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World Refugee Day

With nearly 60 million uprooted people, the world is battling the most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War

Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
A mother, displaced by fighting in South Sudan, prepares a meager dinner of cooked water lilies for her daughters. She is one of at least 1.5 million people internally displaced in the world's youngest country. In July 2014, the UN declared South Sudan’s food crisis the worst in the world. The IRC is providing food, water, medical care and other aid. Since the start of this year, the number of people in urgent need of food has almost doubled to 4.6 million people - 40 percent of the country’s population. [Peter Biro/IRC]
By Peter Biro
Published On 22 Jun 2015

With nearly 60 million uprooted people, the world is battling its most serious refugee crisis since the Second World War. Unrelenting conflicts in Syria, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Nigeria have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Desperate people crossing the Mediterranean to Europe are dying at an unprecedented rate. 

Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
In Nigeria, an estimated 1.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes amid attacks by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Last year, the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls drew international attention for a time but the dire humanitarian crisis remains. This woman sought refuge at St. Theresa church in Yola, a poor, dusty city in Nigeria’s Adamawa state, in March this year. [Peter Biro/IRC]
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Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
A boy fetches water in a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq. A grim milestone was reached in 2014 with half of Syria’s 22 million people driven from their homes. Four million of those have fled abroad, mostly to neighbouring countries. The IRC supports Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. [Peter Biro/IRC]
Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
A largely forgotten sectarian war has fragmented Central African Republic, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Last year, 60,000 sought shelter among dilapidated airplanes at the capital Bangui’s international airport. [Peter Biro/IRC]
Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
Military operations against Al-Shabaab, extreme poverty and clan fighting continue to displace people in Somalia, which is slowly emerging from two decades of war. Some 1.1 million remain internally displaced, like these families squatting in a war-damaged public building in the capital Mogadishu. Another million people have fled abroad making Somalia’s the largest displaced population in East Africa. Al-Shabaab once again showed its determination to expand beyond Somalia in April when it attacked Garissa University in Kenya, killing 148 people and injuring dozens more. [Peter Biro/IRC]
Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
In May, 80,000 people fled political unrest in Burundi. The majority of the refugees arrived in a wooded camp called Nyarugusu, across the border in Tanzania. The camp was built in 1996 for refugees fleeing the bloody war in Congo. With 116,000 Burundian and Congolese refugees, it is now 100 percent beyond its capacity. [Peter Biro/IRC]
Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
For over 25 years, millions of people from Myanmar have been forced to flee ethnic persecution, poverty and political repression, most of them crossing the border into neighbouring Thailand. Earlier this year, Thai authorities began to crack down on smugglers transporting Rohingya migrants to Thai camps. As a result, smuggling routes have increased via sea to Malaysia and Indonesia, with as estimated 8,000 migrants feared to be stranded at sea according to IOM. This Burmese girl earns about $2 a day collecting bottles from a garbage dump outside Mae Sot, a town on the Thailand-Myanmar border. [Peter Biro/IRC]
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Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
The Democratic Republic of Congo has struggled with ongoing conflict in its eastern provinces for over 20 years. In the past year alone, 1 million people have been uprooted from their homes. This girl is from the eastern province of North Kivu where 250 men, women and children were murdered between October and December last year. [Peter Biro/IRC]
Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
An estimated 7.6 million people are displaced inside Syria. Some live in camps, like this one in Idlib province. 2014 saw a surge in refugees as 200,000 people fled ISIS advances in the area surrounding the Syrian city of Kobani. Due to risks and limited access, relatively little humanitarian aid is available inside the country. [Peter Biro/IRC]
Peter Biro World refugee day/ DO NOT USE/ RESTRICTED
Afghanistan struggles with nearly one million uprooted people, like this girl in the eastern part of the country. Neighbouring Pakistan hosts over 1.6 million registered Afghans, in what the UN has described as the largest protracted refugee population globally. This time last year, 100,000 people fled from North Waziristan in Pakistan to into Khost and Paktika provinces in south-eastern Afghanistan. [Peter Biro/IRC]