When communities are displaced by conflict or forced to leave their homes because of natural disasters, older people are often left behind or neglected.
Among the many issues on the agenda of the Second World Assembly on Ageing, held in Madrid in April 2002, that of older refugees and IDPs occupied an important place.
The international community's recent commitment to addressing the issues facing older people, reflected in the designation of 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons, has begun to influence the work of humanitarian agencies.
The continent of Africa - and the country of Uganda in particular with its large number of people affected by HIV/AIDS - presents a particular case when it comes to the role of older people within their communities.
An older person forced to leave his residence finds himself in an unusual and unstable living context which renders him more vulnerable.
Since its opening in 1999 more than 55,000 people have passed through Sangatte.
On 13 December 2001, states committed themselves "... to consider ways that may be required to strengthen the implementation of the 1951 Convention and/or 1967 Protocol"(1). It is wonderful that after half a century we may finally be on the verge of taking oversight of the treaty seriously.
New Zealand is one of a small number of countries accepting regular quotas of refugees mandated by UNHCR.
Could there be a better way to create more hardship, more instability and more potential refugees, while increasing the appeal of extremism, than to cut off the money transfer lifeline to Somalia by shutting down remittance agencies?
Asylum seekers and refugees in the UK often receive inadequate or culturally insensitive care.
A recent research project has examined the relations between internal displacement and migration in the Peruvian Andes in the second half t of the 20th century and the difference that the introduction of the IDP concept has meant for understanding mobile populations.