Editing Refugee (section)

==UN Refugee Agencies==
{{Main|United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|United Nations Relief & Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East}}
{{More citations needed section|date=February 2010}}

=== UNHCR ===
[[File:South Africa-Xenophobia-001.jpg|thumb|UNHCR tents at a refugee camp following episodes of [[Xenophobia in South Africa|xenophobic violence]] and rioting in [[South Africa]], 2008]]
Headquartered in [[Geneva]], Switzerland, the Office of the [[United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees]] (UNHCR) was established on 14 December 1950.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of UNHCR |url=https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/overview/history-unhcr |access-date=2024-10-18 |website=UNHCR |language=en}}</ref> It protects and supports refugees at the request of a government or the [[United Nations]] and assists in providing durable solutions, such as [[voluntary return|return]] or [[third country resettlement|resettlement]]. All refugees in the world are under UNHCR mandate except [[Palestinian refugees]], who fled the current state of [[Israel]] between 1947 and 1949, as a result of the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]]. These refugees are assisted by the [[United Nations Relief and Works Agency]] (UNRWA). UNHCR also provides protection and assistance to other categories of displaced persons: asylum seekers, refugees who [[voluntary return|returned home voluntarily]] but still need help rebuilding their lives, local civilian communities directly affected by large refugee movements, [[statelessness|stateless]] people and so-called [[internally displaced people]] (IDPs), as well as people in refugee-like and IDP-like situations. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and to resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to [[asylum seeker|seek asylum]] and find safe refuge in another state or territory and to offer "durable solutions" to refugees and refugee hosting countries.

=== UNRWA  ===
[[File:Nur Shams Camp 003.jpg|thumb|Eastern part of UNRWA-run [[Nur Shams]] Palestine refugee camp (2019)]]
Unlike other refugee groups, the UN created a specific entity called the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the aftermath of the war in 1948, which led to a serious refugee crisis in the Arab region, and was responsible for the displacement of 700,000 Palestinian refugees. This number has gone up to at least 5 million refugees in the last 70 years.<ref name="UNRWA Palestine">{{Cite web|title=Palestine refugees|url=https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees|access-date=2021-12-19|website=UNRWA|language=en}}</ref> 


The United Nations defines Palestinian refugees as "persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict."<ref name="UNRWA Palestine" /> 

The population of Palestinian refugees continues to grow due to multiple UNRWA reclassifications of what is considered to be a refugee. "In 1965, UNRWA changed the eligibility requirements to be a Palestinian refugee to include third-generation descendants, and in 1982, it extended it again, to include all descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children, regardless of whether they had been granted citizenship elsewhere. This classification process is inconsistent with how all other refugees in the world are classified, including the definition used by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the laws concerning refugees in the United States."<ref>{{Cite web|title=UNRWA has changed the definition of refugee|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/17/unrwa-has-changed-the-definition-of-refugee/ |website=Foreign Policy|date=17 August 2018 |language=en |access-date=2024-02-03}}</ref> 

Another refugee wave started in 1967 after the Six-day-War, where mostly Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank were victims of displacement.<ref name="Ḥanafī" /> According to the United Nations, Palestinian refugees struggle with access to health care, food, clean water, sanitation, environmental health and infrastructure, education, and technology.<ref name="UNRWA 2016">{{Cite web|title=Medium Term Strategy 2016-2021|url=https://www.unrwa.org/resources/strategy-policy/medium-term-strategy-2016-2021|access-date=2021-12-19|website=UNRWA|language=en}}</ref> According to the report, food, shelter, and environmental health are a human's basic needs.<ref name="UNRWA 2016" /> United Nations agency UNRWA (The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) focuses on addressing these issues to relieve Palestinians from any harm. UNRWA was established as a temporary agency that would carry out a humanitarian response mandate for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sahlieh|first1=S. Aldeeb Abu|last2=Schiff|first2=Benjamin N.|date=1996|title=Refugees unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians.|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2547407|journal=International Migration Review|volume=30|issue=2|pages=610|doi=10.2307/2547407|jstor=2547407|s2cid=150244760 |issn=0197-9183|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The responsibilities for the assistance for protection for Palestinian refugees and human development were originally left to the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP). This agency failed to function, which led the agency to stop working.<ref name="Ḥanafī">{{Cite book |last1=Ḥanafī |first1=Sārī |last2=Hilal |first2=Leila |last3=Takkenberg |first3=Alex |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/842364630|title=UNRWA and Palestinian refugees : from relief and works to human development |year=2014 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780415715041 |oclc=842364630}}</ref> UNRWA took over these responsibilities and expanded their mandate from just humanitarian emergency relief to including human development and protection of the Palestinian society.<ref name="Ḥanafī" /> Communication with host countries where UNRWA is operating (Syria, Jordan and Lebanon) is very important as the agency's mandate changes per region.<ref name="UNRWA Work">{{Cite web |title=Where We Work UNRWA |url=https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work |access-date=2021-12-19 |website=UNRWA |language=en}}</ref> UNRWA's Medium Term Strategy is a report that lists all the issues that the Palestinians are facing and UNRWA's plan to mitigate the severeness of the issues. The report shows that UNRWA focuses mostly on food assistance, health care, education and shelter for Palestinian refugees.<ref name="UNRWA 2016" /> UNRWA has succeeded in placing over 700 schools with over 500,000 students, 140 health centers, 113 women community centers, and has awarded over 475,000 loans.<ref name="UNRWA Work" /> UNRWA's funding relies mostly on voluntary donations. Fluctuations in these donations result in constraints in carrying out the mandate.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bocco |first=R. |date=2009-01-01 |title=UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugees: A History within History |journal=Refugee Survey Quarterly |volume=28 |issue=2–3 |pages=229–252 |doi=10.1093/rsq/hdq001 |issn=1020-4067 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Acute and temporary protection ===

====Refugee camp====
[[File:Refugee camp in Guinea.jpg|thumb|A camp in [[Guinea]] for refugees from [[Sierra Leone]] ]]
[[File:Refugee camp.jpg|thumb|Refugee camp in the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]]]]
{{Main|Refugee camp}}
A refugee camp is a place built by [[government]]s or [[Non-governmental organization|NGOs]] (such as the [[International Committee of the Red Cross|Red Cross]]) to receive refugees, [[internally displaced person]]s or sometimes also other migrants. It is usually designed to offer acute and temporary accommodation and services and any more permanent facilities and structures often banned. People may stay in these camps for many years, receiving emergency food, education and medical aid until it is safe enough to return to their country of origin. There, refugees are at risk of disease, child soldier and terrorist recruitment, and physical and sexual violence. There are estimated to be 700 refugee camp locations worldwide.<ref>{{cite web|title=The UN Refugee Agency|url=http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home|access-date=2015-12-18|publisher=UNHCR}}</ref>

====Urban refugee====
{{Main|Urban refugee}}
Not all refugees who are supported by the UNHCR live in refugee camps. A significant number, more than half, live in urban settings,{{sfn|Learn}} such as the ~60,000 Iraqi refugees in Damascus (Syria),{{sfn|Dehghanpisheh|2013}}<!-- as of 2015, Kenyan government requires refugees to reside in camps --> and the ~30,000 Sudanese refugees in Cairo (Egypt).{{sfn|Mahmoud}}

=== Durable solutions ===
The residency status in the host country whilst under temporary UNHCR protection is very uncertain as refugees are only granted temporary visas that have to be regularly renewed. Rather than only safeguarding the rights and basic well-being of refugees in the camps or in urban settings on a temporary basis the UNHCR's ultimate goal is to find one of the three durable solutions for refugees: integration, repatriation, resettlement.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/solutions.html|title=Refugees solutions|website=UNHCR|access-date=26 August 2018}}</ref>

====Integration and naturalisation====
{{Main|Naturalization}}
Local integration is aiming at providing the refugee with the permanent right to stay in the country of asylum, including, in some situations, as a naturalized citizen. It follows the formal granting of refugee status by the country of asylum. It is difficult to quantify the number of refugees who settled and integrated in their first country of asylum and only the number of naturalisations can give an indication.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} In 2014 Tanzania granted citizenship to 162,000 refugees from Burundi and in 1982 to 32,000 Rwandan refugees.{{sfn|Markus|2014}} Mexico naturalised 6,200 Guatemalan refugees in 2001.{{sfn|Goldberg|2001}}

====Voluntary return====
{{Main|Voluntary return}}

Voluntary return of refugees into their country of origin, in safety and dignity, is based on their free will and their informed decision. In the last couple of years parts of or even whole refugee populations were able to return to their home countries: e.g. 120,000 Congolese refugees returned from the Republic of Congo to the DRC,{{sfn|Schmitt|2014a}} 30,000 Angolans returned home from the DRC{{sfn|Schmitt|2014b}} and Botswana, Ivorian refugees returned from Liberia, Afghans from Pakistan, and Iraqis from Syria. In 2013, the governments of Kenya and Somalia also signed a tripartite agreement facilitating the repatriation of refugees from Somalia.{{sfn|Nairobi to open|2014}} The UNHCR and the IOM offer assistance to refugees who want to return voluntarily to their home countries. Many developed countries also have Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) programmes for asylum seekers who want to go back or were [[Asylum seeker#Refusal of asylum|refused asylum]].

====Third country resettlement====
{{Main|Third country resettlement}}

Third country resettlement involves the assisted transfer of refugees from the country in which they have sought asylum to a [[safe third country]] that has agreed to admit them as refugees. This can be for permanent settlement or limited to a certain number of years. It is the third durable solution and it can only be considered once the two other solutions have proved impossible.{{sfn|What is resettlement?}}{{sfn|Resettlement: new beginning}} The UNHCR has traditionally seen resettlement as the least preferable of the "durable solutions" to refugee situations.{{sfn|Understanding Resettlement to|2004}} However, in April 2000 the then UN High Commissioner for Refugees, [[Sadako Ogata]], stated "Resettlement can no longer be seen as the least-preferred durable solution; in many cases it is the ''only'' solution for refugees."{{sfn|Understanding Resettlement to|2004}}

===Internally displaced person===
{{main|Internally displaced person}}

UNHCR's mandate has gradually been expanded to include protecting and providing humanitarian assistance to [[internally displaced persons]] (IDPs) and people in IDP-like situations. These are civilians who have been forced to flee their homes, but who have not reached a neighboring country. IDPs do not fit the legal definition of a refugee under the [[1951 Refugee Convention]], [[Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees|1967 Protocol]] and the [[OAU Convention|1969 Organization for African Unity Convention]], because they have not left their country. As the nature of war has changed in the last few decades, with more and more internal conflicts replacing interstate wars, the number of IDPs has increased significantly.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+ style="text-align: left;" |Comparison between the number of refugees and IDPs who are supported by the UNHCR between 1998 and 2014, and 2022.{{sfn|UNHCR|2015}}

! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|End-year
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|1996
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2000
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2002
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2004
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2006
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2008
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2010
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2012
! scope="col" style="width: 90px;"|2014
!2022
|-
|Refugees||11,480,900 ||12,129,600 ||10,594,100 ||9,574,800 ||9,877,700 ||10,489,800 ||10,549,700 ||10,498,000 ||14,385,300
|29,429,078<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Refugee Data Finder. Total number of refugees under UNHCR's mandate 2022 |url=https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=G0zTY3}}</ref>
|-
|[[internally displaced person|IDPs]]||5,063,900 ||5,998,500 ||4,646,600 ||5,426,500 ||12,794,300 ||14,442,200 ||14,697,900 ||17,670,400 ||32,274,600
|57,321,197<ref>{{Cite web |title=Refugee Data Finder. Total number of IDPs of concern to UNHCR 2022 |url=https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=ep3QS8}}</ref>
|}