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After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and particularly after the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 9-10, 1938, nations in western Europe and the Americas feared an influx of refugees. About 85,000 Jewish refugees (out of 120,000 Jewish emigrants) reached the United States between March 1938 and September 1939, but this level of immigration was far below the number seeking refuge. In late 1938, 125,000 applicants lined up outside US consulates hoping to obtain 27,000 visas under the existing immigration quota. By June 1939, the number of applicants had increased to over 300,000. Most visa applicants were unsuccessful. At the Evian Conference in July 1938, only the Dominican Republic stated that it was prepared to admit significant numbers of refugees, although Bolivia would admit around 30,000 Jewish immigrants between 1938 and 1941.

In a highly publicized event in May-June 1939, the United States refused to admit over 900 Jewish refugees who had sailed from Hamburg, Germany, on the St. Louis. The St. Louis appeared off the coast of Florida shortly after Cuban authorities cancelled the refugees' transit visas and denied entry to most of the passengers, who were still waiting to receive visas to enter the United States. Denied permission to land in the United States, the ship was forced to return to Europe. The governments of Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium each agreed to accept some of the passengers as refugees. Of the 908 St. Louis passengers who returned to Europe, 254 (nearly 28 percent) are known to have died in the Holocaust. 288 passengers found refuge in Britain. Of the 620 who returned to the continent, 366 (just over 59 percent) are known to have survived the war.

Palestine

Over 60,000 German Jews immigrated to Palestine during the 1930s, most under the terms of the Haavara (Transfer) Agreement. This agreement between Germany and the Jewish authorities in Palestine facilitated Jewish emigration to Palestine. The main obstacle to emigration of Jews from Germany was German legislation banning the export of foreign currency. According to the agreement, Jewish assets in Germany would be disposed of in an orderly manner and the resulting capital transferred to Palestine through the export of German products. The British White Paper in May 1939, a policy statement approved by the British Parliament, contained measures that severely limited Jewish entry into Palestine.

Shanghai

As the number of hospitable destinations dwindled, tens of thousands of German, Austrian, and Polish Jews emigrated to Shanghai, one destination that did not require a visa. Shanghai's International Settlements quarter, effectively under Japanese control, admitted 17,000 Jews.

United States and Great Britain

During the second half of 1941, even as unconfirmed reports of the mass murder perpetrated by the Nazis filtered to the West, the US Department of State placed even stricter limits on immigration based on national security concerns. Despite British restrictions, limited numbers of Jews entered Palestine during the war through "illegal" immigration (Aliyah Bet). Great Britain itself limited its own intake of immigrants in 1938-1939, though the British government did permit the entry of some 10,000 Jewish children in a special Kindertransport (Children's Transport) program. At the Bermuda Conference in April 1943, the Allies offered no concrete proposals for rescue.

Switzerland and Spain

Switzerland took in approximately 30,000 Jews, but turned back about the same number at the border. About 100,000 Jews reached the Iberian Peninsula. Spain took in a limited number of refugees and then speedily sent them on to the Portuguese port of Lisbon. From there, thousands managed to sail to the United States in 1940-1941, although thousands more were unable to obtain US entry visas.

After World War II

After the war, hundreds of thousands of survivors found shelter as displaced persons in camps administered by the western Allies in Germany, Austria, and Italy. In the US, immigration restrictions were still in effect, although the Truman Directive of 1945, which authorized priority to be given within the quota system to displaced persons, permitted 16,000 Jewish DPs to enter the United States.

I had to wait three long years. There were quotas. There were always quotas.
-Charlene Schiff

Immigration to Palestine ( Aliyah) remained severely limited until the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948. Thousands of Jewish displaced persons sought to enter Palestine illegally: between 1945 and 1948, the British authorities interned many of these would-be immigrants to Palestine in detention camps on Cyprus.

With the establishment of Israel in May 1948, Jewish refugees began streaming into that new sovereign state. Some 140,000 Holocaust survivors entered Israel during the next few years. The United States admitted 400,000 displaced persons between 1945 and 1952. Approximately 96,000 (roughly 24 percent) of them were Jews who had survived the Holocaust.

The search for refuge frames both the years before the Holocaust and its aftermath.

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After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938 and particularly after the Kristallnacht pogroms of November 9-10, 1938, nations in western Europe and the Americas feared an influx of refugees. About 85,000 Jewish refugees (out of 120,000 Jewish emigrants) reached the United States between March 1938 and September 1939, but this level of immigration was far below the number seeking refuge.

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The United States and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-41

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The United States and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-41

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Nazi Territorial Conquest

German troops entered Austria on March 12, 1938, and, with the enthusiastic support of most of the Austrian population, annexed the country the next day (an event known as the ). Nazi leadership quickly implemented antisemitic laws against the 192,000 Austrian Jews. Tens of thousands of Austrian Jews lined up at the US consulate in Vienna to apply for immigration visas to the United States.

At the urging of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, President Franklin D. Roosevelt combined the US immigration quotas for Germany and Austria to give greater immigration opportunities to Austrian Jews. The State Department could then issue a maximum of 27,370 visas per year for immigrants born in those countries. By June 30, 1938, however, nearly 140,000 people were on the German quota waiting list for US immigration visas.

Recognizing that the plight of German Jews had reached a point of crisis, Roosevelt called for an international conference to discuss the refugee problem. Delegates from 32 nations met in Evian-les-Bains , France, in July 1938, but most, including the United States, refused to expand their laws to admit more immigrants. Even as the conference was going on, the American press criticized the participants at Evian for their inaction. As magazine concluded: "All nations present expressed sympathy for the refugees but few offered to allow them within their boundaries." By September, the waiting list for a German quota visa jumped to 220,000 people. Even if the State Department issued the maximum number of visas it could have under the existing laws each year, new German- and Austrian-born applicants could anticipate at least a nine-year wait for a US immigration visa.

In September 1938, Hitler threatened to unleash a European war unless the Sudetenland, a border area of Czechoslovakia with a majority ethnic German population, was surrendered to Germany. The leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany held a conference in Munich, Germany, on September 29-30, 1938, during which they agreed to allow Germany to annex the Sudetenland in exchange for a pledge of peace from Hitler. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , convinced the appeasement had averted a world war, declared that the agreement meant "peace for our time." However, six months later, Hitler violated this "Munich agreement" and the German military occupied the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.

Kristallnacht

In the evening and early morning of November 9-10, 1938, Nazi party leaders unleashed a wave of antisemitic violence across Germany and its newly annexed territories, an event known as . Storm troopers (SA) and Hitler Youth members burned hundreds of synagogues, ransacked thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, and the German police arrested nearly 30,000 Jewish men and boys, sending them to concentration camps. Though German newspapers reported that the violence had been spontaneous-a public retaliation in response to the assassination of a minor German diplomat in Paris by a Jewish teenager-the American diplomatic corps in Berlin immediately reported to colleagues in Washington, DC, that the attacks were obviously part of a "prearranged plan."

In the United States, the Kristallnacht attacks were front-page news nationwide for several weeks. At his November 15th press conference, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that the attack had "deeply shocked" the American public, and announced that he was ordering the US ambassador in Germany to return home. The United States was the only nation to take this diplomatic response, and it would not have an ambassador in Germany again until after World War II ended in 1945. Roosevelt did not ask the US Congress to reconsider the quota system that limited immigration. Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, however, persuaded him to allow approximately 12,000 Germans-most of whom were Jews-then in the United States on temporary visitors' visas to remain in the country indefinitely. President Roosevelt told reporters, "I cannot, in any decent humanity, throw them out."

Increased Immigration

The refugee crisis intensified after Kristallnacht. Between 1939 and 1941, more than 300,000 Germans-mostly Jews-remained on the waiting list for immigration visas to the United States. For the first time during the period of Nazi rule, the State Department issued the maximum number of visas legally allowed under the German quota. Other European countries had long waiting lists for US visas as well; the wait for a visa under the small Romanian quota (377), for instance, was forty-three years long. The majority of these applicants were Jewish.

Most potential immigrants to the United States had to collect many different documents in order to obtain an US immigration visa to leave Germany, as well as to travel to a port of departure within Europe. They could use their time on the waiting list to gather all the necessary documents needed to obtain a visa, which included identity paperwork, police certificates, exit and transit permissions, a financial affidavit, and others. These documents could be expensive and had to be obtained in a particular order. Many of these papers-including the visa itself-had expiration dates. Immigrants also had to find an American sponsor who had the financial resources to guarantee they would not become burden (or "public charge") on the state, and a valid ship ticket. After World War II began, many passenger lines stopped entirely or at least reduced the number of vessels crossing the ocean, making it more difficult and expensive for refugees to find berths.

In February 1939, Democratic senator Robert Wagner (NY) and Republican congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers (MA) introduced legislation in Congress to admit 20,000 German children under the age of 14 to the United States outside of the immigration quotas. Eleanor Roosevelt lent her support to the bill, the first time she publicly endorsed a piece of pending legislation as First Lady. Public opinion polls on this proposal, however, revealed that Americans did not support the idea, and opponents argued that the bill would take resources, and eventually jobs, from American children. Congress never voted on the Wagner-Rogers Bill.

The St. Louis

On May 13, 1939, the German transatlantic liner sailed from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba, carrying 937 passengers. The majority of passengers were Jewish, and they planned to stay in Cuba only until their turns came up on the waiting list for a US immigration visa. When the arrived in Havana, the passengers learned that the landing certificates they had purchased were invalid. The Cuban government refused to allow the refugees to disembark and forced the ship to leave Cuban waters. The sailed towards Miami, as the passengers sent pleading telegrams to loved ones and public officials in the United States.

The became the subject of many articles, editorial cartoons, and opinion columns. Since the German quota had already been filled, Congress would have had to pass a new law, or Roosevelt would have to issue a presidential order in order for the passengers to be admitted. In a January 1939 poll, 83% of Americans opposed accepting additional European refugees, and although newspaper coverage generally sympathized with the plight of the passengers, few editorials or letters to the editor advocated admitting the passengers.

After Cuba finally refused to allow the passengers to land and the United States (and other Western Hemisphere nations) did not offer to take the passengers, the ship returned to Europe . The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) worked with the State Department, ultimately convincing four countries: Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium, to admit the passengers. Many of the refugees, however, found themselves living under the dangers of Nazi occupation again when Germany invaded multiple Western Europe nations in May 1940. Approximately 254 of the passengers were murdered in the Holocaust.

The was not the only ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean carrying Jewish refugees during this period of refugee crisis. More than 1,200 ships carrying nearly 111,000 Jewish refugees arrived in New York between March 1938, when Germany annexed Austria, and October 1941, when Germany banned emigration. As the passengers held US visas, they were admitted into the United States as new immigrants.

Outbreak of War

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland , defeating the Polish Army within a few weeks. Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3, marking the official beginning of World War II. Many Americans had been anticipating world war, but the overwhelming majority wanted to remain neutral rather than see the United States become involved in the war. In a fireside chat on September 3, President Roosevelt reassured Americans listening on their radios: "This nation will remain a neutral nation, but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral in thought as well."

In the spring of 1940, Nazi Germany occupied , the Netherlands , and northern . Many Americans believed that Germany defeated these countries so quickly because of a "fifth column" of spies and saboteurs working on behalf of the Nazis to bring the countries down from within. In June 1940, seventy-one percent of Americans thought Germany had already started to organize a fifth column in the United States. Roosevelt warned that even Jewish refugees could become a threat, aiding Nazi Germany in exchange for the lives of loved ones held hostage in Europe. (Historians now agree that Jewish refugees posed no security threat to the United States.) The FBI warned Americans to be on guard.

The State Department instituted additional restrictions on immigration in 1941, citing national security concerns. Among these was the announcement that any refugee with close family still in enemy territory would be ineligible for a US immigration visa. American consulates closed in Nazi-occupied territory in July 1941, cutting off many applicants from the US diplomats issuing visas. At the same time, the State Department announced that all visa applicants had to be approved by a interdepartmental visa review committee in Washington, DC. This decision lengthened the delays for refugees who had managed to make it to southern France or Lisbon, the only places in Europe from which they could still escape.

Networks of Rescue

As applicants sought US immigration visas, private relief agencies, such as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the National Refugee Service, the Emergency Rescue Committee , the , the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers), the Unitarian Service Committee , and others formed networks of rescue to aid as many refugees as possible. They helped refugees navigate the US immigration system, explained the required paperwork, located potential financial sponsors, purchased ship tickets, and, for those fortunate enough to enter the United States, assisted with Americanization, employment, and housing. These agencies, both Jewish and non-Jewish (though many of the non-Jewish agencies were funded through Jewish philanthropy) also provided food, clothing, and medicine for those still in Europe; some relief workers even worked directly in French internment camps. These relief agencies and the individuals who worked for them operated under tremendous strain. Often, their work involved significant risk. Some of the organizations worked strenuously in public and private to raise money and provide assistance for refugees. Others advocated within the existing government bureaucracy to keep the country's doors open in the face of public antagonism towards immigrants.

Debates over Intervention

The United States remained neutral during the first two years of World War II, from September 1939, when . Though the majority of Americans continued to oppose Nazi Germany invaded Poland , to December 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor Act, passed in March 1941. Lobbying organizations formed within the United States to argue either for either proactive intervention or against involvement in the war. In August 1940, a group of college students at Yale founded the America First Committee (AFC) which rallied Americans in an antiwar movement. The AFC, with some 800,000 members and at least 450 local chapters, encouraged civic engagement, such as letter-writing campaigns to elected officials, and sponsored rallies and speeches throughout the country. In the fall of 1941, one of the AFC's main spokesmen, famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, gave a speech blaming Jews and the Roosevelt administration for drawing the country closer to war. Critics claimed Lindbergh's remarks promoted antisemitism, intolerance, and even bolstered claims made by Nazi propagandists. intervention in the war, Roosevelt and Congress increasingly began to prepare the country for war. Congress approved the first peacetime draft in American history, which passed just as Roosevelt began an unprecedented campaign for a third term as president. Roosevelt increased both monetary and military aid to Great Britain, eventually extending material aid to Allied nations through the

The Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies (CDAAA), in contrast, ultimately boasted 750 local chapters and an estimated membership of 750,000. The CDAAA staged rallies and performances, took out full-page newspaper ads, and handed out flyers in an effort to gain support for aiding Great Britain. Though both organizations were very active in 1940-1941, US governmental support for aiding Great Britain (and the Soviet Union, after the June 1941 invasion of Russia) placed the AFC on the defensive, and the group disbanded almost immediately after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor , Hawaii. The next day, the United States declared war on Japan but not on Germany. Three more days passed before Nazi Germany declared war on the United States on December 11. President Roosevelt was able then to portray war against both Japan and Germany as defensive measures against Axis powers who declared war on the United States first.

The vast majority of Americans rallied to defeat the Axis powers as soon as the United States entered World War II. As President Roosevelt told Americans two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor:

"We are now in this war. We are all in it-all the way. Every single man, woman, and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history."

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The United States and the Refugee Crisis, 1938-41

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German troops entered Austria on March 12, 1938, and, with the enthusiastic support of most of the Austrian population, annexed the country the next day (an event known as the ). Nazi leadership quickly implemented antisemitic laws against the 192,000 Austrian Jews.

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From 1945 to 1952, more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons (DPs) lived in camps and urban centers in Germany, Austria, and Italy. These facilities were administered by Allied authorities and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA).

Among the concerns facing these Jewish DPs in the years following the Holocaust were the problems of daily life in the displaced persons camps, Zionism, and emigration.

Daily Life

Soon after liberation, survivors began searching for their families. UNRRA established the Central Tracing Bureau to help survivors locate relatives who had survived the concentration camps. Public radio broadcasts and newspapers contained lists of survivors and their whereabouts. The attempt to reunite families went hand-in-hand with the creation of new ones; there were many weddings and many births in the DP camps.

Schools were soon established and teachers came from Israel and the United States to teach the children in the DP camps. Orthodox Judaism also began its rebirth as yeshivot (religious schools) were founded in several camps, including Bergen-Belsen, Foehrenwald, and Feldafing. Religious holidays became major occasions for gatherings and celebrations. Jewish volunteer agencies supplied religious articles for everyday and holiday use.

The DPs also transformed the camps into active cultural and social centers. Despite the often bleak conditions-many of the camps were former concentration camps and German army camps-social and occupational organizations soon abounded. Journalism sprang to life with more than 170 publications. Numerous theater and musical troupes toured the camps. Athletic clubs from various DP centers challenged each other.

Zionism

Zionism (the movement to return to the Jewish homeland in what was then British-controlled Palestine) was perhaps the most incendiary question of the Jewish DP era. In increasing numbers from 1945-48, Jewish survivors, their nationalism heightened by lack of autonomy in the camps and having few destinations available, chose British-controlled Palestine as their most desired destination. The DPs became an influential force in the Zionist cause and in the political debate about the creation of a Jewish state. They condemned British barriers to open immigration to Palestine.

Agricultural training farms and communes that prepared the DPs for the pioneering life were founded in many DP camps. Zionist youth groups instilled an affinity for Israel among the young. David Ben-Gurion, leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, visited DP camps several times in 1945 and 1946. His visits raised the DPs' morale and rallied them in support of a Jewish state. The Jewish Agency (the de facto Jewish authority in Palestine) and Jewish soldiers from the British Army's Jewish Brigade further consolidated the alliance between the DPs and the Zionists, often assisting illegal immigration attempts. Mass protests against British policy became common occurrences in the DP camps.

Emigration

After liberation, the Allies were prepared to repatriate Jewish displaced persons to their homes, but many DPs refused or felt unable to return. The Allies deliberated and procrastinated for years before resolving the emigration crisis, although some Allied officials had proposed solutions just months after liberation. Earl Harrison, in his August 1945 report to President Truman, recommended mass population transfer from Europe and resettlement in British-controlled Palestine or the United States. The report influenced President Truman to order that preference be given to DPs, especially widows and orphans, in US immigration quotas. Great Britain, however, claimed that the United States had no right to dictate British policy insofar as the admission of Jews to Palestine was concerned.

Truman alone could not raise restrictive US and British immigration quotas, but he did succeed in pressuring Great Britain into sponsoring the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. This bi-national delegation's suggestions included the admission of 100,000 Jewish DPs to Palestine. Britain's rejection of the report strengthened the resolve of many Jews to reach Palestine and, from 1945-48, the Brihah ("escape") organization moved more than 100,000 Jews past British patrols and illegally into Palestine.

British seamen captured many of the ships used in the operations and interned the passengers in camps on the island of Cyprus. The British attack on one such ship, the Exodus 1947, attracted worldwide publicity and strengthened support for the DPs' struggle to emigrate.

On May 14, 1948, the United States and the Soviet Union recognized the State of Israel. Congress also passed the Displaced Persons Act in 1948, authorizing 200,000 DPs to enter the United States. The law's stipulations made it unfavorable at first to the Jewish DPs, but Congress amended the bill with the DP Act of 1950. By 1952, over 80,000 Jewish DPs had immigrated to the United States under the terms of the DP Act and with the aid of Jewish agencies.

With over 80,000 Jewish DPs in the United States, about 136,000 in Israel, and another 20,000 in other nations, including Canada and South Africa, the DP emigration crisis came to an end. Almost all of the DP camps were closed by 1952. The Jewish displaced persons began new lives in their new homelands around the world.

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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After WWII, many Holocaust survivors, unable to return to their homes, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy. Learn about the experiences of Jewish DPs.

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The Little Known Story of WWII's Last Million Displaced People

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The Little Known Story of WWII's Last Million Displaced People

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A new book by historian David Nasaw tells the story of refugees who could not-or would not-return home after the conflict

smithsonianmag.com

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, upward of six million concentration camp survivors, prisoners of war, enslaved laborers, Nazi collaborators and political prisoners flocked to Germany. The Allies repatriated the majority of these individuals to their home countries (or helped them resettle elsewhere) within the next several months. But by late 1945, more than one million remained unable-or unwilling-to return home.

A new book by historian David Nasaw chronicles these displaced persons' stories, exploring the political factors that prevented them from finding asylum. Titled The Last Million: Europe's Displaced Persons From World War to Cold War, the text follows the"three to five years [refugees spent] in displaced persons camps, temporary homelands in exile, divided by nationality, with their own police forces, churches and synagogues, schools, newspapers, theaters, and infirmaries," per the book's description.

The Allied troops who occupied Germany at the end of the war were "astounded" and "horrified" by what they saw, Nasaw tells Dave Davies of NPR.

"They had expected to see a Germany that looked much like London had after the Blitz, where there was extensive damage," he says. "But the damage was a thousand times worse, and the number of homeless, shelterless, starving humans was overwhelming."

As Nasaw explains, most displaced people came to Germany as laborers, former Nazi collaborators or concentration camp survivors.

The first of these groups arrived during the war, when millions of Eastern Europeans traveled to Germany as enslaved, forced or guest laborers. Deemed "subhuman workers" by Adolf Hitler, they toiled away in factories and fields to help sustain the Nazi war effort.

Later, when the Third Reich fell in May 1945, many Baltic citizens who had collaborated with the Nazis retreated to Germany in hopes of escaping the approaching Red Army. Some of these displaced people feared prosecution if they returned to a Soviet-controlled state, writes Glenn C. Altschuler for the Jerusalem Post.

Jews and other imprisoned in concentration camps across the Third Reich, meanwhile, were sent on death marches to Germany toward the end of the war.

"The goal was not to bring them to safety in Germany but to work them to death in underground factories in Germany, rather than gas them in Poland," Nasaw tells NPR.

By the war's conclusion, the Soviet Union controlled much of Eastern Europe. Fearful of becoming Soviet slaves, as suggested by Nazi propaganda, or returning to a country rampant with anti-Semitism, many Jews opted to remain in Germany, where they believed Allied forces might offer them resettlement.

The ongoing crisis spurred the establishment of the International Refugee Organization in April 1946. But while the United Nations group successfully repatriated many non-Jewish refugees, roughly a quarter million displaced Jews remained trapped in Germany, per the book's description.

In 1948, the United States passed the Displaced Persons Act. Though the legislation was designed to resettle thousands of European refugees, it only granted visas to those who had entered refugee camps before December 1945. Because of this stipulation, Jews who had survived the Holocaust and returned home to Poland, only to face pogroms and subsequently flee to Germany, were excluded.

By the end of the decade, fears regarding Communism and the Cold War had surmounted memories of the terrors of the Holocaust, argues Nasaw in The Last Million. Only those who were "reliably anti-Communist" received entry visas. This policy excluded many Jews who were recent residents of Soviet-dominated Poland-but allowed "untold numbers of anti-Semites, Nazi collaborators and war criminals" to enter the U.S., according to the historian.

President Harry Truman, who signed the act, recognized its xenophobic and anti-Semitic biases.

"The bad points of the bill are numerous," he said in a 1948 speech quoted by the Truman Library Institute. "Together they form a pattern of discrimination and intolerance wholly inconsistent with the American sense of justice."

Based on Nasaw's research, only about 50,000 of the quarter million Jews seeking resettlement were admitted to the U.S. under the Displaced Persons Act. ("Significant numbers" also settled in Canada, he says.) Those from Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Yugoslavia were resettled elsewhere.

As the Jerusalem Post notes, displaced Jews hoping to move to Palestine were blocked from doing so until the establishment of the independent state of Israel in 1948. Ultimately, Nasaw tells NPR, around 150,000 Jewish refugees settled in Israel.

The last displaced persons to leave Germany only did so in 1957-a full 12 years after the war ended.

Overall, Publishers Weekly concludes in its review, Nasaw argues that "a humanitarian approach to the crisis often yielded to narrow, long-term foreign policy goals and Cold War considerations."

About Claire Bugos

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The Little-Known Story of World War II's 'Last Million' Displaced People

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smithsonianmag.com In the immediate aftermath of World War II, upward of six million concentration camp survivors, prisoners of war, enslaved laborers, Nazi collaborators and political prisoners flocked to Germany. The Allies repatriated the majority of these individuals to their home countries (or helped them resettle elsewhere) within the next several months.

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El 13 de agosto de 1994, el Presidente de Cuba, Fidel Castro, ante el aumento de la salida ilegal marítima de los cubanos, anunció en un discurso, que a partir de ese momento se retirarían los guardas fronterizos de las costas cubanas y se permitiría marcharse del país a cualquier persona que así lo quisiera, provocando así la crisis mayor de balseros conocida en la historia de este continente. Ante esta situación la Administración del Presidente Clinton ordenó, el 19 de agosto, la intercepción de los refugiados cubanos en alta mar y el transladó de los mismos al "refugio seguro" en GITMO. En el período comprendido entre agosto y septiembre de 1994, un total de 32,362 ciudadanos cubanos fueron interceptados en alta mar y trasladados a Guantánamo por el Servicio de Guardacostas de los EE.UU. Con la presencia de los cubanos, el total de la población de refugiados en la base aumento a cerca de 50,000.

A la llegada de los refugiados cubanos, los ya existentes campamentos para los haitianos estaban situados en el área del antiguo aeropuerto de McCalla, al este de la entrada de la bahía de Guantánamo, sobre la superficie de las abandonadas pistas de aterrizaje. Cada uno de los campamentos se encontraba rodeado completamente por varios de rollos de alambre de púas y de guardias militares cuidando el perímetro de los mismos. Los refugiados vivían en tiendas militares de lona, teniendo como piso la superficie del terreno y para dormir les facilitaron catres de aluminio del ejercito. Muy pocos campamentos tenían acceso a agua corriente, lo que limitaba extraordinariamente el aseo personal y sus necesidades personales las hacían en letrinas portátiles. La alimentación consistía principalmente, en los paquetes de comida ya preparadas que usa el ejército y que también son usadas por la Cruz Roja en caso de desastres. Las posibilidades de entretenimiento y de educación para los niños eran apenas inexistentes.

Estas limitadas condiciones de vida, aumentadas por la frustración ante un futuro incierto que sentían los refugiados haitianos que allí se encontraban, dieron lugar a fuerte protestas e inclusive a revueltas por parte de los mismos. Esta situación empeora con la llegada, en menos de dos meses de mas de 30,000 refugiados cubanos que también se vieron obligados a vivir en estas condiciones. La infraestructura existente en la base, en el momento de llegar los refugiados haitianos y cubanos, era para 5,000 personas. El incremento de la población en cerca de 50,000 personas, en unos meses, le presentaba al Departamento de Defensa un extraordinario reto logístico y operacional.

Para alojar a los cubanos, la Fuerza Conjunta de Trabajo-160, estableció más de 25 campamentos en otros sectores de la base, la mayoría en la zona cercana a la costa y en algunos casos en áreas cercanas a las viviendas de los militares que están asignados permanentemente a la base, obligando así al Departamento de Defensa a todos los familiares de los mismos hacia los EE.UU. por "razones de seguridad", lo cual creó un fuerte malestar y resentimiento entre esta tropa contra los refugiados con serias consecuencias. En la mayoría de los casos los campamentos de los cubanos se establecieron en zonas bien áridas sobre un suelo polvoriento y/o rocoso, rodeadas también por cercas de alambre de púas y con las mismas condiciones de vida, alimentación, aseo, etc., de los haitianos.

En octubre de 1994, el Departamento de Estado anuncia las medidas, que se habían comenzado a tomar y las que se tomarían en un futuro cercano para mejorar la calidad de vida de los haitianos y cubanos en el "refugio seguro" de Guantánamo y que reflejaban en gran medida la situación precaria que existía y que solamente se veía aliviada por las donaciones, de organizaciones no gubernamentales, principalmente religiosas y de la comunidad cubana en los Estados Unidos. Estas medidas anunciadas por el Departamento de Estado describen en muchos casos la situación existente.

Aumento en el acceso a agua corriente en todos los campamentos haitianos y el 75% de los de los cubanos. Construir pisos de madera para todas las tiendas de campaña. Incrementar el ciclo de limpieza de las letrinas portátiles que había, una por cada 30 refugiados, de una vez cada dos días a todos los días. Aumentar el suministro de leche y mejoramiento de las comidas calientes que finalmente se habían comenzado a preparar y distribuir. Desarrollar el cuidado medico preventivo que venían dando primitivamente los médicos refugiados que se encontraban en los campamentos dándole mayor facilidades y suministros. Abrir facilidades para las mujeres en estado y los niños recién nacidos. Comenzar un servicio regular de correo, hasta ese momento las posibilidades de comunicarse eran unas tarjetas de la Cruz Roja. Proveer teléfonos públicos en los campamentos para que los refugiados pudieran hacer llamadas de cobro revertido a sus familiares. Facilitar acceso al mundo exterior por medio de radios y periódicos, así como también permitir que los refugiados pudieran también hacer sus propios periódicos. Construir facilidades de recreación como lo fueron los campos de baloncesto.

Para mediados de noviembre de 1994, la mayoría de los refugiados haitianos habían regresado a Haití, después de la invasión norteamericana y el regreso del Presidente Aristide. Solo el anuncio de la salida hacia los EE.UU., de los ancianos, enfermos y de los niños y sus familiares, y la implementación de estas salidas pudieron traer un poco de esperanza para los cubanos que allí quedaban. Esperanza que se vio culminada con el anuncio hecho por la Fiscal General de los EE.UU., Janet Reno, de que todos los refugiados cubanos que se encontraban en la base, con excepción de las personas con antecedentes penales, podrían viajar a los Estados Unidos. A finales de enero de 1996 el último refugiado cubano había abandonado el "refugio seguro", cerrándose así una página gris en la historia de las inmigraciones a este país. La última época fue muy distinta a la inicial, los campamentos mejoraron, las tiendas de campaña se convirtieron en pequeñas cabañitas, cada campamento tenía su propia cocina, dispensario, salón de reunión y esparcimiento, duchas y baños con agua corriente constante, clases para adultos y lo que fue más importante, se eliminaron las alambradas de púas y se permitió la libertad de movimiento.

(1) Siro del Castillo es el Comisionado del Caribe de la Comisión Latinoamericana por los Derechos y Libertades de los Trabajadores y sus Pueblos (CLADEHLT). A petición de la Administración del Presidente Clinton visitó la Base Naval de Guantánamo varias veces en octubre, noviembre y diciembre de 1994, y como parte de la Asistencia Guantánamo Refugiados y del Programa de Servicios (GRASP), volvió durante el verano de 1995.

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20 Years Ago, 35,000 'Balseros' Fled Castro's Cuba...

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20 Years Ago, 35,000 'Balseros' Fled Castro's Cuba...

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Editor's note: Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago recalls the stories of Cuban refugees she met two decades ago in the Guantánamo camps and how they carved out new lives in America.

* * *

When the tiny Guantánamo-bound jet took off from the Fort Lauderdale airport, the door handle fell into my lap.

The handful of journalists on board laughed nervously, eyeing the ripped roof cover and beat up seats of the Fandango Airlines commuter under contract by the federal government to shuttle journalists to the U.S. Naval base on the eastern end of Cuba.

"I hope this is not an omen," I remember someone saying.

The unsettling start of our trip that crisp day in 1994 was like an omen, but it was the least of our worries. We were on our way to report on the lingering limbo of the Cuban balseros without a country and enduring wholesale detention in a tent-city metropolis set up by the Clinton administration in a remote no-man's land.

It had already been an extraordinary year.

That summer, furious at unprecedented protests and chants of "Freedom!" rising from people gathered at the seafront Malecón in Havana, Cuban leader Fidel Castro threatened to unleash another exodus - and he made good on it, allowing people to leave the island by whatever means.

In a desperate bid to flee, some 35,000 men, women and children took to the high seas in flimsy homemade rafts and quickly assembled boats. Some made it to South Florida. Some died in the attempt. But most were interdicted at sea in what became the largest and most-expensive search-and-rescue operation undertaken by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The balseros, as the rafters were nicknamed after their ingeniously constructed vessels, were ferried en masse to Guantánamo and packed into dusty tent-city camps with names like Camp Kilo, Camp Oscar and Camp Mike, which multiplied into Kilo Two, Oscar Three, etc., as the numbers of people to be housed grew, day by day.

The refugees lived under drab-olive and yellow tents in an unusually arid landscape under the strictest military rule. When I first visited, they had not had any communication with family members, who didn't know whether their loved ones had died at sea or made it to Guantánamo.

The " balsero crisis" would play out here largely in seclusion, except for infrequent media and political visits, until the last Cuban was flown to Miami in 1996.

The Cubans would eventually make it to the United States after the Clinton administration announced on May 2, 1995, that most of the Guantánamo detainees would be processed and allowed to emigrate. And, as part of the deal reached with the Cuban government to curtail high-seas departures, Washington agreed to issue 20,000 visas a year.

The historic exodus also changed U.S. immigration policy for Cubans to what came to be known as "wet-foot/dry-foot," and it remains in effect today: Those intercepted at sea must qualify for asylum or are returned to Cuba; those who make it to U.S. soil generally get to stay.

But policy was the aftermath. For me, what lingers is the human story, and nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced during two reporting trips to the Guantánamo camps.

I would unknowingly become lost in a sea of refugees as I listened to stories and pleas for help, and as a result, I was almost kicked out by a military commander. He towered over me, screaming that I had ditched my escort and broken a major rule. Only my trembling chin, teary voice and a friendly spokesman who, like me, was a University of Florida Gator would save me from being sent back on that plane and missing one of the most dramatic stories of my career.

I would hold back tears many times during poignant interviews with desperate people, and back at my desk in Miami, while writing their stories.

On this 20th anniversary, when celebrations are planned and proclamations issued, what stands out is the resilience of the balseros I came to know and whose lives in the United States I've followed for many years.

There's the spunky Havana beautician, Dunys Torres, whom I found at Camp Oscar cutting hair with a lot of humor amid a lice epidemic - now the owner of Dunys Unisex, a lovely, stylish salon in Homestead.

"I still think it (leaving) was the best decision I ever made," she tells me. "Now more than ever, I'm happy because I'm a citizen of this great country. I'm 100 percent Cuban, but I adore this country."

There's the engineer, Martin Barquin, who invented a board game to pass the time, only in his " Balseros '94" game, when you landed on a space, a shark ate you, or waves overtook your raft on a stormy night - and the best you could aspire to was to pass "Go" and land in Guantánamo.

"It was a way to make fun of our tragedy at a time when we were hopeless," he remembers, surrounded by family in his South Dade home. He has been in a wheelchair since he suffered an accident in 1997, "but I cannot complain. I am a blessed man. I yearn for my physical freedom, but my mind and spirit are free."

And there are the grief-stricken survivors of the July 13 sinking of a tugboat by Cuban patrol boats in which at least 39 people died. One of the survivors was a 7-year-old boy who lost his mother and brother. I met him and his father, who had the saddest eyes I've ever seen, at Camp Mike. It's heartwarming to see on social media that he's becoming an architect.

The weary children of this exodus - the 78 unaccompanied minors I was briefly allowed to see at a special camp - are unforgettable, the most famous of all 12-year-old violinist Lizbet Martínez, a Miami-Dade music teacher now. She became the symbol of the exodus when she propped her violin on her shoulder and played The Star Spangled Banner after the Coast Guard rescued her family.

The child who captured my heart was 10-year-old Yudelka César.

She lived at Camp Oscar Three under a huge yellow tent with her family and the friends from her Havana neighborhood, who had all pitched in to buy a boat.

Yudelka saw me interviewing people and brought me her diary. She had written all she had endured from the moment her mother woke her up and told her they were leaving Cuba on small white cards that came every day with prepackaged military meals.

She had tied the cards together with two plastic bag clips.

"It's our story," Yudelka told me. "Take it to the United States and print it."

At every camp I visited, refugees would stuff my pockets with SOS notes to relatives in Miami. I would spend a weekend calling people to deliver news that their loved ones were safe, and I would read a love letter to a woman in Hialeah from her husband, who reassured her he was making good on his promise that they would be reunited.

I brought back to Miami Yudelka's diary and translated it. The Herald published it with my photo of her.

I could see myself in Yudelka's eyes, in her story. Like I once did at her age, Yudelka left behind her beloved grandmother, her dog, her cousins, her friends.

That she was willing to part with such treasures was remarkable. Many years later, I tracked her down to the family's home in Arizona, and we had a heartfelt reunion.

I returned her diary, though it hurt me to part with it. Her diary had become a talisman, a source of inspiration for so many stories - and the reason I would again take that scary flight on a dingy plane to Guantánamo to cover the refugee's first flight to freedom.

I would return to see how the ingenious Cubans had turned their camps into makeshift cities, their tents filled with handmade cardboard furniture, complete with drawers and decorative knobs. They still slept in slim cots but had divided tents into "apartments" with white sheets, and helped the military shape camps into small towns with schools, playgrounds, and even elected leaders.

They made art and they made love and babies were born there.

I would stay with the balsero story for two decades, charting fates and remembering the Guantánamo sun burning my skin and the cooing music of hummingbirds waking me up at dawn in a military barrack.

Twenty years later, Yudelka is married and the loving mother of a kindergartener. We still stay in touch.

When I see her dancing a sensuous rhythmic salsa with her father, celebrating her mother's citizenship with little American flags; when she sends me a poem she wrote, a nostalgic ode to her feelings for Cuba, I can see why they feel that the bold risk they took in 1994 was worth it.

But I wonder what happened to a young man, Jorge Santos, who called out to me as I left the last camp on that first trip.

" Señora," he said, pressed against a fence topped by barbed wire. "If you see freedom anywhere, please send her here. Tell her I've been looking for her for a very long time."

I've never known if Jorge finally found her.

But I hope he has made a good life for himself like Dunys, Martin and Yudelka, the little girl writing on the back of meal cards.

She was once a weary balserita huddled in the darkness of a boat adrift, her fate in limbo under a dusty yellow tent, and today, she is part of the mosaic of Cuban-Americans who call the USA home.

"People without a country," a headline in The Herald called the balseros back then, but that they are no longer.

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20 years ago, 35,000 'balseros' fled Castro's Cuba on anything that would float

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Editor's note: Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago recalls the stories of Cuban refugees she met two decades ago in the Guantánamo camps and how they carved out new lives in America. * * * When the tiny Guantánamo-bound jet took off from the Fort Lauderdale airport, the door handle fell into my lap.

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Cuban residents in Chile protest with a sign reading "Freedom for Cuba" outside the Cuban Embassy in Santiago on July 16 in support of protests that took place on the island nation. (Javier Torres/AFP/Getty Images)
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The anti-government protests that began in Cuba in early July are the largest seen since the early 1990s, when thousands took to the streets, fed up with an economic crisis and demanding freedom. Circumstances have certainly changed since then. But the 1994 "Maleconazo" protest sheds light on Cubans' frustrations, then and now, and the roles that public opinion and U.S. policy play in rebellions against the Cuban government.

The 1990s were a time of rapid change in Cuba. Compared with the 1980s, when food stores were stocked and material resources from the Soviet bloc were relatively widely available, the 1990s brought a very different experience. The collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's ally since 1961, and the socialist governments in Eastern Europe deprived Cuba of crucial trade partners. This forced the Cuban government to restructure the economy.

It declared that the country would enter a "Special Period during Peacetime" during which it began a process of reorganizing its social, economic and political systems. It created a Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR), implemented a dual-currency system, opened the market through measures such as allowing self-employment and small businesses ( cuentapropismo) and established co-ops - all in hopes of jump-starting the economy.

But during this transition, Cubans struggled with shortages of food, medicine, oil and gas, and other consumer goods, which produced deep social ramifications. Many people looked to leave the island, just as Cubans had in the past.

And then, on Aug. 5, 1994, Cuban police caught rumors of an illegal boat passage out of Havana. They blocked civilians from boarding tugboats by forming a blockade around the walls of the Malecón in the capital. Thousands of Cubans soon stormed the streets in protest.

Protesters voiced demands for freedom and the overthrow of Fidel Castro's government. Testimonials and video footage show how local police and the Blas Roca Special Brigade beat and apprehended protesters, claiming that their shouting and looting of government-owned businesses constituted "counterrevolutionary" actions that needed to be suppressed.

The images were striking. People on bicycles were met with squadrons; protest signs and rocks were met with guns and barbed wire. The protest ended that afternoon when Castro came to the scene to speak to the Cuban people. In his address, he placed blame squarely on the United States for its economic and trade embargo against Cuba, which had been in effect since the early 1960s, and for "provoking," as he succinctly put it, continued unrest and illegal attempts by Cubans to depart the island.

To provide temporary relief from the crisis, Castro announced that the Guardafronteras, the Cuban coast guard, would once again temporarily allow Cubans to flee like they had during the Mariel boatlift in 1980. Over the next month, more than 30,000 Cuban refugees fled the island on makeshift rafts, tugboats and inner tubes in what became known as the "Balsero crisis."

The sheer number of Cubans arriving all at once in South Florida forced the Clinton administration to reevaluate its policies toward Cuba. Since the 1960s, Cubans had generally been welcomed as refugees seeking political freedom from a communist government. The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 allowed any Cuban who arrived on U.S. soil to pursue a pathway to legal residency in the United States.

But U.S. policies of welcoming Cubans had started to shift after the Mariel boatlift in 1980. Rumors that Castro had taken the opportunity to release criminals and "undesirables" stigmatized the marielitos and dampened U.S. enthusiasm for accepting Cuban immigrants.

By the 1990s, the anti-immigration climate in the United States had intensified, particularly after the increased arrival of Haitian refugees by boat in 1991. In this political and social climate, in 1995, the Clinton administration implemented a "wet foot, dry foot" policy for Cuba, whereby the United States would intercept and return Cubans apprehended on boats or ships, while allowing those who arrived on U.S. soil ("dry foot") a pathway to legalization.

The Clinton administration's clampdown on Cuban immigration did little to stop Cubans from emigrating en masse, however. And so, it was forced to make several concessions and policy adjustments, including resuming migration agreements, increasing annual visas allocated to Cubans and exempting humanitarian provisions such as food, medicine and medical supplies from the goods embargoed to Cuba.

Intentionally or not, these concessions helped Cuba emerge from the crisis. Other key factors played a role: internal economic and political reforms and the formation of new international alliances. The early '90s economic reforms began to stabilize the GDP. The 1992 modification of the Cuban Constitution and other political reforms distanced it from the Soviet Union and invited a younger and more diverse generation of Cubans into leadership. Lastly, cementing political alliances and trade relations with other nations, notably Venezuela, made Cuba less isolated and dependent on the United States.

Tensions between Cuba and the United States reignited in 1999 when a Cuban boy named Elián González, whose mother died trying to get him safely to Florida, was sent back to the island after the protocols of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy. In the aftermath, the George W. Bush administration pursued a more restrictive policy toward Cuba, creating the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba (CAFC), which sought to "help hasten and ease Cuba's democratic transition."

To ease diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, President Barack Obama visited Cuba, and promoted measures aimed at strengthening the Cuban middle class by encouraging travel and tourism. In his final weeks in office, however, he also ended the "wet foot, dry foot" policy in response to political pressure to normalize immigration policy and begin treating Cubans migrants as the United States treated migrants from other countries who flee for economic relief rather than for political reasons.

But efforts to ease diplomatic tensions ended during the Trump administration, which designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Cubans seeking to flee to the United States, even at land ports of entry, were excluded, detained and deported like other migrants.

Moreover, the Trump administration's rollback of Obama's policies made it more difficult for Cubans in the diaspora to travel to the island or send remittances to their friends and families, which has exacerbated the economic crisis in the country and helped fuel protests.

Cubans today have demanded immediate humanitarian aid and denounced the police and the Cuban government - in particular President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who lacks the charisma of Fidel Castro and the fear that the Castro name carried with it - for creating this situation. The revolutionary slogan "Patria o Muerte" (fatherland or death) was adopted in 1961. After Cuban reggaeton artists in the United States released the song "Patria y Vida" (fatherland and life) in February 2021, Cuban protesters adopted it as the anthem for their protest and reclaimed their national slogan from the government. Men, women and children are protesting not only the dire economic situation - something exacerbated by covid-19 - but also the regime's censorship, violence and unlawful imprisonment. After early July's protests, the government made dozens of arrests and supported pro-government counterprotests.

Cuba no longer has one of the release valves that helped calm the protests in 1994: migration to the United States. But today's protesters have also tapped a 21st-century asset: the ability to connect with one another over social media and incite mass demonstrations throughout the entire country, not just in the capital city. The ability to send video footage, audio and text messages has allowed Cubans to organize and appeal to the diaspora for added support in new ways. Although the government shut down Internet access temporarily to curtail the protests, to a much greater degree than in previous eras, Cubans on the island have been able to share their experiences - their pains and desires - with the world in real time, leaving no questions about what they want: libertad.

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Perspective | Cubans took to the streets in 1994, too

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Without the opportunity for Cubans to leave for the U.S., however, the story may end differently.

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The United States has a long, proud tradition of giving families fleeing war and persecution a chance to rebuild their lives in safety.

After refugee arrivals declined by over 85% under the Trump Administration, President Joe Biden began to rebuild the lifesaving and bipartisan U.S.resettlement program, setting a refugee admissions goal of 125,000. The U.S. has also welcomed over 70,000 Afghans suddenly forced to flee their country, with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) alone resettling 10,000 new arrivals.

You can help at this critical moment. Find out all the ways you can join the IRC to support refugees in your community and around the world:

1. Donate online

The IRC works in over 20 offices in the U.S. and more than 40 countries worldwide to help refugee families survive and rebuild their lives.

Donations help us to continue this critical work. Monthly donations are the best way to help our programs continue uninterrupted, and to ensure our teams can respond to emergencies in the world's toughest places and stay for as long as we are needed.

You can also donate to your local IRC office ( search for an office in your community here). And don't forget: You may be able to double-or even triple-the impact of your generous donation with a matching gift from your company.

Find your local office here: Abilene, TX | Atlanta, GA | Baltimore, MD | Boise, ID | Charlottesville, VA | Dallas, TX | Denver, CO | Elizabeth, NJ | Los Angeles, CA | Miami, FL | Missoula, MT | New York, NY | Oakland, CA | Phoenix, AZ | Richmond, VA | Sacramento, CA | Salt Lake City, UT | San Diego, CA | San Jose, CA | Seattle, WA | Silver Spring, MD | Tallahassee, FL | Tucson. AZ | Turlock, CA | Wichita,KS

2. Donate goods

Some IRC U.S. offices welcome in-kind donations such as household goods, furniture, school supplies and gift cards to support arriving refugees.

Offices often post wishlists on Amazon.com or other online retailers to make it easy for supporters to send exactly what families need. High priority items for many of the offices include cleaning supplies, toiletries and laptops.

If you are interested in making an in-kind gift or organizing a donation drive, please contact your nearest office to find out about their current needs.

3. Speak out

Although President Biden raised the refugee resettlement ceiling, many asylum seekers who have also fled violence and persecution are being turned away. Among those are Haitians, whose country faces political strife and the near constant onslaught of natural disasters.

Seeking asylum is legal-even during a pandemic. No one should be criminalized or abused simply for exercising this right. Tell President Biden to protect the rights of Haitian asylum seekers.

4. Spread the word

Make your values clear to the world by sharing this post on Facebook, Instagram or on Twitter.

You can also get the facts on refugee resettlement and share with your friends and family.

5. Volunteer

Volunteers are an integral part of the IRC's work. Some recently posted volunteer positions include group volunteering opportunities in the New Roots community garden in Salt Lake City, donation deliveries in Turlock, CA, and assisting with tax preparation or digital literacy in Dallas, TX. Find IRC volunteer opportunities near you.

If you don't live in an area with an IRC office and you are a member of an established organization (such as a business, university community, faith group, sports team or local club), you may be able to help welcome refugees by becoming an Afghan Placement and Assistance (APA) Community Partner. Working with the IRC, these partners take on responsibilities for resettlement such as securing housing, greeting and welcoming families, providing food and other basic necessities, and connecting refugees to education, English classes and employment. You can learn more here.

6. Fundraise

Let your community know you care-by setting up a Facebook fundraiser. It's easy: just set a goal and reach out to your networks explaining why supporting refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced people is important to you.

7. Share refugee stories

Refugees and asylum seekers are people with lives we can all recognize. They are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. They are neighbors, teachers, students, business owners and employees-including the essential workers keeping us safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are just a few stories to explore and share:
In their own words: Afghan families rebuild their lives in the U.S. Meet courageous refugee artists Stories of welcome: Refugees and their fellow Americans share how they have changed one another's lives
8. Welcome a refugee

Refugees moving to a new city face many challenges and stable housing can be hard to come by. Open your home to refugees in the U.S. in temporary need of shelter through IRC partner Airbnb. If you are a landlord, you can also help by renting to a newly-arrived refugee family. The IRC will assist clients with the leasing process. You can learn more here.

9. Invest in a refugee's future

Refugees are entrepreneurs, consumers and taxpayers, contributing to economic growth and creating jobs. Entrepreneurship among refugees is nearly 50 percent higher than among people born in the U.S.

You can lend your support by frequenting local businesses run by refugees or by employing a refugee in your company and encouraging other businesses to do the same.

Learn about supporting refugees as an IRC corporate partner.

10. Stay informed

Sign up for updates from the IRC or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Thank you!

With more than 82 million people worldwide displaced by conflict and crisis, the need to provide refuge is more urgent than ever. All of us at the IRC thank you for your compassion and your commitment to the cause of refugees.
The IRC is consistently awarded high marks by charity watchdog groups for our efficient use of financial support and the effectiveness of our work.

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How to help refugees in the United States: 10 ways to stand for welcome

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Under the Biden Administration, we have a chance to rebuild the United States's proud tradition of giving families fleeing war and persecution a chance to live in safety. Here are 12 ways to help refugees in the U.S. right now.

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Keep up to date with the latest news and stories

And don't forget to share our posts with your friends.

Donating money is an easy process. You can give any amount and all of it will go straight to helping our field operations around the world. Make a donation.

If you have any questions about making a donation, please visit our frequently asked questions section.

We work around the world. Search our current vacancies.

Learn what it takes to become a volunteer on the ground and learn more about the process by visiting UN Volunteers. There are also opportunities for online volunteers with the Online Volunteer service.

We welcome applications from everyone and take a select number of interns throughout the year. Find out more.

Open data

To allow developers to create useful tools, we have opened up our data portal. Information can be accessed either through our open API or downloaded as csv files. For information about population statistics since 1951, go to our population stats site. For protection reasons, some data has been redacted.

Classroom materials

To help children of all ages learn about refugee issues, we have produced a range of teaching materials and selected online resources for teachers. To find out more and to sign up, visit our Teaching about Refugees pages.

Help rebuild lives

There are many practical ways businesses can help, ranging from helping refugees create cooperatives and strengthen business skills, to employing skilled and trained people. To find out if your company could help, please visit our Livelihoods section.

Organize an event

Would you like to support UNHCR's special events or help spread the word about people who have been forced to flee? There are many ways that you can contribute and participate. Here are some ideas:

Host a World Refugee Day party - screen a topical film about the forcibly displaced or celebrate multiculturalism.

Organize a discussion at your home, place of worship, or community centre on refugee issues. Contact your nearest UNHCR office and ask for ideas, and maybe even a speaker.

Hold a debate on a topic important to you - for example, who is a refugee? What rights do refugees have? What is shelter? What can individuals and communities do to help?

Private Sector Supporters
Find out how you can help.

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United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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And don't forget to share our posts with your friends. Donating money is an easy process. You can give any amount and all of it will go straight to helping our field operations around the world. Make a donation. If you have any questions about making a donation, please visit our frequently asked questions section.

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inquirer.com-How to help Afghan refugees Where you can volunteer donate and more in Philadelphia

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Prime ministers and presidents have lots of solutions at their fingertips for solving the global refugee crisis - here are some of them. But while most governments turn their backs, people worldwide are finding clever and creative ways to welcome refugees using their local networks, skills and generosity.

1. Grant people access to asylum

Everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum - it's a human right. The process should be fair and effective, but in reality many governments leave asylum-seekers without a final answer for years. Others are sent back to countries where their lives could be in real danger.

Some countries allow groups of people to organise and raise money to bring refugees to their country and help them settle in. Nearly 300,000 people have come to Canada through sponsorship since the 1970s, and more countries, including the UK, Australia and Ireland, are gearing up to follow suit.

3. Reunite families

Having close family around can make all the difference to people adjusting to a different life and culture, often while recovering from deep trauma. Governments have an obligation to let refugees join family members who are already settled abroad through family reunification.

4. Provide medical visas

Refugees who have a serious medical condition can get life-saving treatment - if governments decide to grant them visas to a country where they can access it. About 200 refugees with life-threatening illnesses were being resettled in the United States during an average month until President Donald Trump announced a four-month ban on refugees in early 2017 and crushed many people's hopes of recovery.

5. Allow people to study

Universities and schools can offer refugees visas to start or carry on their studies in another country. This opportunity can turn people's lives around through completing their schooling, integrating, making a living and contributing to society. According to the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, only 1 per cent of refugees currently attend university. A staggering 3.7 million refugee children and teenagers are not in school right now - five times the global average.

6. Embrace technology

A smartphone can be a lifeline if you've had to leave everything else behind, lost touch with friends and relatives, or are trying to find your way in a new country. Amnesty recently found that one of the top things refugees search for online is information about their own situation and the solutions open to them. Many tech-savvy groups are responding to that need through innovative projects ranging from online phrasebooks to smartphone recycling and launching start-ups for refugees.

7. Help newcomers settle in

Anyone who has lived abroad knows how difficult it can be to learn a new language, make friends, understand the culture, find somewhere to live or a new job. That's why integration is paramount for refugees. In many parts of the world, a whole range of community initiatives have sprung up to welcome newcomers, such as offering advice about asylum, language classes, bicycle recycling schemes and support for women who are on their own.

8. Offer work visas or employment

For many refugees, getting a job is a vital solution to their problems. As well as surviving and supporting their families, it helps people maintain their self-respect and independence, and to integrate in a new community. Many countries offer refugees work permits. Businesses can potentially offer work visas to refugees with particular skills, as well as training and work experience.

9. Scale up resettlement

This is a crucial way that governments can protect refugees who need it most - people who have been tortured, for example, or women at risk of abuse. But it's a heavily underused solution. Right now, around 1.2 million people urgently need resettlement, but only 189,300 refugees got the chance in 2016. And only 30 countries currently offer this option.

Extreme danger has forced 22.3 million people to flee abroad. Most are stuck in less wealthy countries which offer few opportunities and are struggling to cope. That's why Amnesty is pushing for all countries, especially the wealthiest, to do their fair share by welcoming refugees in any way they can.

While governments look the other way, lots of people are getting on with the job of welcoming. Join us!

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Everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum - it's a human right. The process should be fair and effective, but in reality many governments leave asylum-seekers without a final answer for years. Others are sent back to countries where their lives could be in real danger.

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Did you know that one percent of the world's population is displaced? That's roughly 80 million people. Of that, 5.6 million are Palestinian - the largest group of refugees in the world. While it's important that we honor and celebrate refugees on World Refugee Day, marked each year on June 20, we must remember them every day.

After the Beirut blast, Syrian and Palestinian refugees helped in the emergency response and joined the community-led cleanup efforts. In Gaza, most residents are refugees. After the bombings in May 2021, volunteers came together to clear the rubble from the streets. In the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, refugee volunteers are talking to their neighbors to help them register for the COVID-19 vaccine. Wherever refugees are living, they are not merely surviving but giving back - supporting each other and their wider communities.

For the past year, the communities Anera works with have endured a pandemic, destruction and war. And while Anera's community of supporters have responded to our calls for action by donating and spreading the word about our work (thank you!), refugees, too, have stepped up to support their communities during times of need.

We recently spoke with four inspiring Palestinian and Syrian refugees living in Lebanon. Learn more about how they are spreading hope in their communities in the four video profiles below.

Meet Hussein

Meet Alaa

Meet Essa

Meet Aya

This World Refugee Day, join us in celebrating the generosity within refugee communities. This year, we are asking refugee youth from Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan to submit poems, photography, paintings and drawings that represent how they are giving back to their communities. Make sure you are following us on social media and at #RefugeesShareHope to see some of our favorite artwork submissions on Tuesdays through early November.

I hope you are inspired to share ways you think refugees are making a difference in YOUR community or life. Do you know a refugee who positively impacted your life or someone you know? Or, what motivates you to support refugees? Why do you give back? We look forward to reading your answers!

10 Ways to Help Refugees on World Refugee Day

Dealing with the flood of refugees worldwide has become the world's main humanitarian crisis. A decade ago, roughly 38 million people had been forced to flee their homes because of persecution or war. According to the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), that number stood at 68.5 million at the start of 2018.

Of that 68.5 million, more than 25 million are refugees, while an additional 40 million are internally displaced and 10 million are stateless.

Every day, almost 44,000 people on average flee their homes to seek protection in another part of their own country or abroad.

Developing countries, like Lebanon, host about 85 percent of the world refugees. That number has increased by 16 percent in the last decade.

Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees relative to its overall population. One in six people in Lebanon is a refugee who is the responsibility of the UNHCR.

Of the total number of refugees globally, over 50 percent are under the age of 18.

World Refugee Day is designed to commemorate and honor the bravery and the strength of refugees around the globe and said to encourage people to take action to help them.

What Is World Refugee Day?

World Refugee Day celebrates the strength and resilience of refugees and acknowledges the many obstacles refugees face. Every year on June 20, people around the globe mark the day as an important moment to show support for refugees and their families forced to flee their home countries. The day seeks to educate people about significant issues of concern to refugees and to mobilize action to help them as well as the political will to confront pressing global problems. It is also a celebration of the international achievements of humanity and the need to keep pressing forward.

The goal of World Refugee Day is to raise awareness of the challenges for refugees around the world and to encourage people to find homes for others who been displaced by war or by persecution. The day serves as a call to action for individuals, communities of faith, businesses, schools and communities around the world from every walk of life to work in solidarity with refugees.

Brief History of World Refugee Day

For many years, various countries had been holding events very much like World Refugee Day. Africa Refugee Day, celebrated on June 20 every year, was one of the most widely celebrated events. On December 4, 2000, to express solidarity with the continent of Africa, the United Nations adopted a resolution that World Refugee Day would be held on June 20, starting in 2001. That day also marked the 50 th anniversary of the U.N.'s 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees. The resolution also noted that the Organization of African Unity would coordinate Africa Refugee Day with the new World Refugee Day.

The 1951 Convention had defined what it meant to be a refugee. According to the UNHCR, a refugee is a person who is forced to leave their country of nationality due to persecution, violence or war. In 1967, the U.N. expanded the group of people who can apply for refugee status. That was because the 1951 Convention basically defined a refugee as those people who had been forced to flee their homes because of World War II. This came to be known as the 1967 Protocol. The protocol removed the time limitations and geographical definitions of what it meant to be a refugee.

How to Help Refugees on World Refugee Day

There are many practical ways that you can help refugees around the world. For instance, many organizations around the world hold events on World Refugee Day designed to help refugees financially or to bring attention to their plight. But you don't just have to do something on World Refugee Day. You can do any one of the ideas listed below any time of the year.

1. Help Refugees Where You Are - Host Them in Your Home

Do you have a vacant room? One of the best ways that you can help refugee families is by opening up your home to them without charge. This gives refugees a place to live and connects them with a family who can help them navigate the often confusing intricacies of a whole new country. Many organizations that can help you find refugee families can also assist with paying for some the extra expenses you might face, such as rent or additional utilities.

2. Find a Way to Use Your Specific Skill to Help Refugees

Do you speak a foreign language? When you offer to translate for a refugee family, you help bring great peace of mind because misunderstanding a new language or a new culture is a real obstacle that many refugees face. Do you have experience teaching English as a second language? Teaching refugees English while they wait for their status to be determined is enormously helpful.

You don't have to have a skill with languages, however, to aid refugees. For instance, a soccer coach in Italy who was angry with the growing racism that many refugees faced, started a team for refugees and migrants. Recreational activities of this kind can be very helpful to people who frequently have to spend so much of their time waiting, often unable to work and unsure of what the future holds.

Whatever your skill, you can use it to aid refugees. Reach out to organizations in your community or state that work with refugees and ask them how you can help. You'll be surprised at the various ways available.

3. Employ Refugees

Once accepted as a refugee, that individual can work in the United States. People who have attained refugee status need to find meaningful employment so they can help themselves and their families. Government assistance for refugees in the U.S. can be short-lived, depending upon whether the refugee is an individual or part of a family group. Refugees are expected to take care of themselves after a certain period. Refugees can receive a Reception and Placement Grant for up to $1,850 per person for only their first three months in the country. After those first three months, their abilities to access any further financial or medical assistance depends upon their economic status. These programs last anywhere from eight months to nine years. Also, refugees have a variety of skills and are often quite talented. After all, war and persecution don't care about your educational level. If your business has openings that could be filled by refugees, think about hiring some. If your community has a resettlement center, they can help you find workers with the talents you need to fill empty positions.

4. Shop at Stores That Employ Refugees

The old maxim says money talks. If a business in your community has made a point of employing refugees, shop there and encourage others to do so as well. If a store in your community will not hire refugees, do not shop there, and let them know why you're not shopping there. Sometimes small acts of activism like this can make an enormous difference for refugee families.

5. If Refugees Cannot Work, Offer Them Chances to Volunteer

Many organizations in your community are desperately in need of volunteers. Encourage them to work with refugees. Many refugees can help in positions such as stocking cupboards at food banks or shelves at libraries, volunteering at senior centers or helping coach local sports, like soccer or chess teams. As noted above, refugees often have a variety of skills, and many refugees are more than happy to volunteer in communities that are offering them a life away from persecution and terror. When refugees become volunteers in their new communities, it helps them become more connected to those communities and feel more at home.

6. Encourage Universities in Your Community to Offer Refugee Scholarships

Since many refugees are so young, losing the chance to pursue their education is a real blow. In many countries around the world, universities are reaching out to these young people and offering them scholarships. In Canada, a program gives student refugees who become permanent residentsa chance to enroll at a university or college. In the United States, Southern New Hampshire University has started a $10 million initiative to allow refugees to earn degrees at home or abroad. Their goal is to educate 50,000 refugees a year.

If you have a university in your community, reach out to them and talk to them about some of the initiatives that have been happening around the world, and encourage them to join in.

7. Help Refugees Integrate Into an Unfamiliar Culture

Imagine what would happen if you and your family were forced to flee your home, spend countless months in a refugee camp, and then finally be allowed to emigrate to a new country very far away. Think of the language, the customs and the conventions that you would need to learn to fit into everyday life.

Refugee families in your community face the same obstacles. They have to deal with the trauma that follows many refugees as well as restart their lives in a whole new place. Small acts of friendship can make an enormous difference.

Invite a refugee family for dinner. If a refugee family comes from a warm country, help them learn about the kind of clothes needed for winter and where they can buy that clothing. Assist them with registering their children for school. Go with them to the DMV to get a driver' s license. Show them where to look for a new job. You can smooth the bumps from many of these activities by just reaching out and being a friend.

8. Know the History of Refugees in the United States

It's important that people know the facts about refugees because there are many misconceptions about them in the United States. Compared to the rest of the world, the U.S. currently does not accept many refugees, although, over time, the United States has accepted more refugees than any other country.

Learn about the number of refugees America accepts every year. In 2019, that number is capped at 30,000, down from 45,000 in 2018.

Since 1980, about 2 million refugees have found homes in the United States. 2018 saw the fewest number of refugees accepted into the U.S. in decades.

On average, it takes a refugee family between 18 to 24 months before they know if they will be accorded refugee status. This includes several rounds of background checks, screenings and interviews.

If a refugee finds a job, they pay taxes like everybody else.

A 55-page draft study by the U.S. Department of Human Health Services (HHS) in 2017 found that between 2004 and 2015 refugees contributed $63 billion more than they cost to local, state and federal governments.

Refugees do not come to the U.S. for economic reasons. They are not migrants. They have been forced from their homes by violence or terror. Most refugees would never have left their native countries if war or persecution had not forced them to do so.

The main purpose of knowing about the situations refugees face is so you can point out the facts when you hear statements about refugees that are based on misunderstandings or ignorance. Many states also feature pages with information and facts about the real situation of refugees in your community.

9. Organize Fundraising and Awareness Events in Your Community

You can do this either as an individual or by helping to organize events in your community. Hold a yard sale, and tell people who come that you're donating all your proceeds to aid refugees. Participate in a 5K race or even run a half-marathon, and ask your family and friends to sponsor you. Your children can have a lemonade stand. Ask your friends to donate to help refugees as a birthday present. Work with a local community group, and organize a supper, a dance, a movie showing, a block party or some other kind of event designed to raise funds refugees. Think about setting up a booth on your university campus or at a community event like a fair or a library used book sale to share what you have learned and raise awareness about refugees and how people can help.

10. Donate

Organizations like Anera rely on donations to be able to do all kinds of lifesaving work with refugees around the world. When you donate to Anera, your dollars support essential projects like medical assistance, getting food to needy families, repairing water infrastructure, helping Palestinian refugees learn critical jobs skills and building or repairing schools. Your donation will reach the most vulnerable people in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank.

How Anera Helps Refugees in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank

Anera has worked with refugees in Palestine and Lebanon since 1968. Our workers are members of the communities they serve. They know exactly what will help refugees and their families succeed and gain a better life. Your financial support for refugees is more important and crucial today than it has ever been in the past.

There are 12 refugee camps in Lebanon alone. Most of them date back to 1948 when they were built to accommodate refugees from the first Arab-Israeli war. That means that these camps have seen generations of refugees born and raised in poverty, without citizenship and little hope for a better future without your help.

Anera has helped to rebuild damaged buildings and critical infrastructure in Gaza, trained Palestinians in the West Bank in agricultural techniques to help them farm in low-resource areas and offered education to newly arrived Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Anera also provides health care to all these communities.

If you're looking for ways to help refugees this coming World Refugee Day, please consider donating to Anera. When you donate, you are helping Syrian and Palestinian refugees families find a life with hope, dignity and well-being.

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World Refugee Day 2020 - 10 Ways to Help Refugees - Anera

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Did you know that one percent of the world's population is displaced? That's roughly 80 million people. Of that, 5.6 million are Palestinian - the largest group of refugees in the world. While it's important that we honor and celebrate refugees on World Refugee Day, marked each year on June 20, we must remember them every day.

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Following Fidel Castro's disposal of the Batista regime, Cuba became known as a refugee state. Thereafter the United States began receiving the majority of Cuban refugees.

1. There are more than 1.5 million Cuban refugees living in the United States.

2. The Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966. The law allowed any Cuban citizen the legal right to become a U.S. permanent resident after being in the U.S. for at least two years.

3. The first type of Cuban refugee consisted of mostly middle and upper social classes. They left Cuba in the 1950s to 1970s following the dictatorship take-over of Fidel Castro. In fear of reprisals from the Communist party, they left everything in search of political asylum.

4. The second type of Cuban refugee consisted mostly of poor Cubans seeking economic opportunities in the 1980s.

5. The majority of Cuban refugees fled to Florida because of the state's close proximity. Currently, approximately 68 percent of Cuban refugees live in Florida.

6. To counteract the emigration, Castro began incarcerating and executing those he perceived as opponents.

7. Between 1960 and 1962, over 14,000 Cuban children were sent to the U.S. by their parents in what was known as Operation Peter Pan. These children were placed in foster homes and cared for by the Catholic Church in an effort to avoid indoctrination into the Communist party.

8. In order to go to war with Cuba, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff drafted a plan to trick the American public into supporting a war against Castro. This project was code-named Operation Northwoods and included plans to sink boats filled with Cuban refugees and then blame the violence on Castro. The plan was rejected by the Kennedy administration.

9. In 1980, frustrated with the lack of help, a group of Cubans drove a bus through the gates of the Havana Peruvian Embassy to request asylum. The Peruvian ambassador refused to return the asylum-seeking Cubans to the Cuban authorities. Eventually, these Cubans were allowed to seek asylum in the U.S.

10. Currently, many organizations focus on giving aid to Cuban refugees and immigrants. Their mission is to search for Cuban refugee rafters in the Florida seas.

Since 2012, the Cuban government began easing its restrictive immigration policies. A visa is no longer required to leave the country. Because of this, there has been an influx of Cuban refugees entering the United States and more are expected this year.

- Marcelo Guadiana

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Following Fidel Castro's disposal of the Batista regime, Cuba became known as a refugee state. Thereafter the United States began receiving the majority of Cuban refugees. There are more than 1.5 million Cuban refugees living in the United States. The Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) was passed by the U.S.

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What is a Refugee Camp? Definition and Statistics

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What is a Refugee Camp? Definition and Statistics

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What services are provided at a refugee camp?

Planning and Design:

Within the first 72 hours after a new emergency, the UN Refugee Agency mobilizes response teams to assess the situation and coordinate with government authorities a "safe humanitarian space" that guarantees the safety of the people being forced to flee - in rural settings this is often a camp.

The criteria for a safe humanitarian space includes the following:

A well-designed camp should protect the environment and help prevent fires and outbreaks of disease. Food, water access points and latrines should be properly lit and near shelters so as to protect women and girls against sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and facilities should offer refugees the possibility to access the local economy, infrastructure and services of the host community.

Services:

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What is a Refugee Camp? Definition and Statistics | USA for UNHCR

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A refugee camp is intended as a temporary accommodation for people who have been forced to flee their home because of violence and persecution. Refugee camps are practical during emergencies for delivering lifesaving aid, but many refugees displaced are living through protracted situations that require longer term care.

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Syrian Refugee Children Stories: Life as a Refugee

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Syrian Refugee Children Stories: Life as a Refugee

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As Syria entered its 13th year of conflict on March 15, 2023, the recent earthquakes that have hit the country have compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis. To date, almost 6 million children have been born into war in Syria, with 1 million born as refugees in neighboring countries.

Save the Children has been providing assistance to children in need in Syria since 2012. Our programming aims to reach every last child in need but we can't do it alone. Your donation to the Children's Emergency Fund supports our programs for Syrian refugee children and all children around the world impacted by conflict, displacement and crisis.

Dima* and her son Salim* at a Save the Children health center in northern Syria. Photo by Ahmad Baroudi.

Salim's Story: Fighting to Survive the Winter in a Refugee Camp

In the midst of a bitter winter, Salim*, age 2, tries to stay warm at a refugee camp near the Syrian border. With temperatures nearing sub-zero, Salim will face this brutal winter in a snow-covered tent with only the clothes on his back to keep warm.

The cold days are long, but the nights are always longer for Salim. When the sun goes down, the temperature drops, and he can feel the freezing air against his cheeks. He shivers to keep his body warm but with no blanket he has nothing to protect him from the cold air breezing through the tent. He is one of many children fighting to survive the winter in a refugee camp, and as the conditions turn treacherous, he is in desperate need of warm clothes, blankets and food.

Children are the most vulnerable in refugee camps. They have been taken away from their homes, schools, friends and families, and have been forced to start new lives in strange environments. Save the Children is on the ground year round, providing the basics - like food and blankets - offering programs to help them cope with tragedy. We have also established temporary learning centers where children can continue their education in safe and quality learning centers. With your help children like Salim can get the supplies he needs to survive the winter, receive an education and learn to be a kid again.

As a result of the hostilities in North East Syria, already vulnerable families are being forced to flee for safety. Save the Children is working in the three camps to provide much-needed humanitarian aid and support, including tents and food. Photo credit: Save the Children, Oct 2019.

A Syrian Refugee Puts Others Ahead of Himself

Despite his conditions of living as a Syrian child refugee, Ahmed* runs the World Marathon Challenge in Iraq to protect the health of other children.

Ahmed is one of the many Syrian children who had to flee their homes when the violence started inside Syria. Now Ahmed lives in a camp on the northern Iraqi border that was built for 10,000 and now holds close to 50,000 people-- almost half of them children.

This winter, too many children are living in freezing conditions in refugee camps - many having fled war-torn Syria with nothing but their summer clothes. Now living among frigid dunes, thousands of children are in desperate need of food, clothing, education, health care and help recovering from the trauma of war.

Save the Children is helping by providing education and play spaces for kids and improving the sanitation and health services for children. Ahmed attends Save the Children's programs at the camp - where he plays, learns and begins to recover. As hard as his life is in the refugee camps, he knows that there are children around the world who need his help to survive. That's why Ahmed was one of hundreds of Syrian refugee children who participated in our World Marathon Challenge to protect the health of little girls and boys who are at risk for preventable life-threatening illnesses.

If young children like Ahmed can overcome their challenges and volunteer to help vulnerable children, won't you return the favor and help the Syrian refugee children?

Our teams are on the ground helping to keep children safe, providing the basics they need, like food and blankets and offering programs to help them cope with tragedy. With your help, Save the Children can continue providing relief for children like Ahmed as the numbers of Syrian refugee children are rising every day.

Yaser's* five children have been waiting 11 days for their registration process to be completed. Photo by Chris de Bode / Save the Children

Yaser's Story

For two long years, violence has kept Yaser's* five children, Ali*, 15, Achmed*, 14, Hala*, 10, Sedra*, 7 and Aya*, 3, from living a normal life. They haven't been able to go to school or play outside - the sniper and missile attacks made it too risky. Instead, they learned what type of weapon was being used just by the sound it made.

"Being scared was a permanent state of mind. I was always scared," said Achmed. "When I went to bed, I always wondered if I would wake up the next morning." Eventually the violence became too much for Yaser and his wife, and they made the decision to uproot their family from their home in Syria in search of a better life in Germany. They were only able to make their long and difficult journey from sunset to sunrise so they would not be spotted. Young Hala lost her glasses during their trek. "Everything is already strange, but now it is also blurry," she said. "It is very scary not to be able to see clearly."

They walked for days until they reached the boat that would carry them to Germany. The water was rough and the children were scared, but the family eventually made it. Now they must wait to register for asylum, a process that takes up to two weeks. During those two weeks the family must wait outside the registration center every day for their number to be called. There are no facilities or shelter from the rain.

"I am tired of waiting here all day. We just stand in the rain," said Achmed. "But I will tell you something: after everything we have been through, a bit of rain can't hurt me."

*Name changed for protection.

Frequently Asked Questions About Syrian Refugees

Who are Syrian refugees?

The Syrian refugees are a population who have been forced to flee Syria due to violence, persecution or war. The vast majority of Syrian refugees live in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt.

More than 6 million people in Syria have been driven from their homes but remain displaced inside the country, living in terrible conditions. During Syria's hard winters, they risk freezing to death.

Syrian children - whether inside Syria or elsewhere - do not see bright and happy futures inside Syria. On average, 86% of Syrian refugee children surveyed in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and the Netherlands said they would not want to return to their country of origin.

For more information on refugees, read our page What is a refugee?

How many Syrian Refugees are there?

After ten years of war in Syria, 13 million people are displaced, including 6.6 million Syrian refugees.

When can Syrian refugees return home?

Conditions in Syria are not ready for refugees to return. Besides the ongoing conflict in many areas, there is no access to quality education, jobs or stable income - all basic necessities.

Any return to Syria has to be dignified, informed, voluntary and safe. This cannot happen before the conflict is over and without peace and guarantees for people returning.

What are Syrian refugee children calling for?

In a recent report, Save the Children explored how children's environment, experiences and access affect their sense of safety, inside and outside Syria.

The study found that children want to feel safe where they are. They want to have a say on their future and meaningful access to opportunities to learn and grow.

Children's top priority is for the violence in Syria to end. They also want an end to harassment on the streets, and for just and the rule of law to prevail.

The need for stronger legislation to ensure people are treated equally and are not discriminated against was also highlighted by children in this survey.

How many children are out of school in Syria, and what does the future look like for them?

An estimated 2.4 million children are out of school, 1.6 million children are at risk of dropping out.

For children in Syria, it is not only COVID-19 that serves as an obstacle for the continuity of their education. Between February 2019 and February 2020 alone, 92 incidents occurred where a school or education facility was attacked. This has meant that children in Syria have had to live under the constant threat of violence.

How Save the Children has Shaped Refugee Stories

Save the Children has had programs in the Middle East for decades, thanks to the generosity of supporters like you. Despite the danger inside Syria, our emergency response teams reach the most vulnerable children in Syria and in those countries hosting Syrian refugees. To date, we have supported more than 8.3 million people, including 4.9 million children.

Our teams work around the clock to keep children in Syria, Syrian refugees and all children impacted by conflicts around the world safe.

Read More News and Stories about Syrian Refugees

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Syrian Refugee Children Stories : Life as a Refugee

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Read the stories of Syrian children who had to flee their homes in a war-torn country. Find out how you can donate to help Syrian refugee children.

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Rayhana: The harsh reality of life in a refugee camp

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Rayhana: The harsh reality of life in a refugee camp

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"Living in a refugee camp is difficult. There's no food, no water, no toilet and no place to bathe. We can't afford to eat three times a day. My newborn baby cries for milk but I cannot produce enough breast milk - maybe because I have not eaten enough over the past weeks," laments 23-year old Rayhana, mother of four children, now living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

According to UN OCHA report, dated 22 September, about 430,000 people fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh when violence broke out in Myanmar Rakhaine State on 25 August. Bangladesh currently is hosting more than 700,000 Rohingya refugees in twelve refugee camps. Rayhana's family is one of the 25,000 people who are living in tents in the Jamtoli Thaingkhali Refugee Camp.
Life was good in our village
Before the violence erupted in Rakhaine State, Myanmar, Rayhana recounts, "We had a decent house and reared goats and chicken. Our house was made of wood, a beautiful one. It had two rooms. We had all we needed there. Our paddy field blooms. We lived a happy and peaceful life but the violence forced us to leave everything behind."

But Rayhana's reality has changed overnight and is constantly consumed by finding way to adapt to a refugee life.

As one of the new refugees in the camp, the family has yet to get a card, which will make them eligible to get relief. They collect food and clothes from roads where people distribute food and clothes in the trucks. "Children's cry for food becomes louder as the day goes by. I feel bad to give them Chira (flatten rice) and Gur (sweet) but they don't like it. They prefer to eat rice, it's our staple food," she says.

By giving a false promise of feeding them rice, Rayhana tries to feed them what they have.

"I tell them we'll eat rice later today, then say we'll eat tomorrow. My kids ask for rice with meat and fish. There is nothing much to say after that," says, Rayhana.

For cooking, she made a small Chula (cooking fireplace) where she can cooks if they're able to collect rice. At daytime, her husband, Jaber, goes out to collect aid assistance on roads, in the fields, and distribution points. He also brings clothes for his family.
Defecation in the jungle
There is scarcity of toilets in the camp. "In the morning when it is still dark, I take water in a small pot and go to the jungle, which is 20 minutes-walk, from my tent just to defecate in an open space. It's uncomfortable but I have no other choice. For children, we take them to some place closer to our tent and let them defecate in an open place," she said.

Elaborating on her recently acquired routine Rayhana says, "after defecation in the jungle, I return and brush my teeth with Ara (Charcoal). Then I feed my 20-day-old baby, Rokeya."

"In a small space with six people sleeping is rough. Tents in this camp are very nearby. We cannot talk about many things here. Very often our sleep gets disturbed either by children's cries and people shouting. I wake up in the dead of the night to take a bath as there are no walls, or enclosures, near the tube-well. Many women bathe at night so I have to wait my turn.

At daytime, many people roam around our camp. Some come to distribute aid, some come to visit the camps residents for many other reasons. In such a situation we cannot take rest or do many personal tasks."

Rayhana's children haven't bathed in three days because of water shortage. "There are very few tube-wells here. There's no enough water. There is always a long queue in the tube-well.

After waiting for hours, Rayhana is able to bring little water back to their shed.

"We have a small jar of three litres where I can store water. I wish we have bigger jars, so we can store enough for emergency use."

"I don't know what is written in our destiny. I hope a school opens here for my children. It would be good for their future. My children could go to school and become teachers and officers when they grow up. Currently, there is no school, no madrassa in the camp. We have no source of income too. We're only waiting to receive aid."

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Story by Himaloy Joseph Mree/World Vision Bangladesh Communications Staff

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Rayhana: The harsh reality of life in a refugee camp

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"Living in a refugee camp is difficult. There's no food, no water, no toilet and no place to bathe. We can't afford to eat three times a day. My newborn baby cries for milk but I cannot produce enough breast milk - maybe because I have not eaten enough over the past weeks," laments 23-year old Rayhana, mother of four children, now living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

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Life as a refugee: Spend the day with Nour

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Life as a refugee: Spend the day with Nour

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Editor's note: This article was originally published March 14, 2014; it was updated April 28, 2018 to reflect the latest information.
"When we left Damascus, my father told us we would only be gone for a month," says Nour, a 13-year-old Syrian refugee. "But after we were here for 6 months, I knew we were not going to be going home soon. I was devastated. I thought I had lost my life, my future. I just wanted to die."

I met Nour after she had been living in Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp for a year, along with her parents, four siblings, grandmother and cousins. The family fled Syria when bombs started falling in their neighborhood; their house was destroyed just days after they left.

I spent a Friday in the camp with her and her family to see what the life of a refugee is like on a typical day. It was the weekend in Jordan, so Nour, an aspiring nurse, was not in her classes at the Zaatari school. But her school days are similar - living as a refugee in a tent takes a lot more work than her comfortable life in Damascus, and her many chores make it a challenge to keep up with the top scores she earns in her studies.

In spending a day with Nour, I learned that the life of a refugee is very difficult, but it's also one with occasional joys and moments of tenderness. Nour is a very special girl, as are so many of the Syrian children who are struggling to maintain hope in the face of disaster. As the conflict continues unabated, they deserve our support more than ever.
Scroll through the photos below to learn about the life of a refugee, and find out how Mercy Corps is working to ensure young ones like Nour see a future beyond this crisis.
6:00 AM: Waking up

Nour opens the tent flaps for the day, while her sisters Duha (left) and A'laa (right) wash with a bucket of water.

Zaatari sprung up in the middle of the desert 60 kilometers outside Amman, Jordan in 2012, in response to the teeming need of refugees crossing the border from Syria. Tents don't have individual water taps, and water in Jordan is in short supply.

The camp has a communal bathroom, but the girls can only shower there twice a week. "We have to walk a long way and stand in line to take a cold bucket bath," Nour explains. "We have to be really fast or people waiting will yell at us."

In response to water scarcity in Jordan, Mercy Corps built wells in Zaatari and has been working to fix the country's aging water system so that it can meet the growing needs of refugees and host community members.
Learn more about the water shortage in Jordan ▸
7:30 AM: Getting ready for the day

Nour feeds her little brother, Basheer, his breakfast before taking her own. "Feeding Basheer is one of my many full-time jobs," says Nour. "He is always hungry!"

It's difficult - or, sometimes, impossible - for Syrian refugees to get work permits in the countries where they've sought refuge, making earning money for food and other essentials incredibly challenging. Many refugee families flee empty-handed and are forced to pursue informal labor or have their children work for a few dollars a day, just so they can make ends meet.

Luckily, in government-run camps like Zaatari, where Nour lives, there are often more resources for refugees to get what they need. Over the years Zaatari has even developed its own economy, complete with makeshift shops and markets carrying a variety of goods.

Throughout the region, Mercy Corps distributes food, cash and basic supplies to help refugees in camps and communities get back on their feet after fleeing. We also support livelihood development through distribution of items like seeds and tools and facilitation of cash grants and business courses.

8:40 AM: Fetching water

Nour fetches water from the communal water tap in the camp so her family has what they need to drink, bathe, cook and clean. As a refugee, meeting even your most basic needs can be a laborious undertaking: Nour makes this trip an average of six times a day, carrying heavy buckets that leave her sore.

"My father was a mechanic at the Damascus water company before we came here," she says. "I never would have imagined I'd be walking and standing in line to fill a bucket with water just to survive."

Before Syria plunged into years-long conflict, many families there led peaceful, happy and productive lives, and people established careers as doctors, teachers, farmers, lawyers and more. Now, those things have been replaced with the daily struggle to find shelter, food and water.
Read more: Who are Syrian refugees? ▸
9:00 AM: Washing dishes

Nour does the breakfast dishes with her mother and little sister A'laa. They wash the dishes behind their tent in plastic buckets, as there are no sinks. "It is really hard to get things clean here without hot water," says Nour. "Even if you manage to get all the grease off, you end up with sand on the plates."

Many of the camps, communities and settlements where Syrian refugees have sought refuge are crowded and derelict, and almost none have the resources to support such an influx of people. These conditions can make the life of a refugee precarious. Without proper water, hygiene and sanitation systems, refugees are more vulnerable to disease. They also have limited or no access to medical care if they do get sick.

Mercy Corps works in camps and communities to deliver emergency water, build latrines and improve sanitation systems to ensure refugees are supported to stay healthy and safe.

10:00 AM: Caring for her younger siblings

Nour helps her mother cook lunch, the largest meal of the Syrian diet. They have to use the communal camp kitchen that serves 40 families. One of Nour's sisters usually goes ahead to wait in line - there are only 16 gas stoves to share - while Nour and her mother assemble the food in the tent and then carry it all to the communal kitchen for cooking.

2:30 PM: Eating with family

Nour prepares tea for her family and other relatives who live in the camp and have come by to visit. "They always talk about the war and friends who have been killed or disappeared," says Nour. "It makes me sad to listen and think about how my country is being destroyed."

In years of war, communities inside Syria have been reduced to piles of charred rubble that feel impossible to return to. Syrians who have fled face an uncertain future as months away from home gradually bleed into years. And now, as refugees, they must face not only the challenge of rebuilding the life that is in front of them, but of holding onto the life they left.
More stories about refugees' struggle to balance the past and the future ▸
Resting

Nour joins her family and neighbors outside as dusk approaches. She enjoys a rare moment of quiet in the camp that is usually teeming with people and water trucks. "On Friday evening it's always peaceful. Sometimes I almost forget I am a refugee," she pauses. "But it doesn't last long, and then I have to go get more water."

How you can help

Mercy Corps is working hard to relieve the intense suffering of civilians inside Syria, as well as that of refugees seeking safety in neighboring countries.
For young Syrian refugees like Nour, this work can mean the difference between a life of despair and a future of hope. And it relies on the compassion and kindness of people like you.

We've worked in the region for 20 years and are committed to helping young Syrians and the countries hosting them for as long as it takes. As the number of those in need keeps increasing, your support will allow us to do even more for young refugees.

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Life as a refugee: Spend the day with Nour

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From dawn to dusk, every hour with Nour, 13, and her family in Zaatari refugee camp shows the hardships millions of Syrians endure every day, three years since the war began - and the occasional joys they hang on to far from home.

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In NH, a Land of Opportunity for Refugees, Immigrants

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In NH, a Land of Opportunity for Refugees, Immigrants

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In NH, a land of opportunity for refugees, immigrants

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Refugees contribute to population and economic growth in Vermont

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Refugees contribute to population and economic growth in Vermont