Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: '2 Billion Kilometers to Safety' campaign
Mains level: Refugees issue across the world
The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR has announced a new global campaign urging people worldwide to cover the total distance travelled by refugees each year – 2 billion kilometers – by running, jogging or walking.
About the campaign
- The “2 Billion Kilometers to Safety” campaign vies to encourage people to support refugees by championing individual acts of solidarity.
- The goal is to acknowledge the resilience and strength of refugees.
- It calls on the public to show their solidarity with refugees by running, walking or cycling to collectively cover two billion kilometers.
- Participants can use their fitness apps or the campaign website to log the kilometers and contribute to the global total.
Distance covered by refugees
- UNHCR traced the journeys of refugees around the world and calculated that, collectively, people forced to flee travel approximately two billion kilometers every year to reach the first point of safety.
- This is roughly the distance that separates Earth from somewhere between the planets Saturn and Uranus.
- According to UNHCR estimates, Syrian refugees travelled over 240 kilometers each to reach Turkey.
- South Sudanese refugees travelled more than 640 kilometers to reach Kenya. Rohingya refugees from Myanmar travelled approximately 80 kilometers to reach Bangladesh.
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