Where in the World Is the Refugee Crisis? – Urban Christian News

A look at the people called “refugees” and the places they live

Daniel still remembers the screams — sharp cries, punctuated by the sound of gunfire. He remembers the way the ground cut his feet as he ran from the village. The scars are still there, physically and emotionally. They remind him of the day the militia came to his home … the day that changed his life forever.

Daniel is just one of the 65 million refugees around the world who have lost everything. Like most refugees, Daniel lived a relatively normal life before the militia arrived. He had a family, friends, and a home. He helped out in his village by pulling weeds and tilling the soil. He was just a normal 12-year-old boy living in South Sudan.

But like most refugees, normal came to an abrupt end when he was forced to leave everything behind.

The dictionary defines a refugee as “one that flees.” This broad definition does little to describe why people leave and where they go. Each refugee’s story is unique; however, they all have one thing in common: they have all been uprooted from their homes and they are all desperate for help.

What makes a refugee?

You’ve probably heard a few different terms when it comes to describing the global refugee crisis. You may wonder what the difference is between a refugee and an asylum seeker. Or perhaps, what does it mean when the media talks about displaced people?

In 1951, the United Nations held a Refugee Convention; 145 state parties agreed that a refugee was someone who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,…