THE REFUGEE — WHO?
Photo Credit: UN REFUGEES AGENCY UK on Twitter
Home is where our souls will forever long to be. The scent of the misty dew reminds us of memories with our loved ones. The touch of our bare feet gives us hope that no matter where we may be, home will always be home.
Unfortunately, how sad is the saying “if wishes were horses, beggars will ride in them”. Everyday, all around the world, people are forced to run for their dear life away from home either individually or in a mass exodus on the basis of race, region, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status Of Refugees. (The 1951 Refugee Convention) defines a Refugee as a person who “owing to a 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 to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country or return there because there is a fear of persecution…”
It is worthy to note that most times the term “Refugee” is confused with an “Economic Migrant” and/or “Internally Displaced Person”. An economic migrant is a person migrating to another country for economic reasons aka greener pasture. while Internally Displaced Persons are persons who though persecuted still remain within their own country and do not cross an international border
For one to attain the term of a Refugee,the reasons for the persecution must be one of the five listed in Article 1 A(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention which are race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group and/or political opinion. Any persecution based on any other ground will not be considered.
Race is used as a big broad family umbrella to include ethnic groups and social groups of common descent.
Religion while also used in its broad sense includes identification with a group that tends to share common traditions, spiritual sentiments, or beliefs, as well as the active practice of the religion.
Nationality is the individual’s citizenship.
A particular Social Group refers to people who share similar backgrounds, habits or social status. This reason sometimes intersects with persecution based on one of the other four grounds. It can apply and has applied to landowners, capitalists and their families, the LGBTQIA+ community , entrepreneurs and former members of the military.
Political opinion refers to voiced sentiments that speak ill of the authorities, which by extension includes opinions that criticizes the government policies and its methods. Persons who hide their political opinions until after they have fled their countries may qualify for the Refugee status if they can show that their views were and still likely to subject them to persecution if they return home.
The nitty gritty of these definitions most times only matter when countries and institutions attempt to determine who is and who is not a refugee as it is important to properly investigate and establish that their fear (of persecution) is well founded and an asylum seeker a person seeking for refugee status in an another country) needs to go through a legal due diligence process in which the host country makes a decision if the asylum seeker qualifies for the refugee status.
However, during a mass evacuation, it may not be possible for the host country to carry out individual procedure, rather a “group” due diligence will be done and they will be given the refugee status in the absence of proof to the contrary especially when civilians are/were running for similar reasons.
To know more about who a refugee is, check out UN Refugee Agency UK as they have published “The Refugee Dictionary”.
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