Refugees Around the World

The book, Exit West, was an interesting read. The magical element of these refugees being able to travel to different countries just by going through doors adds a certain spice that nothing else I've read has. It could be compared to Monsters Inc. or the Chronicles of Narnia, but it is so much more than that. It's a book about humanity. It allows us to connect with these refugees on another level; however, it also got me wondering about our world. Refugees are a big topic right now. Where are all of them coming from? What instances of this do we have? Is it anything like what happened in Exit West (sans the mystical doors)?

Right away, I came across the article World Vision. It gives a list of the top countries refugees are coming from. It was no surprise that Syria is number one. The country has been at war for years, and the citizen in cities like Aleppo face dangerous situations every day. In fact, there was just a toxic gas attack there this last Saturday. Horrible. This country accounts for 6.7 million refugees. 

The next four on the list didn't really surprise me, but I was disappointed with how little I had heard about them. It's good that Syria gets so much coverage because people should know what's going on; however, these other places should get their story told as well. Ignorance is not always bliss. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Somalia deserve better.  

I had never even heard of refugees being from Myanmar. I had no idea there was something going on there that was causing people to move and be displaced from their homes. This is an article by BBC that talks about the crisis there. People are being denied citizenship and aren't being recongizedas human beings. It's a case of ethnic cleansing that I didn't know about, but now I do. And now you do too. It is my hope that stories like these get more light shed on them.