Basic
Definitions
This section answers the following questions:
Who is a refugee?
What are the key legal documents?
What is refugee status?
How is the term misused?
What makes a refugee different?
What other people are of concern to UNHCR?
Who is
a refugee?
A
refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear
of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group, or political opinion,
is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to
or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the
protection of that country…"
Article 1, The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
The most important parts of the refugee
definition are:
- Refugees have to be outside their country
of origin;
- The reason for their flight has to be a fear
of persecution;
- The fear of persecution has to be well-founded
- The
persecution has to result from one or more of the
5 grounds listed in the definition, that is race, religion,
nationality,
membership of a particular social group, or political
opinion;
- They have to be unwilling or unable to seek the protection
of their country.
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What are
the key legal documents?
The 1951
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is the key
legal document in defining who is a refugee,
their
rights
and the legal obligations of states. The 1967 Protocol
removed geographical and temporal restrictions
from the Convention.
Further information on the 1951
Convention.
Copy of the 1951 Convention
and 1967 Protocol (pdf 268Kb).
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What is refugee
status?
Many States party
to the 1951 Convention also have refugee status determination
procedures, to determine
the person's
status in accordance with the domestic legal system.
UNHCR offers advice to governments on refugee status
determination
as part of its mandate to promote refugee law and
Convention. UNHCR advocates that governments adopt
a rapid, flexible
and liberal process, recognising how difficult
it often is to document
persecution.
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How is the
term 'refugee' misused?
The
term has slipped into common usage to cover a range of people,
including those displaced by
natural
disaster
or
environmental change. Refugees are often confused
with other migrants.
In international law, the
term 'refugee' has a specific meaning and is NOT to
be confused with 'economic refugee'.
Economic Refugee
This
term is not correct. The accurate description of people who
leave their country or place of residence
because they
want to seek a better life is 'economic migrant'.
Economic
Migrant
Migrants make a conscious choice
to leave their country of origin and can return there without
a problem.
If things
do not work out as they had hoped or if they get
homesick, it
is safe for them to return home.
Illegal Immigrant
Illegal
immigrants are
people who enter a country without meeting legal requirements
for entry, or
residence.
On the other hand,
refugees often arrive with ‘barest necessities’ and
without personal documents. Often governments refuse
to issue passports to known political dissidents
or imprison them if
they apply. Refugees may not be able to obtain
the necessary documents when trying to escape and
may
have no choice
but to resort to illegal means of escape. Therefore
although the
only means of escape for some may be illegal entry
and/or the use of false documentation, if the person
has a well-founded
fear of persecution they should be viewed as a
refugee and
not labeled an 'illegal immigrant'.
The Refugee
Convention says that states should not impose
penalties on individuals coming directly
from
a territory
where their
life or freedom is threatened on account of their
illegal entry. (Article 31) Furthermore, under
Article 14 of
the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the
right to seek and enjoy asylum.
And asylum seekers?
Refugees
should also not be confused with asylum seekers -
the two terms have different legal
definitions. For
the difference
between refugees and asylum seekers, as well
as the definition of other people in need
of different
forms
of international
protection, please see the following section
on what other people are of concern to the
UNHCR.
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What
makes a refugee different?
Refugees
are forced to leave their countries because they have been
persecuted or have
a well-founded fear of persecution.
Refugees run away. They often do not
know where they will end
up. Refugees rarely have the chance to
make plans for their departure such as packing
their personal
belongings
or saying
farewell to loved ones. Many refugees
have experienced severe trauma or have been
tortured.
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What other
people are of concern to the UNHCR?
The term refugee
is a very specific definition covering only people who
have fled their
homeland and sought
sanctuary in a second country. However,
there are millions of people
in
similar desperate circumstances but
who do not legally qualify
as refugees and are therefore not
eligible for normal relief or protection. Increasingly,
UNHCR
has provided
assistance
to some of these groups, including
asylum seekers, internally displaced
persons
(IDPs), returnees
and those in need
of temporary or humanitarian protection.
Asylum
Seekers
An asylum seeker is a person who
has left their country of origin,
has applied
for
recognition
as a refugee
in another
country, and is awaiting a decision
on their application.
Internally
Displaced Persons
An Internally Displaced Person
(IDP) may have been
forced to flee their
home for
the same
reasons as a refugee,
but has
not crossed an internationally
recognised border. Many IDPs
are in refugee-like
situations and
face
the same
problems
as refugees. There are more
IDPs in the world than refugees. Globally,
there are an estimated 20-25
million so-called internally
displaced
persons (IDPs) and
UNHCR helps 6.3 million
of these.
Returnees
UNHCR assists
and monitors the reintegration of
refugees who
have voluntarily returned
to their own countries.
Other forms of Protection
UNHCR
also assists people who have been granted
protection on a group
basis or
on purely
humanitarian grounds,
but who have not been formally recognised as refugees.
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