Refugee Definition In World History
It was a few years after the second world war.
Refugee definition in world history. Refugees are people who have fled war violence conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. Its temporal scope however was explicitly restricted to world war ii and the subsequent persecutions the definition of a refugee refers to events occurring before 1 january 1951. They often have had to flee with little more than the clothes on their back leaving behind homes possessions jobs and loved ones. The conflict in syria has now displaced 12 million people creating the largest wave of refugees to hit europe since.
A refugee is someone who due to a well founded fear of persecution war or violence has been forced to flee their home country. Indeed an early use of refugee specifically referred to a band of loyalist guerillas from westchester county new york who fought for the british during the american revolution. Within a decade refugee was being used more generally in english to refer to anyone who was forced to flee to a place of safety often because of danger or persecution because of religious or political beliefs. Refugee any uprooted homeless involuntary migrant who has crossed a frontier and no longer possesses the protection of his or her former government.
A refugee generally speaking is a displaced person who has been forced to cross national boundaries and who cannot return home safely. Some say the term was invented during the end of the second world war to refer to the people that were displaced by the fighting and by the holocaust including jews prisoners of war and those whose cities have been reduced to rubble. History of the term refugee and definition there is some debate to when and where the term refugee first originated. The legal definition of the term refugee was set out in the 1951 un convention on the status of refugees.
Prior to the 19th century the movement from one country to another did not require passports and visas. A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return to that country because of persecution based on the person s race religion nationality membership in a particular social group or political opinion war or violence. In addition states could opt to consider only europeans as refugees in the sense of the refugee convention. Unhcr in the field.
The right to asylum was commonly recognized and honoured. Refugees are defined and protected in international law.