What is a Refugee?

In its traditional definition, a refugee refers to a person who has been forced to flee their home country and sought safety beyond its borders.

At Action Against Hunger, our programs focus on an even broader definition of displaced people, including refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons (individuals who flee their homes but seek to settle elsewhere within their home country) and stateless people.

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Why are people displaced from their homes?

Individuals and families seek asylum and safe refuge because they have fled violence, persecution, war, or natural disaster. Some refugees have contended with more than one of these factors at once.

Manmade and natural disasters alike can make life extremely unsafe for whole families and communities. Their lives may be at risk, jobs and incomes can be destroyed, food can become scarce or prohibitively expensive, and access to education may be cut off for children. Seeking safety and a more secure life, people become refugees. Many find shelter in large settlements, often called refugee camps, run by the United Nations and humanitarian aid groups.

Refugees and internally displaced people also fall under the umbrella of migrants. Migration is a term that covers a wide variety of movements and situations involving individuals from all backgrounds and walks of life.

As globalization increases, so too does migration—and many instances of migration occur in positive circumstances. However, the IOM—the UN’s Migration Agency—acknowledges that recent years have seen increased migration and displacement due to conflict, persecution, environmental degradation and change, and deficits in human security and opportunity.

How Action Against Hunger Helps Refugees

We work with refugees and displaced people—along with the communities hosting them. We are on the front lines of the world’s most serious refugee crises. These include the Syrian crisis, the Rohingya emergency in Bangladesh, and the crisis in South Sudan causing large refugee populations to flee into Uganda and Ethiopia. We are also assisting vulnerable South Sudanese displaced within their home country. Among the other locations where we work with displaced citizens are Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, northeast Nigeria, and Somalia.

In these locations and more, we:

• Administer lifesaving treatment to children suffering from malnutrition
• Provide better access to clean, safe water and to sanitation
• Increase access to food and income
• Work with refugees who have experienced trauma to provide counseling and support services

We are proud to partner with refugees. Refugees are parents and grandparents who risk their lives to protect their children from violence and ensure they are fed. Refugees and displaced people teach us about dignity. They show us the best of humanity. They are innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders, dreamers, friends. They inspire us, each and every day.