REFUGEES

The term refugee means people who are forced to abandon their land due to war, fear of persecution  religion, race, nationality or membership of a particular social group, violence and natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. About four out of five of the refugees are from developing countries and they generally move to neighboring countries which can provide civil rights, the right to work and access to social services. However, most of the refugees have not accessed these rights yet.

All refugees can seek asylum in any of 147 countries over the world based on laws. These countries should supply free shelter, food and healthcare. However, about one-third of refugees still live in refugee camps. These camps are generally located in the poorest and infertile parts of the country. Refugees do not have any work  to maintain their lives or any field to do agriculture either. They usually get insufficient food aid which is enough for only one meal per day from the host country.

On the other hand, refugees have lots of impacts such as economic, social and security impacts on societies. Refugees may cause the prices and cost of living to rise in the host countries because the demand for food increases. Moreover, when refugees receive better social services than local citizens, this may lead to the increase of social tension between refugees and host citizens. Refugees may also cause a  rise in communicable diseases in the area.

To sum up, wars, persecution, violence and natural disasters force refugees to flee their homes. Although they have civil rights, the right to work and access social services, host governments have not provided these for them yet. Many refugees still have poor living conditions in camps because host countries think that when they give them better social services than local citizens this causes a rise of social tension. However, refugees are  human too. They are forced to leave their homes and they have a right to have a good life. For these reasons, governments should take some steps to provide this.