(Sources: UNHCR 2003 Global Refugee Trends report. All figures are as at the end of 2003.)

The global number of refugees reached an estimated 9.7 million persons at the end of 2003 – this is a decrease of nine per cent since the beginning of 2003 when 10.6 million refugees were reported.
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Africa hosted 30 per cent of the global refugee population in 2003. Central
Asia, south west Asia, north Africa and the Middle East also hosted 30 per cent of the global refugee population. Europe hosted 25 per cent of all refugees, followed by Asia and the Pacific (eight per cent) and the Americas
(six per cent).
 About half the world’s refugees are female.
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During 2003, a total number of 807,000 first instance or appeal applications for asylum or refugee status were submitted to governments or UNHCR offices in 141 countries.

In 2003, almost 26,000 refugees were resettled from first asylum countries with UNHCR assistance.
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The total population of concern to UNHCR fell from 20.8 million people at the end of 2002, to 17.1 million at the end of 2003. Refugees make up 57 per cent of the total population of concern.
(Sources: UNHCR and Tearfund)
Refugees : Newly arrived refugees normally receive food, shelter and a place of safety from the host country. They are protected by international laws and conventions. The
UN and humanitarian organisations work within this framework to help refugees restart their lives in a new state or eventually return home.
IDPs: IDPs often face a far more difficult future. They may be trapped in an ongoing internal conflict. The domestic government, which may view the uprooted people as
‘enemies of the state,’ retains ultimate control over their fate. IDPs are not covered by the same international laws as refugees, and general agreements such as the
Geneva Convention are often difficult to apply.
Gaining refugee status: Formal refugee status is only granted to those who can prove they have a well-founded fear of being persecuted if they went home. The process of gaining refugee status is lengthy, and there is no guarantee of success. Before refugee

status is granted, refugees do not qualify for any welfare and cannot work legally.
They are usually desperately poor as a result. If refugee status is denied, they have no legal rights or access to services.
Returnees : Many refugees return voluntarily to their countries when conditions have improved. These countries are often still unsafe for certain groups and have little infrastructure. Voluntary repatriation is encouraged as the best solution for displaced people by the UNHCR, who often provide transportation and a start-up package to aid return.
Resettlement: Some refugees are unable or unwilling to return home. UNHCR helps these people to find new homes either in the asylum country where they are living or in a third country where they can be permanently resettled. Fewer than 20 nations worldwide participate in UNHCR resettlement programmes and accept quotas of refugees on an annual basis.
World’s largest refugee camp closes in Ethiopia
(Information taken from UNHCR website)
Hartisheik was once the largest refugee camp in Ethiopia, hosting a quarter of a million Somalis. Today the camp stands deserted, its last inhabitants leaving for home. The last UNHCR convoy left the camp on 30 June 2004 with 719 Somali refugees, crossing the border into Hargeisa in north-western Somalia, also known as
Somaliland. The camp has seen a total of 230,147 refugees return home on UNHCR convoys since April 1997.
Hundreds of thousands of Somalis fled to Hartisheik amid the collapse of the Siad
Barre government in 1988 and clan warfare in the early 1990s. The first refugees arrived in appalling conditions; many died of exhaustion, hunger and lack of water.
UNHCR mobilised emergency assistance in the remote region, setting up camps, digging wells and offering medical services. At its peak, Hartisheik hosted more than
250,000 refugees.
Somaliland has high unemployment, illiteracy and infant mortality rates, and is struggling to cope with the returning refugees.
Iraq – an overview of the refugee situation
(Information taken from UNHCR website)
Many Iraqis welcomed the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime last year. More than a million Iraqis for the first time were able to make the pilgrimage to the Shiite shrine of Karbala. Some Iraqis sought out long-lost relatives – sadly many found only unmarked mass graves.
The collapse of the regime also left a power vacuum, resulting in widespread looting accompanied by the loss of many public services.

Four million Iraqis were living abroad, many under the protection of UNHCR, and could now face the realistic possibility of returning home. UNHCR’s offices in the region are planning for the phased repatriation of more than a million Iraqis once the situation in the country has stabilised.
There are also refugees in Iraq from countries such as Palastine and Iran, who once enjoyed the protection of the Iraqi government. They are now facing harassment and eviction by their Iraqi hosts. UNHCR is trying to help these people, many of whom are now trying to leave Iraq altogether. Many newly displaced Palestinians are sheltering in Baghdad and Jordan, where they are being assisted by UNHCR, who are also negotiating with Iran to open borders for refugees wanting to return home.
Iraq’s 25 million residents face many difficulties ahead, but despite this most people appear to be ready to wait and look forward to a new, vibrant, post-conflict Iraq.
Statistics (existing refugees):
Iraq shelters more than 128,000 refugees. Of these, 90,000 are Palestinian refugees, and 23,6000 are Iranian. The third largest refugee population is the Turkish refugees, of which there are 9,300. Over the last 12 years, UNHCR has helped more than 6,700 refugees in Iraq to resettle to third countries.
Statistics (Iraqi returnees)
In 1999, Iraq declared an Amnesty Decree to protect returning refugees from prosecution if they had not sought the necessary permission to the leave the country in the first place. The amnesty has encouraged some Iraqis to return. In 2001, 202,000
Iraqi refugees in Iran returned to Iraq after a bilateral agreement on voluntary repatriation was signed by the Baghdad government and the Iranian authorities. In
2003, 675 Iraqi Kurds were reported to have returned to Iraq from Iran, joined by 108
Iraqis from Saudi Arabia’s Rafha refugee camp.
(Information taken from UNHCR, 29 July 2004)
Flooding in Bangladesh, which has already killed more than 450 people, left millions homeless and at one point submerged two-thirds of the country, is due to continue if aggravated by further monsoon rains. The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society says that as the monsoon has only just begun, it is likely that flooding will get worse.
On 27 July the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society launched an international appeal to raise 3.2 million dollars, half of which was raised in two days. The World Food
Programme has provided 700 tonnes of food to be distributed along with follow-up relief from the Red Crescent over the next couple of weeks.
In Dhaka, nearly two-thirds of the city is submerged under the water which is contaminated by the collapse of the sewer system. The thousands of flood victims in the city are desperate for clean water and food.

The flooding in Bangladesh hasn’t been this bad since 1998, when flood waters left more than 700 people dead and 21 million homeless.
Bangladesh is a low-lying country covered by a network of 230 rivers. Flooding occurs annually due to monsoon rains and melting ice from the Himalayas.
BMS World Mission will be making a grant from its Relief Fund to aid victims of the flooding. The amount is to be confirmed, and will be made through the Bangladesh
Baptist Church Sangha (BBCS). A previous grant of £5,000 was made earlier this year. http://www.bmsworldmission.org/20040729n – follow this link for information on what BMS is doing about the situation in Bangladesh.
BMS has, at the core of its mission, a commitment to share life in all its fullness with the world’s peoples by alleviating suffering and injustice and improving the quality of life. Refugees, displaced peoples and similar groups are often in the most urgent need of BMS assistance. BMS relief, development, education and medical work are thus often undertaken in areas such as Bangladesh and Sudan among displaced or refugee people groups.