UN World Refugee Day

Did you know that every minute of the day 20 people leave their homes to escape war or terror? World Refugee Day is a day when we can support and celebrate the strength and courage of millions of refugees worldwide.

Instructions

Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises.

Preparation

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Across the world there are currently over 65 million people who have had to leave their homes. Some have settled in new countries; many more are living in refugee camps, waiting for it to be safe enough to go home or to be resettled in a different country. The United Nations decided that refugees should have a special day, when we think of them and show our support. The first World Refugee Day was on 20 June 2001 and it’s been celebrated every year since then.

A refugee crisis

Sixty-five million people means that nearly one in 100 people in the world is a displaced person or refugee. We are now facing the worst refugee crisis in history. The number of refugees has doubled in the last twenty years. The situation is clearly worse in some countries than in others. Fifty-five per cent of refugees worldwide come from Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan. Since the start of the war, more than 5.6 million Syrians have escaped the country and 6.1 million are still living in Syria but have had to leave their homes. Around half of these 11 million people are children.

The aim of World Refugee Day

A refugee crisis on this scale is difficult to deal with, but the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, reminds us that ‘the problems are war and hatred, not people who flee.’ World Refugee Day is about raising awareness of the situation and showing the refugees that together we can work to end the crisis and help displaced people to find safe and happy homes.

What happens on World Refugee Day?

There are a lot of events on 20 June in different countries. Many famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Empire State Building in New York, are covered in blue lights, the colour of the United Nations. In Glasgow, Scotland, people hold hands to form an enormous human chain around George Square, in the city centre, to ‘show the world that Scotland welcomes refugees’. In many places there are film showings, exhibitions and various fundraising events.

What you can do to help

A few years ago, the United Nations started a petition, #WithRefugees, for people worldwide to ask their governments to support refugees. So far nearly 2 million people have signed the petition. Many people also write letters to their governments or make a donation to a charity that supports refugees. So, what will you do?

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

Did you learn anything new about World Refugee Day?

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Language level

B1 - Intermediate

Topics

special days

I started to notice that refugees are growing so quickly especially in southeast Asia countries. there are so many conflicts in that region, I can give an example: Rohingya in Myanmar. I have watched it on television about that conflict. many people got persecution because of choosing some religion. so with that situation, they chose to move to another country which can give their safe and clear area. I support the united nations more than just decide a Word Refugee day but also to emphasize many countries to protect refugees lives

Many people also write letters to their governments or make a donation to a charity that supports refugees. That's the right thing.

petition So far nearly 2 million people have signed the petition hatred the problems are war and hatred, not people who flee

To address refugee issues, we should prevent wars and conflicts, although this is difficult to achieve actually. To increase the understanding and trust between countries is necessary, we should put negotiation first in dispute settlements, try our best to avoid using military methods.

We do not just have to glorify the refugee day and celebrate it for one day only, we do not have to sympathize with them for only one day. We must help them and integrate them with the rest of the people. Countries must unite to stop wars and return the refugees to their homelands .

Yes. I did.

As u Know, refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are forced to leave their countries , actually they are forced to flee and escape the bad situation of their countries such as famine, high inflation , bad politicians who are responsible of their disasters and persecution, I think they are absolutely innocent and they are not problems , the problems are different wars and hatred , they are facing ,bad economic situation and bad levels of life styles , war and sanction which are quite difficult to deal with. recently we are living under sanction and we might have to be refugees couple of years later, but your question is how we could change the ways to see them . I think we should encourage people to study more and more about considering the the economists opinions as for the refugees , all the economists refutes the idea of being refugees in a country cause a financial burden for that country ,they all contradict this idea, they all admit that refugees affect the sustainability and strength of the country economy they help to improve a countrys economy . we should share the clips and film showings which show that refugees could be entrepreneurs in a country and drop the unemployment , as u know many countries nowadays welcome foreign investments of them and we should arrange campaigns to encourage people change ways to see them. they deserve to have a better situation in a better country. we should celebrate the world refugee day .we all must escalate sympathy feelings . we have to raise our knowledge of the situation to solve the crisis to accept them as human beings and they must be in welfare, and happy homes without any stress. best wishes for u all Mehrazin

really you determined the right thing to do with refugees in any country in the world.

The view of refugees is often based on norms and prejudice, we see at them as distracting for the country. Several countries close there border and even build walls to prevent them from passing through. There is no need to blame refugees because the majority of them a good people like me and you.

I think that the citizenship of the word can be the solution, if we delate all nationalities, the life of refugees will be easier.

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