— someone who moves from one region or country to another. refugee— person taking refuge, especially in a foreign country to escape such trou- bles as religious or political persecution and war. UN (United Nations)— an international organization, founded in 1945, in which representatives from most of the world’s nations meet to discuss conflicts and try to work towards peace. UNHCR— the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, set up by the UN to deal with the problem of refugees. visa— a document or stamp in a passport allowing a person to visit or stay in a country.

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Refugees

Bosnian Muslim refugees pass through a United Nations checkpoint, May 1994.

began making lists of the children in our convoy, threat- ening to kill them first. “We spent three nights in our car without food. We saw and heard men being tortured by the soldiers. At night, the soldiers would shine flashlights into our cars while bragging of all the children they had already killed. We were all in terror for my four-year-old nephew. “Finally, we were allowed to go. When we reached Croatia, the Croats put us in a refugee camp where we

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What Is a Refugee?

Refugees from Kosovo carry bread to their families in a UN-run camp, 1999.

lived with forty people to a tent. The Croats were not prepared to receive so many people, and after ten days they told us we had to move on to another camp in east- ern Slovenia. “We were the first refugees to arrive in this camp. There were a few huts, and we were lucky enough to be put in one. Even though we shared it with twelve or fourteen strangers, we felt much safer because there was no shooting in the area. “As summer turned into fall, more refugees arrived. The huts were full, so new arrivals were housed in tents

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Refugees

that faced rain, snow, and extreme cold without any heat. Sanitation was deplorable: twenty to thirty toilets and only twenty showers for three thousand people.” After enduring these hardships, Mina’s life took a turn for the better. Her family was granted refuge in Denmark, and Mina was given a scholarship to study in the United States. She described this as “the greatest thing I could imagine.” Since then, she has completed a degree in psychology and hopes to return to her homeland if the situation there remains stable.

Albanian refugees follow a railroad line while fleeing their homeland, 1999.

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What Is a Refugee?

Mina is just one of millions of refugees found all over the world. Many face an uncertain future. What Is a Refugee? First and foremost, a refugee is a person who is in need of help. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a refugee as “someone who has been forced to leave a country because of war or for religious or political reasons.” The most important definition of a refugee, however, is the one set forth in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Twenty-six governments, including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia drafted this convention, or treaty, to ensure that all human beings, including refugees, “shall enjoy fundamental rights and freedoms without discrimination.” It defines a refugee as: A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being per- secuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, mem- bership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nation- ality and being outside the country of his former habit- ual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.

At the time this convention was signed, members were con- cerned about the people who’d fled their homes during World

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Refugees

In 1946, delegates of fourteen nations met to discuss efforts to repatriate and resettle European refugees after the Second World War, and to provide for their care and mainte- nance while awaiting re-establishment. This Preparatory Commission International Refugee Organization would become a body of the newly formed United Nations.

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What Is a Refugee?

Palestinian Arabs who are fleeing conflict in their homeland wait for transportation that will take them over the border into Lebanon, 1948. When Great Britain pulled out of Palestine, and Israel declared its independence, several hundred thousand Arabs left their homes to escape from the conflict.

War II, so they limited the definition to those who had fled “events occurring before 1 January 1951” and “events occur- ring in Europe.” Members removed those restrictions in a later version called the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, but allowed those countries that signed the 1951 ver- sion to retain the restriction. In 2001 the United Nations

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Refugees