Refugees: by the numbers (Bloggers unite to aid refugees day)

Today Bloggers Unite and Refugees United have come together in to support, raise money for and spread awareness of the millions of refugees around the world.

Driven from their homes by war, natural disasters, genocide, and persecution, refugees have lost more than just a place to call home. They're frequently deprived of basic human rights such as:

• the right to physical safety
• the right to food, water, and sanitation
• the right to work
• the right to own property
• the right to legal representation and access to courts
  
• the right to move freely outside encampments
• the right to learn the fate of family members
• the right to be reunited with family members
• the right to determine their own futures

Refugees by the numbers

• 14 million - the number of refugees worldwide. (Source)
• 24.5 million - the number of internally displaced people (IDP). (Source)
• 1 in 500 - number of refugees in world population. (Source)
• 1 in 250 - number of IDP in the world population. (Source)
• 10,000 - projected number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children detained by U.S. authorities in 2008. (Source)
• 4,600 - number of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children detained by U.S. authorities in 2000. (Source)
• 4 million - number of IDPs in Sudan, the largest IDP population in the world.

• 14,000 - number of Sudanese refugees living in Djabal camp in the deserts of eastern Chad. (Source)
• 80 - the percentage of all refugees that are women and children. (Source)
• 2.5-3.5 million - estimated number of refugees with physical, sensory or mental disabilities. (Source)
• 
• 2 million - the number of Iraqi refugees in neighboring countries in the five years since the U.S.-led invasion. (Source)
• 2.7 million - number of internally displaced Iraqis in the five years since the U.S.-led invasion. (Source
• 400 - number of individual reports of physical abuse by U.S. Border Patrol over the past two years from migrants in custody on the Arizona/Sonora border. (Source)
• 1951 - date of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the key legal document defining refugee status and rights and the legal obligations of signatory states.
• 143 - number of countries which had ratified the UN Convention as of 1 March 2006. (Source)
• Sept. 11, 2001 - date after which many countries passed emergency legistlation curtailing the rights of refugees. (Source)
• 8,536,500 - number of refugees who are "warehoused" in refugee camps that have been in existence for 10 years or more. (Source)
• 280,000 - the number of people the U.S. government detained in jails and other facilities last year, more than triple the number of people in detention just nine years ago. (Source)

Take Action:

• Detention Watch Network
• Refugees International
• UNHCR-The UN Refugee Agency
• USCRI - US Comittee for Refugees and Immigrants

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