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Home Learn about Refugees

Learn More about Refugees PDF Print E-mail

In 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported 9.9 million refugees world wide. A refugee is a person who, "owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership 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." (1951 Convention on Refugees)

The UNHCR also reported 12.8 million IDPs (internally displaced persons, ie. refugees who have not left their country but who are fleeing their normal residence) for 2006. Along with smaller categories for stateless persons, returned IDPs, asylum seekers, etc., the total number of persons of concern for the UNHCR in 2006 was 32.9 million.

In 2005, Canada accepted for resettlement 10,400 refugees out of the worldwide acceptance total of 80,796.

 

Myths About Refugees

MYTH: Canada respects the rights of all refugees and immigrants living in Canada.

Canadians are rightly proud of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our human rights commitments, but our record is not spotless. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly criticized Canada for its slowness in reuniting refugee families.

MYTH: Canada has more difficulty intergrating newcomers today than a century ago. Immigrants are now more diverse.

Fears about immigrant integration are not new.  Generation after generation, people have worried about whether the most recent immigrants will integrate as well as previous immigrants.

MYTH: Refugee claimants pose threats to Canada's security.

Refugee claimants are not threats to security – they are seeking security and protection from threats to their own lives.

MYTH: Canada does more than its share to assist refugees and asylum seekers when compared to other countries.

On the contrary, international law recognizes that refugees often have no choice but to enter a country of asylum illegally.

MYTH: Real refugees are those who wait in refugee camps overseas. Those who make a claim in Canada jump the line and are not as deserving.

Refugees are people who have been forced from their homes by human rights abuses. All refugees have a right to protection, wherever they are.
©2006-2011 Micah House Refugee Reception Services