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Global Refugee Numbers Reach New High
A United Nations report told a sad story last week. The number of people who left their homes to escape wars or natural disasters hit a new record according to the Global Trends report from the United Nations High commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR. It said that last year; 67 million people were forced to leave their homes.
When people leave their homes to escape violence or natural disasters like earthquakes and floods, they become refugees. Most refugees move to another part of their country, or cross the border into a neighboring country.
In Kenya, 200,000 Somalis live in refugee camps. They went there to escape from war and drought in Somalia. Life in the camps is very hard. Men sometimes come to take boys away to fight in the wars that they were trying to escape.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan forced people in those countries to leave their homes as well. Two million Iraqis left their homes to live in other parts of that country, and another two million left Iraq to live in Syria, Jordan or other nearby countries.
The UNHCR builds shelters for refugees and gives them food and medicine. The United States and European countries are taking in some refugees. Over 50,000 applied to live in the US in 2007. For those few, a better life might lie ahead.
I'm Michelle and that's what happened in the world this week!
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