EUROPE/ITALY - World Refugee Day: “ A Place to call home: Rebuilding lives in safety and dignity”. In 2003 the number of refugees fell by 18 %; Europe has 5.4 million and Italy about 23,000.

Friday, 18 June 2004

Rome (Fides) - “What every refugee wants more than anything else in the world is a place to call home, no matter whether it is the old one or a new one” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in view of World Refugee Day, June 20, which this year has the theme“ A Place to call home: Rebuilding lives in safety and dignity”.
In Italy there area about 23,000 refugees: of these 13,000 are recognised on the basis of the Geneva Convention and the other 10,000 receive humanitarian protection. In 2003, the Commission for recognition of refugee status examined 11,319 requests: only 555 were accepted and 3,358 were rejected; 7,348 concerned non Italians whose whereabouts are unknown. On the basis of a national asylum programme Italy has about 2,100, places available for more than 11,000 requests made in 2003 alone. Between 2001 and 2003 the national programme settled 4,265 persons; in Emilia-Romagna, in 2002, 39 persons were housed in Parma, 109 in Modena, 87 in Forlì, 95 in Ravenna. Recently 2 new programmes were funded: in Parma for 25 places and in Bologna: for 16 places for 2003, which as from this year have become 28.
In Ferrara, a protocol was signed to guarantee 12 transit areas and to facilitate professional training for asylum seekers and refugees. It is estimated that in Emilia-Romagna there are about 2,000 refugees.
In 2003 a total of 807,000 requests for asylum were made in 141 countries. Most of the requests came from people in the Russian Federation (38,900), China (37,100) and Serbia-Montenegro (36,700). The figures given by UNHCR do not include about 4 million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza Strip who are the responsibility of UNRWA the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (AP) (18/6/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:29; Parole:378)


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