Whether in Ukraine, Syria, or Uganda: we support people who have been forced to flee their homes and advocate for the rights of migrants from Southeast Asia to Central America.
Although the terms 'flight' and 'migration' are often used interchangeably in everyday language, there are important conceptual and legal differences between them:
Migration is an ancient phenomenon that has always been a part of human history. It refers to any situation in which people leave their homeland for an extended period of time. People migrate for a variety of reasons, including to find work or education opportunities, to improve their quality of life, or to escape hopelessness and poverty in their country of origin. Migration does not only occur in one direction. While some migrants settle permanently in another country, others return to their homeland. The largest migration movements often take place within a region, such as migration from South and Central America to the United States or labor migration from Nepal to India.
Flight is a form of migration in which people have to leave their home country due to life-threatening circumstances. They seek protection and safety in another country.
According to the Geneva Refugee Convention, individuals are entitled to asylum when they are "unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" and cross an international border.
However, the causes of flight go beyond this definition: armed conflicts, violence, extreme poverty, hunger or a lack of prospects exacerbated by the climate crisis also force people to flee. Flight is therefore never voluntary. More than 120 million people worldwide are displaced. Around 69 per cent of them live in neighbouring countries.
Of the 120 million people displaced worldwide, 68.3 million - over half - are internally displaced persons (IDPs). They flee from violence and persecution within their own country of origin, but do not cross an international border. IDPs make up the largest group of people on the move. However, they often receive very limited support, as they cannot invoke the rights granted by the Geneva Refugee Convention. Large numbers of IDPs can be found in Sudan and Syria.
Why People Flee: Statistics & Facts
Today, more people than ever before are fleeing war and persecution. Over the past ten years, this figure has doubled, rising from almost 60 million in 2014 to over 120 million in 2024. In addition to war and persecution, extreme poverty, hunger, and hopelessness also drive people to leave their homeland. Moreover, the effects of the climate crisis, such as increasing weather extremes and rising sea levels, could, according to the World Bank, lead to more than 216 million so-called climate refugees by 2050. The climate crisis is already having a severe impact on the livelihoods of many people, particularly in the Global South. And it is directly linked to poverty and hunger.
How AWO International Supports Refugees Worldwide
In addition to providing immediate support to refugees in the form of food and hygiene packages, we advocate for their long-term rights and help them to improve their living conditions. Below are a few examples of how we support refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide:
Future prospects for refugees in Uganda: Through the establishment of savings and credit groups, as well as training in climate-resilient agriculture, we support families in refugee camps in Uganda in improving their living conditions.
Search and rescue in the Mediterranean: Since 2016, AWO International has supported SOS Humanity, a civilian search and rescue organisation. Thanks to their rescue ships, over 37,000 people have been saved from drowning in the Mediterranean.
Support for Syrian refugees in Lebanon: We provide people with disabilities and elderly individuals in the Beirut refugee camps with access to medical care through our mobile clinic.
Aid for internally displaced persons in Ukraine: Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nearly 4 million people have been displaced internally. We support them by providing psychosocial counselling, for example.
Support for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh: More than one million Rohingya from Myanmar live in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp. We support efforts such as the construction of sanitation facilities, and we provide women with training opportunities to become tailors.
Migration: opportunities and challenges
Although migration can offer opportunities, it also comes with many challenges. Remittances can have a positive effect on the economic development of countries of origin and improve the quality of life for family members left behind. However, it can also deepen social inequalities within these communities and create new forms of dependency. Moreover, the legal and social situation of migrants is often precarious. Migration processes frequently take place in legal grey areas, where there is little protection from human trafficking, violence, and sexual exploitation.
AWO International takes the entire migration cycle into account: This includes potential migrants who, due to a lack of development opportunities in their home countries - and increasingly due to the effects of the climate crisis - set out for other regions. It also includes people already migrating and their families who remain behind, and returning migrants, whose reintegration into their home communities is often shaped by a wide range of challenges.
How We Promote Safe Migration
Depending on regional migration dynamics, our projects cover different phases of the migration cycle. In South and Southeast Asia, for example, we promote safe labour migration and combat human trafficking, both to the Gulf States and within the region itself. In Central America, our work primarily focuses on displacement and migration towards Mexico and the United States. Uganda, in contrast to these regions, is a destination country for refugees. Similar to AWO in Germany, the integration of refugees is a central focus of our partner organizations’ work.
Ideally, migration is seen as a triple-win situation. That means it benefits the migrating individuals as well as the countries of origin and destination.
As well as providing direct support to refugee families, labour migrants and internally displaced persons, we advocate for the rights of migrants and refugees at the political level. Our partner organisations contribute to changing legal frameworks and improving the situation of labour migrants and their families by lobbying at national and local levels. They also engage in international advocacy and networking, for example within the framework of the United Nations Global Forum on Migration.
