USAGM networks mark World Refugee Day
On World Refugee Day, USAGM networks introduced audiences around the world to some of the 82.4 million people that the U.N. estimates had been forcibly displaced from their homes, the highest number on record.
A desperately ill child sets out for medical treatment. A Coast Guard officer keeps watch overnight. An Iraqi becomes an American. They are among the people chronicled in Voice of America’s new feature-length documentary, “A Day in the Life of Refugees.” The 96-minute film documentary brought together more than 100 contributors and stories from more than 30 countries.
From Shire, Ethiopia, a historical commercial city in the northern Tigray region, VOA takes a closer look at some of the many camps created to house the region’s roughly 2 million displaced people in a photo essay, In Pictures: World Refugee Day: No Safe Haven in Tigray.
Portraits of famous refugees adorn the walls of the annex building of the United Nations Refugee Agency in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, including. Among the most famous is Somali-American supermodel Iman, who became a refugee in 1972, Jamaican singer Bob Marley and Hong Kong-born film actor Jackie Chan. The UNHCR says Cameroon is home to close to half a million refugees, mostly from Nigeria and the Central African Republic.
VOA also looked at the differences between refugee, asylum-seeker and an internally displaced person. According to 2020 data from the U.N., at least 79.5 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Meanwhile, VOA reported that millions of refugees face hunger as donor support withers.
The Middle East Broadcasting Networks’ Alhurra Television explained to its audiences in the Middle East and North Africa the plight of refugees in the area and explained in Arabic-language what is being done.
More than 250,000 Syrian refugees are living in Kurdistan (Iraq) in desperation from returning to their homes. This comes as the UNHC confirms to continue providing them humanitarian aid.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, in addition to about 190,000 Palestinian refugees. Human rights organizations warn of the refugee situation in Lebanon, which is exacerbated by the financial crisis.
The Palestinian refugees in northwestern Syria suffer from a difficult living situation due to the repercussions of the war that has been going on for 10 years.
And more than 20,000 Ethiopian refugees live in the Umm Rakoba camp in eastern Sudan, in difficult humanitarian conditions, and considering a continuous influx of more refugees. Sudanese and international humanitarian organizations are calling for increased international support for their work to continue providing food and health assistance to refugees.