The United Nations Refugee Agency has a Flickr page with nearly 3000 photos neatly sorted into over 150 sets, most often by country, though sometimes by other themes, such as photos taken by refugee children, life in a refugee camp and mixed migration. There are also news sets, sorted by month. Some of the countries featured are ones that many associate with humanitarian disasters, Timor-Leste, Iraq and The Democratic Republic of Congo, but there are also photosets from countries that few associate with refugees, Panama, Hungary and France.
posted by Kattullus on Sep 17, 2009 - 9 comments

Nearly 2.4 million displaced; mostly in refugee camps where it's about 45 degrees Celsius with no wind. Their economy is devastated."The numbers of people who have moved in that last three and half weeks is the highest rate of movement we have seen for more than 20 years anywhere in the world."
Your tax dollars at work?
posted by adamvasco on May 26, 2009 - 65 comments

"The war has uprooted 4.7 million people from their homes. So where are they?" With the election of Obama and the economic crisis, the topic of Iraq has fallen by the wayside. As hard as things may be right now, Iraqis have been going through far worse for years now. If you're curious about what they have to say, hear them tell it in their own words. Iraqi Refugee Stories. [more inside]
posted by wander on Mar 23, 2009 - 16 comments

Monks Succeed in Cyclone Relief as Junta Falters. In Burma (Myanmar) the Buddhist monks are doing more than anyone to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis. At the same time, Burmese officials are trying to stem the influence of the monks by forcing survivors who have sought refuge in monasteries to return to their shattered homes. [Via Barbara's Buddhism Blog.]
posted by homunculus on Jun 1, 2008 - 26 comments

"Tibetan Refugee" is a documentary by Richard Martini consisting of interviews with Tibetan refugees who have recently fled to Dharamsala, India. It's on YouTube in 5 parts: part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.
posted by homunculus on Mar 23, 2008 - 8 comments

Oh, I say old chap--do you mind not going all "immigrant" on me, and spitting all over the place? Thank you very much. (how Britain proposes to solve the problem of integrating its migrant population)
posted by hadjiboy on Feb 6, 2008 - 109 comments

IDP Voices is a site that lets people who are refugess within their own countries tell their life stories – in their own words. "The narratives in these pages are valuable complements to the official information on conflicts which governments and international organisations offer. These stories deal with the real lives of real people. The narrators share their personal experiences, their sensations, hopes and dreams, and the impact for them of being forced from their homes. The first IDP Voices oral testimonies project took place in Colombia. IDP Voices from further countries will be added as the projects progress." The life stories are in English and Spanish and can either be read or listened to. You can download the whole book of life stories here.
posted by Kattullus on Nov 8, 2007 - 7 comments

What Cats Know About War. A reporter adopts cats to reconnect with life amid unremitting death. [Via linkfilter.] [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Oct 14, 2007 - 30 comments

Georgia mayor bans soccer from local park. Georgia mayor bans soccer from local park. “There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,”
posted by wavespy on Jan 23, 2007 - 162 comments

Iraq has become the world's fastest-growing refugee crisis. Life there is a living hell, but the exodus is threatening to destabalize its neighbors. The US accepts only 500 Iraqi refugees a year, but president Bush has the legal authority to admit 20,000 more. Perhaps he'll do it for Christmas. [Via No Quarter.]
posted by homunculus on Dec 13, 2006 - 29 comments

Oops! A mud eruption probably triggered by oil exploration has been making thousands of Indonesians' lives miserable since May.
posted by thirteenkiller on Sep 14, 2006 - 20 comments

500,000 Lebanese citizens are now homeless. That's out of a population of 3.8 million, according to Juan Cole. People in Southern Lebanon have received leaflets warning them to leave, but are trapped in their villages under Israeli bombings. The IDF has opened a 60-km front on the border, using tanks to probe Hezbollah. Meanwhile, a ceasefire remains... elusive. I normally take the position that both sides are excessively violent, but this is a pretty sad picture of what's going on in Lebanon.
posted by spiderwire on Jul 21, 2006 - 206 comments

Et in Arcadia ego (flash). Photographs of the scars of war (Afghanistan/Iraq/Bosnia/genocide/Israel-Palestine/Liberia/refugee camps). Also: Afghanistan (no flash version), Thailand/tourism/raves.
posted by carter on Jun 5, 2006 - 9 comments

Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About.
posted by ND¢ on Jun 2, 2006 - 28 comments

What is the difference between refugees and expelled persons? Refugees leave home and land for fear of what would happen to them, or they were driven out. Expellees are told to leave their home country, often immediately. Their added and deep trauma is broken trust
"Modern Wars and the Civilian Experience as shown in my experience in World War II", by Greta Zybon
posted by PenguinBukkake on Sep 17, 2005 - 2 comments

Over 2000 Katrina refugees bused to Muskogee, Oklahoma will "be met by approximately 300-400 National Guardsmen" who will check them for weapons and interview them before allowing them into barracks and tents at Camp Gruber, a World War II training facility deactivated in 1947 and located 14 miles southeast of Muskogee near the village of Braggs (population 301). This after 250 were arrested during a riot as the buses were loading. A 9 pm curfew was passed by Braggs councilmen in anticipation of the refugees' arrival. However as of Friday night, "there is no food or water on site". Further, Braggs High School enrolls 60 students and Braggs Elementary School enrolls 168. For those (few) wondering why Camp Gruber sounds familiar!
posted by mischief on Sep 4, 2005 - 21 comments

More than 30 feet of water stood over land inhabited by nearly one million people. Almost 300,000 African Americans were forced to live in refugee camps for months. Many people, both black and white, left the land and never returned. "When Mother Nature rages, the physical results are never subtle. Because we cannot contain the weather, we can only react by tabulating the damage in dollar amounts, estimating the number of people left homeless, and laying the plans for rebuilding. But . . . some calamities transform much more than the landscape." No, not Katrina. The Great Mississippi flood of 1927. Author John M. Barry in his definitive work on the subject, "shows how a heretofore anti-socialist America was forced by unprecedented circumstance to embrace an enormous, Washington-based big-government solution to the greatest natural catastrophe in our history, preparing the way (psychologically and otherwise) for the New Deal." The author is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research of Tulane and Xavier universities (whose web site is *understandably* not answering right now). <Heading for the library to find this book>
posted by spock on Aug 30, 2005 - 12 comments

Fazal Sheikh's photographs have documented the plight of refugees in camps across Central and East Africa and the Middle East. However, his photographs are distinctly different from the images of refugees we commonly see in printed news articles. Sheikh's photographs implicitly assert that the individual refugees share humanity with their oppressive rulers. He does so by depicting the individuals in portraits rather than as victims of a social and political drama. Sheikh, an American citizen, was just awarded the Grand Prix International Henri Cartier-Bresson.
posted by matteo on Jun 24, 2005 - 5 comments

Southeast Asian refugees, like other immigrant populations, have had a mix of experiences and successes since they began arriving in the U.S. in the 1970s. Among the refugees, two groups, the Mien and the Hmong, tribes who populate the mountains of Laos and Thailand, fled when the Communists took over. Today, some Mien, also known to some Asians as the Yao, continue to live in China, where they are a recognized minority group and elsewhere. Large numbers of the Mien people have settled in Portland, Ore., and California, and appear to be doing pretty well. The Hmong settled primarily in Minneapolis and St. Paul because their military leader, Gen. Vang Pao settled there. You may have read about the Hmong man who killed six white hunters, claiming racial animosity, but before that occurred, the Hmong themselves have experienced one tragedy after another.
posted by etaoin on Mar 29, 2005 - 17 comments

Lost Boys of Sudan is an amazing documentary about refugees from Sudan's Darfur conflict finding haven in the US. It's premiering on PBS tomorrow. Their website has local PBS listings as well as locations and times of upcoming screenings in the US. From sleeping on the ground in a UN refugee camp to working at WalMart in Dallas, the men in the film undertake an enormously difficult, but ultimately life-saving journey.
posted by scarabic on Sep 27, 2004 - 8 comments

The USA is sending the refugees from Monserrat back home. Why? Because the threat from their volcano is no longer regarded as "temporary", but "permanent".
posted by Pretty_Generic on Aug 20, 2004 - 24 comments

Coast Guard pulls over floating, propeller equipped '59 Buick driving to Miami - manned by Cuban refugees. "For four of the 11 people on board, it was not the first thwarted attempt to leave the communist island in a bizarrely converted vintage vehicle." (from ABC news) Last year, they tried to do the same thing in a converted '51 Chevy Truck: "The crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter could not believe their eyes...Chugging along at a steady 13 kilometres per hour in the Straits of Florida was a bright-green 1951 Chevrolet truck...." (link to story, as reprinted in Free Republic, alas ) Sadly, the Coast Guard sunk the Buick - which looked a bit like a WW2 amphibious landing craft. Here's a picture, on the blog of a Christian Evangelical (scroll down for story) who argues that the refugees are worthy of a special exception to US immigration laws, for their pluck and innovative brilliance.
posted by troutfishing on Feb 7, 2004 - 25 comments

Saranda's Story. 'My name is Saranda and I am 13 years old. I moved to Liverpool from Kosovo three years ago ... '
posted by plep on Jun 25, 2003 - 5 comments

Coming to America! Rejected by several countries, this relatively small tribe that has been living in slavery and in violent refugee camps is coming to the US. NY Times reg. req.
posted by Plunge on Mar 10, 2003 - 43 comments

Just a defacto "Nope". "Refugees" from the US seeking asylum in Canada will no longer have any hoops to jump through. The hoops are to be replaced by impenatrable legal barriers, otherwise known as "inking the deal".
posted by crasspastor on May 7, 2002 - 6 comments

Call for permanent Jenin presence The disbanded United Nations fact-finding mission to Jenin has written to Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for a constant international presence in Palestinian refugee camps. Alas, it was the UN that ran the refugee camp that was known as the bomb factory and home of the suicide bombers. Wouldn't an armed forcez be more effective?
posted by Postroad on May 3, 2002 - 23 comments

North Koreans would rather drink poison than return Refugees seek asylum at the Spanish embassy in China. "We are now at the point of such desperation and live in such fear of persecution within North Korea that we have come to the decision to risk our lives for freedom rather than passively await our doom," the group's statement said. "Some of us carry poison on our person to commit suicide if the Chinese authorities should choose once again to send us back to North Korea," the statement said.
posted by norm29 on Mar 14, 2002 - 7 comments

Australia's Having Trouble Shirking Refugee Responsibility
In a sure sign of desparation, AU has approached TV (Tuvalu) about taking 1000 refugees in exchange for aid. They were rebuffed, for what should be obvious reasons. Its the same deal they've shopped around to PNG, FJ, and just about every Pacific island country since the refugees' boat caught fire near CX. PNG has already agreed to detain and process asylum requests on Manus. And the ultimate destination of the Tampa refugees was Nauru. Using Pacific island countries as chess pieces in the political calculations just isn't working -- I think it's highly revealing of AU attitudes toward the Pacific and asylum-seekers.
posted by rschram on Nov 13, 2001 - 55 comments

If this story is true, then the Indonesian authorities have a lot of work ahead of them in combating corruption. Who's ever heard of the police openly working with smugglers to force refugees on to an overloaded boat at gunpoint?
posted by jetgrrl on Oct 24, 2001 - 4 comments

Operation Infinite Mercy : Emergency relief for Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban rule and/or threats of American attack. Amid the scores of funds, accounts, websites, banner ads, and buttons that have popped up advertising ways to 'help the victims', it's been near-impossible to find somewhere online to make a donation to assist some of the other people affected by the aftermath of September 11th...
posted by SenshiNeko on Sep 25, 2001 - 19 comments

World's indifference to the Afghan tragedy
If you read my article in full, It will take about an hour of your time. In this hour, 14 more people will have died in Afghanistan of war and hunger and 60 others will have become refugees in other countries.

A few months old, but well worth a read in current context ...
posted by walrus on Sep 18, 2001 - 12 comments

There's a situation arising right now, between Australian, Norwegian and Indonesian governments. The issue? A Norwegian freighter laden with 438 Afghan asylum seekers, stranded in the Indian Ocean. Today, Australia elite commandos seized control of the Norwegian-owned "Tampa" and its human cargo and ordered the ship to return to international waters. Norwegian authorities, on the other hand, are appealing to Australian authorities to help the refugees and the crew onboard "Tampa". What should be done here, if anything, and by whom? And what about the situation in Afghanistan, that is causing these people to escape from there in the first place? (More: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
posted by dagny on Aug 29, 2001 - 52 comments

Elian's fathers rights were affirmed today, and the decision is already online. One thing I love about the Internet is that things like this take nanoseconds to be available to the public (if the system's working right, at least!) -- where previously you had to rely on the newsmakers' spin on things, now you can read the decision yourself and come to your own conclusions.
posted by delfuego on Jun 1, 2000 - 4 comments

Just when you thought you'd seen it all Elian gets his own website...um, sorta.
posted by vitaflo on May 7, 2000 - 0 comments

I think this deserves the front page: the two Elian_True guys work for Playboy:

http://www.playboy.com/digital/inthenews.html
posted by baylink on Apr 28, 2000 - 9 comments