Who is a refugee?

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country
because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded
fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political
opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they
cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and

religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.

What is the 1951 Refugee

Convention?
The 1951 Geneva Convention is the main international instrument of
refugee law. The Convention clearly spells out who a refugee is and the
kind of legal protection, other assistance and social rights he or she
should receive from the countries who have signed the document. The
Convention also defines a refugees obligations to host governments and
certain categories or people, such as war criminals, who do not qualify for
refugee status. The Convention was limited to protecting mainly European
refugees in the aftermath of World War II, but another document, the 1967
Protocol, expanded the scope of the Convention as the problem of
displacement spread around the world.

REFUGEES
A refugee is a person who has fled his or her own country and cannot return due to fear
of persecution, and has been given refugee status. Refugee status is given to applicants by the
United Nations or by a third party country, such as Australia.

According to the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees [PDF], as amended
by its 1967 Protocol (the Refugee Convention), a refugee is a person who is:

outside their own country and

has a well-founded fear of persecution due to his/ her race, religion, nationality, member of
a particular social group or political opinion, and is

unable or unwilling to return.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that at the end of 2012
there were 15.4 million refugees in the world.

More information
Amnesty International Australia - Rethink Refugees

UNHCR - Malian refugees living in Nigeria

UNHCR - UNHCR Global Trends 2012, Displacement: The New 21st Century Challenge

MIGRANTS
A migrant is someone who voluntarily chooses to leave his or her own country and make a new life
in another country. Australia has a long history of migration. People have been moving to Australia
for work and better opportunities since British colonisation in 1788.
More information
Department of Immigration and Border Protection - Fact sheet 4: More than 65 Years of Post-war
Migration

Watch the video Sweet Harvest for an example of Australia's post war migration.

ASYLUM SEEKERS
An asylum seeker is a person who has fled from his or her own country due to fear of persecution
and has applied for (legal and physical) protection in another country but has not yet had their claim
for protection assessed.

A person remains an asylum seeker until their protection status has been determined.

More information
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)

Australian Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)

INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS (IDPS)

An internally displaced person is someone who is living inside the borders of their own country,
but is unable to safely live in their own home or region.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) monitors internal displacement due to conflict
or human rights abuses worldwide. The UNHCR estimated that in 2012 a further 7.6 million people
were internally displaced due to conflict or persecution.

More information
UNHCR - UNHCR Global Trends 2012, Displacement: The New 21st Century Challenge

IDMC - Map of world showing numbers of IDP by geographical area.

For photos and examples of life as an IDP refer to the UNHCR case studies.

A photo story about people on the move within the Democratic Republic of Congo is available
via UNICEF.
STATELESS PERSONS
A stateless person is someone who does not have a nationality recognised by any country. Some
examples are:

Palestinian people living in Palestine/ Israel

Ethnic Chinese people living in Brunei

Rohingya in Myanmar

Kurds in Syria / Feili Kurds in Iraq

Nubians in Kenya

Biharis in Bangladesh.

More information
UNHCR - Stateless People: Searching for Citizenship

For more footage on the plight of Myanmar's Rohingya people watch the clip
on AlJazeera or France24 news.