USCRI Commemorates World Refugee Day with Jeff Fahey, Newly Appointed USCRI Global Ambassador

"Nobody should endure the suffering and hardships refugees have experienced.  Having seen their struggles and heard their stories of escape from oppression I cannot walk away."                              --Jeff Fahey        USCRI Global Ambassador

In light of World Refugee Day on June 20, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is proud to announce the appointment of esteemed actor and refugee rights advocate Jeff Fahey as the new USCRI Global Ambassador. 

This year World Refugee Day coincides with Father’s Day and USCRI is asking families around the world not to forget the millions of refugees who are also fathers. Forced to leave their homeland and flee to safety to protect their families, these teachers, farmers, engineers, and doctors from Burma, Iraq, Sudan, and other parts of the world now wait with dimming hopes often in refugee camps.  Not allowed to move freely and seek employment, they are unable to provide for their families and have to subsist on meager rations. Often, their children are born and raised in refugee camps.

“I recognize that not enough has been done and that the international community should wake up,” said Fahey. “These refugees are living for decades in precarious conditions.”

Known best for his acting--most recently on the television show LOST™--Fahey donates considerable time to global causes.  He has made numerous trips to Afghanistan and spent most of 2006 and 2007 living in Kabul. There he helped save an orphanage, establish the American University of Afghanistan, and create the Safi textile business, which only hires widows of war veterans.

Fahey became passionate about protecting refugee rights when he met refugees from a cluster of camps in a desolate area of the Sahara Desert known as "the Devil's Garden." Many of the 90,000 men, women, and children have lived in these camps for 30 years. “Nobody should have to endure the suffering and hardships they have experienced,” said Fahey. “Having seen their struggles and heard their stories of escape from oppression I cannot walk away.”

The appointment as USCRI’s Global Ambassador comes after years of service in the conflict and post-conflict regions of the world and is recognition for all of Fahey’s efforts and successes on behalf of the oppressed.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with someone who is talented, passionate, and has experienced the bleak world of refugees,” said Lavinia Limón, USCRI’s President and CEO. “Together we will strive to protect the rights of millions of people around the world who have endured war and genocide and now find themselves trapped in limbo”.

Fahey will be speaking at the upcoming U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) National Network Conference, an open forum of active professionals who have dedicated their lives to working in the field of U.S. refugee resettlement. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Refugee Act of 1980, which formally began refugee resettlement in the United States. Since then, America has welcomed over 2.5 million refugees from Vietnam, Ethiopia, Bosnia, Cuba, Kosovo, Liberia, Rwanda, Burma, Iraq, Bhutan, Afghanistan, and many other parts of the world.

“As we focus on refugees from around the world today, we must not forget those still languishing in camps,” said Limón. It may be hard to believe, but millions of refugees spend anywhere from 10 to 60 years—an entire lifetime—in a refugee camp. Today, there are over 8 million refugees warehoused in camps and settlements around the world. Palestinians, Burmese, Tibetans, Bhutanese, Sudanese, and the Sahrawi top the list of long-term refugee populations. Less than 1 percent of those refugees will ever get the chance to rebuild their lives in another country. 

USCRI is a Washington, DC area based nonprofit organization dedicated to addressing the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of refugees and immigrants in community life.