8.4 m refugees across globe

A special UN General Assembly Resolution, unanimously adopted on December 4 in 2000, designated June 20 as World Refugee Day in solidarity with the Africa Refugee Day.

This year the theme of the day is 'Hope'.

In a message on the eve of the day, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said over the past few years, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has helped millions of people repatriate or start over in a country of asylum.

He also said the UN agencies are working together to ensure that millions of people displaced within their own country, often in conditions similar to refugees, receive the assistance they need.

In a message United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said, "There is one common trait among the tens of millions of refugees that we at the UN refugee agency have helped over the past 55 years--it's the fact that despite losing everything, they never give up hope."

To observe the day, UNHCR office in Bangladesh has chalked out an elaborate programme in Dhaka and Cox's Bazar. These include distribution of promotional items and materials on refugees' rights, press briefing, seminar and film show.

UNHCR will organise two seminars on "Forgotten no Longer: Nurturing Hope and lending a hand to the refugees through International Refugee Law" and "Bengal Partition: Reflection on Culture" at the National Museum today in association with Rainbow Film Society at 4:00pm.

The UNHCR Representative in Bangladesh Pia Prytz Phiri appreciated the people and Government of Bangladesh for generously hosting the refugees from the northern Rakhine State in Myanmar for a period of 15 years.

"There are now around 21,000 refugees in camps, some are there for their lifetime," she said.

"On this 6th World Refugee Day, I would like to draw attention to their plight and your support in finding solutions," she added.

As of the end of 2005, the number of the Persons of Concern to UNHCR globally is 20.8 million. 8.4 million are refugees, 6.6 million are internally displaced persons, 1.1 million are returned refugees, 668,000 are asylum-seekers, and 960,400 are others concerned to UNHCR.

The geographical distribution of refugees is Africa 2,571,500, Europe 1,965,800, America 564,300, Central and West Asia 2,467,300, and South and East Asia and the Pacific 825,600.