~ Refugee Crisis ~
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​According to the most recent statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are currently more than 70.8 million forcibly displaced persons, 41.3 million internally displaced persons, and 25.9 million of which are refugees,  known to exist, with  Syria, Afghanistan, the Sudan, Rohingya in Myanmar, and Somalia accounting for more than 57% of the world's refugee population, and the numbers and the regions are increasing monthly and on an unprecedented scale. The problem has reached epidemic proportions and we are globally in crisis as a result. But what does it mean to be a refugee?

​The UNHCR defines a refugee as 'someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.'  Refugees are by definition displaced persons, generally with no where to go, no place to call 'home', no feeling of safety. More often than not, they are forced from their home, community, and country with little more than the clothes they are wearing and no means of transportation other than by foot. Refugees are not only devastated at their current state of homelessness and loss of community, but many are aware of the unfortunate (and often irrational) fear-based growing global trend of otherwise friendly countries preventing them from entering for safe haven and/or asylum, especially in the wake of growing terrorism. 

We are currently in a state of refugee crisis on a scale never before seen. One decade ago, in 2009, there were a reported 36, 460,806 persons classified as refugee. To date, six months into 2019, we have nearly twice the count. During the Obama presidency in the United States, the percentage of refugees that were Muslim virtually equalled the percentage of refugees welcomed into the country as Christians. Two years later, the Trump administration has virtually outlawed the ability for anyone of Muslim background or coming from a Muslim country to seek refuge, the latest count demonstrating less then 16%  of those from Muslim countries or who identify as Muslim having been allowed in through our borders, while not surprisingly given the heinous politics, white-leaning favoritism, and racist values of the current administration, a whopping 80% of those allowed to enter the US, were White Christians.  These statistics do not include the current 2019 six-month estimates of more than half a million mostly minor children and women apprehended at the Mexican-US border by US border patrol agents at the behest of president Trump that are currently warehoused in cages with inadequate food, water, bedding, ability to wash, stretch, have any visitors including family members, or leave the caged facilities.