A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their country because they are unable to live in their home or they fear they will be harmed. 

This can be due to a number of reasons, including fighting or natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods.

People may also be under threat due to their "religion, race, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" (1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees).

In many cases, a person's own government will no longer protect them so he or she is no longer safe and needs to seek protection elsewhere.

Refugees lose everything when they are forced to leave their homes, belongings, family and country.

Who is an Internally Displaced Person (IDP)?

An internally displaced person is someone who has been forced to leave their home often for the same reasons as a refugee, however, IDPs find another part of their own country to live in. This is usually in makeshift camps where hundreds of other IDPs live because they have nowhere else to go.

Sometimes IDPs ask to become refugees in another country because their own country will no longer protect them.

Who decides who is a refugee?

People who are threatened in their own countries can apply to another government for protection.  They are called asylum seekers. This government decides using its own laws whether the asylum seeker's life is seriously at risk in their home country. 

It is very difficult for an asylum seeker to be allowed to stay in a safe country.  Sometimes they are turned away at the border because they do not have the right papers, like identification or travel documents.  If they are allowed into a country, they must apply for refugee status within a certain length of time or they will be forced to return to their home country. 

Sometimes there is a "mass exodus" - when lots of people are forced to leave their country or region at the same time.  When this happens, another country is faced with the prospect of large groups seeking refuge in their country.

What happens to a refugee when they arrive in a new country?

Many refugees have left behind a life of pain and suffering.  They can no longer live in their homeland and have to make a new home in a strange, new country.  It can be very difficult for them.  A lot of refugees cannot speak the language of their new country, have very little possessions, cannot get a job in the role they are used to (because their qualifications are not accepted in their new host country) and do not know anyone. 

At the same time they have to deal with bad memories of past experiences. 

Life is not easy.  Refugees are often treated as outsiders. Lack of money and culture shock awaits most refugees in addition to the hardship of having to build a new life in a foreign land often through no fault of their own.

Afghan Refugees in Iran
UNICEF International
"The sign at the entrance to the refugee camp near Torbat-e-Jam bears the title "Guest City". It is a good name for what has become home to 1,900 Afghan families. Iran hosts one of the world's largest refugee populations, including 1.5 million Afghans who have fled the chaos, conflict, hunger and cruelty in their own country, which lies just a few miles away from the city.

Two hours drive away, 350,000 Afghan refugees live in a population of 2.5 million. These Afghans live in the dusty, densely packed streets and alleyways. I visited a house where four families live, including one with 6 sisters, aged from 9 to 19, and their mother, sharing a single room. They make a small living cleaning curtains for about 15 pence a kilo. The father had been killed in the fighting.

90% or more of the Afghan refugees in Iran do not live in refugee camps, but in the streets of cities like Mashad, where they do work that most Iranian's prefer to avoid, especially night shifts on building sites. Whether in the camp or the city, these refugees speak movingly about why they left their homes: the 20 years of fighting, the lack of food, and the difficulties of life, especially for women. Widows have fled because they are unable to survive in a society where women are not allowed onto the streets unless they are with their husbands.

In Torbat-e-Jam, in the darkness of evening, we meet some of the children who have experienced the loss of their homes and lives in Afghanistan, such as the Sayed Husseini family with 5 children. The middle one was not with us as she had gone to hospital, suffering from night blindness, a symptom of malnutrition common among refugee populations, although it can be prevented by the Vitamin A supplements that UNICEF provides for vulnerable children around the world."

Sometimes the situation in a refugee's home country changes and it becomes safe for them to return if they choose to.  Often their homes have been destroyed and many of their loved ones are nowhere to be found as  they have either fled to a new place for safety or might have been caught up in fighting.

What happens to refugees when they arrive in New Zealand?

Once a refugee has been given refugee status in New Zealand, they have the same rights as a Permanent Resident: 

•  Protection against discrimination
• The right to get a job
•  The right to housing
•  Children have the right to an education
• The right to live each day without the fear of being hurt

When resettled refugees first arrive in New Zealand, they spend six weeks at the Mangere Refugee Reception Centre in Auckland where they can have a medical and dental check-up and psychological support, if they need it, from the Ministry of Health.

Refugees take English language lessons and have an orientation programme, with a special programme for children to prepare them for starting school in New Zealand.  They are also helped with housing, benefits, social work, volunteer support, as well as counselling and making contact with the broader community.

New Zealand's first refugees were Polish children and their guardians who arrived by sea in 1944.