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Refugees

So often the world sits idly by, watching ethnic conflicts flare up, as if these were mere entertainment rather than human beings whose lives are being destroyed. Shouldn't the existence of even one single refugee be a cause for alarm throughout the world?
-- Urkhan Alakbarov

World Refugee Day is an important opportunity to remind us about the ongoing plight of millions of refugees around the world.
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

* "I urge you to celebrate the extraordinary courage
and contributions of refugees past and present."
- Kofi Annan
, UN Secretary-General

The challenge of ending displacement is inseparable from the challenge of establishing and maintaining peace. When wars end, farmers return to their fields; children return to school; violence against women declines; trade and economic activity resume; medical and other services become more accessible, and the international focus changes from relief to development and self-sufficiency. All this makes new wars less likely. It is a virtuous cycle that deserves nurture and support.
-- Kenneth H. Bacon

* "Displaced societies are of value. Their issues are our issues."
-- Cynthia Basinet

" At (UNHCR's) headquarters, I met extraordinary people, men and women, especially from the emergency team, who shared with me their passion, their dedication and their commitment to this organisation and refugees. They told me about the daily difficulties they have to face and also the joy they felt when they managed to save a person whose life was threatened."
- Julien Clerc

"Despite very harsh living conditions and the trauma of what they went through, they [Sudanese refugees] had a lot of dignity"
- Julien Clerc

"Environmental degradation, overpopulation, refugees, narcotics, terrorism, world crime movements, and organized crime are worldwide problems that don't stop at a nation's borders."
-- Warren Christopher

* While every refugee's story is different and their anguish personal, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage – the courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives.
~ Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 2005-

"When food becomes scarce, refugees often turn to desperate measures to feed themselves and their families. We are particularly worried about the health of the refugee population, domestic violence and refugees resorting to illegal employment or even to prostitution, just to put enough food on the table."
~ Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 2005-

Thus, on this World Refugee Day, let us take time to recognize and draw inspiration from these ordinary people who have shown such extraordinary courage – the world's millions of refugees and displaced.~ Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

There are many challenges facing the international community today but few, in my mind, are more pressing than those of finding humanitarian solutions to refugee problems. We talk of regional conflicts, of economic and social crises, of political instability, of abuses of human rights, of racism, religious intolerance, inequalities between rich and poor, hunger, over-population, under-development and. I could go on and on. Each and every one of these impediments to humanity’s pursuit of well-being are also among the root causes of refugee problems.
-- Poul Hartling, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1978-1985

 

* A lasting solution, the possibility to begin a new life, is the only dignified solution for the refugee himself.
-- Poul Hartling, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1978-1985

* “They are safe but they are not in their homes. They are city-less. I think it's just a disaster for everyone."
-- Teri Hatcher

Quotes For Refugees

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Quotes by Refugees

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(Click on * for free 8.5 X 11 PDF to print)

* In countries where people have to flee their homes because of persecution and violence, political solutions must be found, peace and tolerance restored, so that refugees can return home. In my experience, going home is the deepest wish of most refugees.
~ Angelina Jolie

“Refugees have done more for my heart and my spirit than I can ever express in words.”
~ Angelina Jolie

 

"Refugees have done more for my heart and my spirit than I can ever express in words."
~ Angelina Jolie

The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass ... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.
~ Mary McCarthy

* I wish to call on you to join hands in the building of a world in which less people will be forced to flee, and in which refugees are protected until they can safely return home one day.
-- Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1990-2000

"Refugee problems may often seem intractable but they are not insoluble. In our experience there are two basic prerequisites for solution: the political will of leaders to tackle the causes and to settle for peace, and international determination to push for peace and then to consolidate it. Consolidating peace means helping societies emerging from war to reintegrate refugees in safety and dignity, to rebuild their institutions - including in the field of justice and human rights - and to resume their economic development."
-- Sadako Ogata, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 1990-2000

* We are all part of the human family and we should be about doing what all good families do - caring for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.
- Dan O'Neill, Founder, Mercy Corps

 

"There are no refugees, no displaced persons here, ... They are our guests and we treat them as such."
~ Mike Turner quotes

* To all the survivors out there, I want them to know that we are stronger and more resilient than we ever knew. We survived, that should be enough but it isn't. We must work hard to become whole again, to fill our soul with love and inspiration, to live the life that was intended for us before it was disrupted by war and horrors, and help rebuild a world that is better than the one we had just left.
- Loung Ung

'Refugees are defined as persons who are outside their country and cannot return owing to a well-founded fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.'
~ United Nations, 1951

Today, I wish that the millions of displaced people would be able to return with the necessary conditions of safety and dignity, that people in exile could return to their home-country as the intelligence is needed, that cruelty, political killings, poverty and hunger cease. I wish that our people recover their dignity, truth is revealed and justice exists.
-- Alirio Uribe Muñoz

BetterWorld Heroes Who Were Refugees

In the future, human rights will be increasingly a universal criterion for designing ethical systems.
-- Mahnaz Afkhami

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.
-- Hannah Arendt

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
--Albert Einstein

* We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism. 
-- Rigoberta Menchu, Guatemala Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 1992

We believe that human rights transcend boundaries and must prevail over state sovereignty.
-- José Ramos-Horta

Look at situations as contingent, not as inevitable, look at them as the result of a series of historical choices made by men and women, as facts of society made by human beings, and not as natural or god-given, therefore unchangeable, permanent, irreversible.  
--Edward Said

"I've always been in danger, but I don't mind."
-- Sima Samar

When I arrived in America, though I had left the war physically far behind, in my mind, the soldiers were still chasing to kill me, my stomach was always hungry, and my fear and distrust kept me from opening up to new friendships. I thought the war was over when I left Cambodia, but I realize now that for survivors and all those involved, the war is never over just because the guns have fallen silent.
- Loung Ung

 

REFUGEE
HERO PIX

Kofi Annan | Cynthia Basinet | Antonio Guterres |Poul Hartling
Angelina Jolie | Sadako Ogata | Dan O'Neill | Loung Ung

Refugee Day - June 20

 

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