What is a refugee?

A refugee is someone who fled their country to seek refuge in other countries. The most common reasons for seeking refuge are war, natural calamities, political inabilities, persecution, and violence. These people fled their country, risked their lives, and started from scratch so that they and their families could have a better shot at life.

What is Refugee Week and why is it celebrated?

Refugee Week is a UK-based programme founded in 1998 and held every year since then. It started as a programme celebrating the refugees who found refuge in the UK. Now, this movement has spread across the world.

Refugee Week 2022 is dedicated from the 20th of June to the 26th of June, with the intent of bringing awareness about the horrific past of the refugees and the challenges they are facing while looking for security. Refugee Week celebrates struggling refugees with diverse art, culture, sports, and educational events. This helps people from different backgrounds, cultures, and struggles to connect and help each other. , the Refugee week has a different theme; this

Refugee Week 2022 theme

Every year the Refugee week has a different theme and this year’s theme was ‘Healing’. The Refugee Week website explains the intention of the theme as a “celebration of community, mutual care and the human ability to start again. 

Trying to elaborate on the importance of this week, the website says, “Healing means recovering from a painful experience or situation so that we can continue to live. No one understands this better than those who have lost their homes and had to build new lives from scratch.”

Moreover, the website, while trying to appeal to people to join the programme, adds, “Whether it’s about looking after ourselves and each other at difficult times, overcoming political divisions or coming together to fight for the survival of our shared planet, healing matters to all of us. Whoever and wherever you are, we hope you’ll join us for Refugee Week 2022 to imagine a world where healing replaces harm, and care becomes our shared currency.”

Current Refugees situation

According to the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees(UNHCR), by the end of 2018, 70.8 Million people were displaced and 37000 people were displaced every day 2018. The displacement rate doubled in 20 years.

The most concerning fact about the refugee crisis is that only 16% of the world's refugees are hosted by Developed and rich countries and the other refugees move to their neighboring countries. A large population of refugees is hosted by the poorest countries in the world. 

People risk their lives trying to find a better home for their kids. They have to build their homes and lives from scratch after being forced to abandon the lives that they already had, only to make minimum wages in the countries in which they seek refuge in. Apart from that, most countries make it very hard for them to live peacefully. Xenophobia, Racism, discrimination, and violence are just some ugly truths of the living conditions of the refugees. Making people aware of these horrors and their challenges might make them sympathize with the refugees, hoping we could make it at least better for them.

Written by Rutuja Kawade