Article 1/A(2) of the 1951 Geneva Convention sets forth the following definition of a refugee:
“Any person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable to return (home) . . . .”

Many refugee families are forced to flee their countries with only the clothes on their backs. They enter a second country seeking safe haven, but they often live in substandard conditions that are unsafe, unsanitary and unintended as a permanent choice. And yet, until a third country indicates a willingness to take that family, they must stay where they are.

The United States is one of the few countries with the resources, the capacity and the willingness to help dispossessed people from all over the world regain hope in their lives. The numbers of refugees worldwide is so staggering (over 22 million) that free countries around the globe cannot absorb them all. However, the United States is committed to saving refugee families one at a time, up to a maximum number that is set by Congress every year (currently 70,000).
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Off all the refugees the most vulnerable are the children that have lost either both parents or father.