[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 81 (Wednesday, June 21, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1237]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WORLD REFUGEE DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 21, 2006

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize World Refugee Day, 
which is the international community's day of remembrance and action on 
behalf of the more than 20 million refugees, who have been driven from 
their homes because of war, famine, and natural disaster. World Refugee 
Day is intended to raise awareness of the plight of these millions of 
people, but more importantly, it is about the recognition that we have 
the power to help them and that we must.
  To Americans who are blessed with the comforts of 21st Century living 
and an abundance of food, it is difficult to conceive of the 
intolerable and degrading existence in which nearly all refugees live. 
Today, as individuals and as a Nation, we must pledge to redouble our 
efforts to work with our allies, the United Nations and other regional 
organizations to help alleviate the suffering of the world's refugees 
and to address the causes that have created the world's refugee 
population.
  As we speak, millions of Darfurians in Sudan have been driven out of 
their homes by the armed Janjaweed militia. Huddled in pitiful camps 
and under constant threat of attack, the Darfur refugees live on 
inadequate food and with little or no shelter. Their crops are 
destroyed. Their livestock have been killed and thrown into wells, 
poisoning the water. Their villages have been burned to the ground. 
Darfurian women are systematically raped, including young girls who 
venture out of the refugee camps for firewood.
  What we are seeing in the largest country on the African continent is 
genocide: a calculated means of annihilating a group of people, robbing 
them of their chance at livelihood. International aid workers and a 
thin force of African Union peacekeepers are all that stands between 
them and death.
  Addressing the refugee crisis is not only a humanitarian endeavor; it 
also contributes to our national security. Refugee camps have long been 
recognized as prime breeding grounds for extremism. As we have seen 
throughout the last century, wars that force large numbers of people 
from their homes result in regional instability, threatening American 
interests and our security. American and international aid can do much 
to ensure that refugee camps do not become the birthplace of more 
violence and terrorism,
  While refugees are most often associated with war, it is important to 
recognize today that natural disasters also force people out of their 
homes. The Asian tsunami and the Pakistani earthquakes have created 
millions of displaced people and desertification and rising sea levels 
which are the result of climate change will create millions more.
  Mr. Speaker, it is easy to associate the word ``refugee'' with a 
nameless, faceless person. We must remember that refugees are mothers, 
fathers and children, whose lives have been destroyed by war nature's 
wrath.
  Today we acknowledge our common humanity and pledge that every day be 
a day of action on behalf of those who have no voice.

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