Refugees
The Refugee
To be designated as a refugee is to receive a coveted legal status by the UNHCR which saves your life. To receive it means that your life was a risk had you not fled across the border of your country seeking refuge. Refugees are people without home, country, and, often, hope. 15.2 Million people world-wide are refugees.
The Refugee Decade
Imagine losing your home, country, livelihood, and loved ones. Now imagine living the next 10 years in a temporary, crowded camp setting with only the most rudimentary basics of life, spending your days just waiting. Waiting….for someone else to determine your future. Year after year. This is the Refugee Decade. Of the 15.2 million refugees, 8.1 million have been warehoused 10 or more years.
Refugee Resettlement
The light at the end of the Refugee Decade is Resettlement. When all hope of return to their home country is gone, the UNHCR resettles refugees to a third country to make a new life. Annually, less than 1% of warehoused refugees will get a chance to be resettled to a third country. Each year, the US State Department agrees to resettle about 70,000 refugees across the United States. In 2009, 800 refugees were officially resettled to Fort Wayne. Approximately twice that number of refugees were resettled to cities elsewhere, but then moved to Fort Wayne (secondary migration). They hope Fort Wayne is a refuge where they can begin to reclaim the 10 years they have lost.
TRP is working to ensure Fort Wayne remains a place of refuge by promoting the successful integration of refugees and the existing Fort Wayne community.
recent comments