Archived Information

The International Catholic Migration Commission remembers an Iranian family of four, and many millions more refugees, on the occasion of World Refugee Day, June 20th.

June 20th is UN World Refugee Day. The International Catholic Migration Commission joins the United Nations, the Catholic Church and its partners in service everywhere to honor the hope, struggle and resilience of refugees of today and yesterday, all over the world.
As noted by Pope Benedict XVI, it is a day "to keep alive attention on the problems of those who must forcibly abandon their homeland."

It is a day to remember people of sometimes surprising hope… a day to be amazed and inspired by, in the words of the Holy Father, "the strength of spirit needed by those who must leave everything, at times even their own families, to escape from grave difficulties and dangers."

ICMC sees that spirit, and finds that inspiration in refugee families and individuals, one by one.
ICMC remembers one family this past year in particular: a widow and her three children who had fled for their lives to Turkey from Iran, where they had been persecuted for their religion.One of the sons had been arrested there simply for possessing and duplicating religious tapes.

And the government had actually issued an order to arrest the mother for committing apostasy, which is punishable by death in Iran. As it does with thousands of refugees in Turkey and the broader Mideast region every year, ICMC experts intervened with "fast track processing" of the family's eligibility for resettlement in the United States, in a program funded by the US State Department.
	Young Somali with ICMC staff member

What is a refugee? Someone who flees their country in order to escape persecution on account of their politics, nationality, race religion ethnic or social group. According to a message from UN High Commissioner for refugees António Guterres, more than 8 million human beings are refugees today, with over 20 million facing an uncertain future as refugees. Half of them are children -- young, vulnerable and in need.

	Since its founding 55 years ago, ICMC has worked with refugees in all parts of the world: in Europe, in Southeast and South Asia, in South America, Africa, the Balkans and the Mideast. Some of ICMC's work helps refugees who are able to return home to their own countries and communities as in the areas of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro and Afghanistan.
Somali who have completed the ICMC Cultural Orientation Programme

Some of ICMC's work involves helping refugees to integrate into the countries or communities in which they sought safety, like in certain provinces of Indonesia. And a great part of ICMC's effort has been to assist refugees from conflict-torn parts of the world to start their lives over in countries that accepted them for resettlement.

"Let us pray," the Holy Father has said, "that these brothers and sisters of ours may find acceptance and understanding on their journey."