| Posted 10/22/2009 at 10:45 AM by Cassie D (CDavis) | |
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 ...Did you know?
I discovered this article at 2:30am when normal people are sleeping.....
"Iraqis top list of refugees seeking asylum
For the fourth year in a row, Iraqis top a growing roster of people seeking asylum in an industrialized nation. They are just ahead of people fleeing wars in Afghanistan and Somalia, said a report published by the U.N. refugee agency Wednesday.
"The refugee agency said 13,200 Iraqis applied for asylum. An additional 12,000 claims were from Afghans and 11,000 from Somalis.
"In all, the United Nations said 185,000 people filed for asylum in the first six months of 2009, a 10 percent increase over last year.
"Those people were fleeing homelands that also included China, Serbia (including Kosovo), Russia, Nigeria, Mexico, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"The United States received the most asylum applications -- 23,700, or 13 percent -- while 38 European nations received 75 percent of the applications.
"'These statistics show that ongoing violence and instability in some parts of the world force increasing numbers of people to flee and seek protection in safe countries," said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.
"'There is an acute need for countries to keep their asylum doors wide open to those who are in genuine need of international protection,' he said."
Read this story on the CNN website.
..thoughts?? Please share! |
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| Posted 10/25/2009 at 5:41 PM by Scott M (sminiea) | |
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 Interesting. We really do need a volunteer to compile lots of facts about refugees/asylum seekers/displaced persons. |
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| Posted 10/27/2009 at 9:18 AM by Jasmin M (jmaurer) | |
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 I just got a bunch of links about Middle Eastern refugees from Colleen Kelly (she's my new bff, btw).
As for good resources on refugees from the Middle East, here are some good resources.
The Center for War Torture Survivors is based in St. Louis and run by Jeanne Abbott
http://www.stlcenterforsurvivors.org/site/index.php
Code Pink does a lot of stuff with Iraqi and Afghan women and have some good resources....checking out their website would be really good as well
http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=131
Human Rights First is a good place to go as well
http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=131
Voices for Creative Nonviolence has a lot of writings from a first hand perspective. I really enjoy them and have worked on quite a few campaigns with them. They are based in Chicago and have found them to be a valuable source!
http://vcnv.org/resources-on-iraq
Institute for Policy Studies is amazing and the writers are incredibly intelligent. Their website is a wealth of information. Checking them out would be well worth your while...
http://www.ips-dc.org/ |
Looks like I found myself some light reading for tonight! |
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| Posted 10/27/2009 at 11:05 AM by Scott M (sminiea) | |
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| Awesome! |
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| Posted 11/3/2009 at 7:38 PM by Brett L (brettluebbert) | |
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185,000 people applied for asylum in the first six months of 2009? That is an outrageous number! I think it is also interesting to see which countries these refugees are coming from. A lot of people wouldn't consider China, Russia, and Mexico countries which people would flee from.
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| Posted 11/5/2009 at 4:09 PM by Jasmin M (jmaurer) | |
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Maybe this is just where I live, but I know of a lot of people from China. And Korea.
I knew a girl in college who was actually sent away from China by her parents because she was a second-born daughter and they wouldn't have been able to keep her (she probably would have been killed). I don't recall the full story, but basically she was smuggled out of the country and lives in the US now. Pretty crazy stuff. |
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| Posted 11/5/2009 at 5:47 PM by Scott M (sminiea) | |
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| Totally. Glad to see Brett on the site! Go heartland! |
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| Posted 11/6/2009 at 9:43 AM by Cassie D (CDavis) | |
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Brett L wrote:
185,000 people applied for asylum in the first six months of 2009? That is an outrageous number! I think it is also interesting to see which countries these refugees are coming from. A lot of people wouldn't consider China, Russia, and Mexico countries which people would flee from.
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True that. Isn't it crazy?! The lack of knowledge of the average person in our country has about things like that is, in part, what I refer to as our "American Bubble".... |
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