Asian countries host almost half of the world's refugee population. Here are some of the recent refugee
crisis situations in Asia:

• Tens of thousands of Nepali speakers began leaving southern Bhutan 10 years ago. Human rights
  organisations and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said there was a situation of an eviction of an ethnic and religious minority. Negotiations between Bhutan and Nepal have been going on for years over how to classify the refugees in camp, how to separate Bhutanese citizens who were forced to leave from those the government accuses of crimes. Today there are 100 000 Bhutanese refugees in camps in Nepal.
• Tens of thousands of North Koreans are fleeing hunger and repression and coming to Northeastern China
  for food, work and refuge. China views them as illegal immigrants and often sends back those that get caught. China has refused to let UN refugee agency officials screen fleeing North Koreans to see whether they deserve political asylum, but has relented in several cases of North Koreans who have made it into diplomatic missions, allowing them passage abroad.
• More than 1,000 indigenous Montagnards fled the Central Highlands to Cambodia after Vietnamese security forces forcibly put down demonstrations by thousands of hill tribe villagers in February 2002. More than 400 refugees were forced to return to Vietnam, when a refugee repatriation agreement between the United Nations, Cambodia and Vietnam collapsed. These incidents were only the latest of many incidents involving Montagnards who have fled persecution in Vietnam since the fall of Saigon in 1975.
• Thailand has around 131 000 Burmese refugees in camps along the border. Asylum seekers are mostly
  ethnic minorities of Karens and Karennis who are fleeing conflicts, human rights abuses and ethnic insurgency in Burma. Repatriation is constantly being discussed in Thailand.
• Close to a million people have been displaced by Sri Lanka's two-decade old ethnic conflict. They have
  been living in refugee camps or welfare centres in Sri Lanka and southern India or sought political refuge in the West. The conflict also displaced 800,000 Sri Lankan Tamils within their own country. Since the cease-fire agreement was signed, more than 230,000 internally displaced people have spontaneously returned home and about 1,000 have come back from India. However, the return is not yet possible for all because of destroyed infrastructure, landmines and uncertainty on whether cease-fire will hold.
• An estimated 220,000 East Timor residents, who fled to West Timor in the immediate aftermath of the 1999 independence referendum, have already gone back to East Timor. Some 30,000 still remain in refugee
  camps in the Indonesian province of West Timor.?lt;/li>
• Australia has offered refugee status for more than half a million people since 1945. Thousands of illegal migrants are arrested every year for trying to slip in to Australia. Most refugees are from Asia and the Middle East. Detained migrants are held in detention facilities, many of them in desert areas, while their cases are considered. Conditions at the camps have been denounced as harsh and there have been violent protests by inmates.
• There are 3,5 million Afghan refugees around the world. Afghanistan also has some 700,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) driven from their homes by two decades of war and the worst drought in living memory. 250,000 have already returned to their homes with support from relief agencies and UNHCR plans to help 1,2 million Afghans to return home during 2003.
  

Questions

1. Is your country affected by a refugee crisis? Do refugees arrive in your country? Do people flee from
your country to seek asylum abroad? Where have they come from and for what reasons?
2. Are there internally displaced persons in your country? Do you know personally any refugees or IDPs?
3. Is there something in common with countries of origin? What about with hosting countries?