For most people, the word ‘refugee’ still conjures up images of endless rows of white tents spread out on a dusty field. But this picture no longer tells the full story of life for refugees in the 21st century. According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), over half of the world’s refugees now live in the slums of some of the world’s biggest cities such as Bangkok in Thailand, Amman in Jordan, and Nairobi in Kenya. Today, refugees fleeing conflict or persecution at home are more likely to seek refuge in towns or cities than in urban areas. Of the world’s 10.5 million refugees, an estimated 6 million reside in urban areas.

In 1940 young journalist Varian Fry began a daring mission to help Jewish refugees and some of the Nazi’s most-wanted escape the Holocaust.

The world is celebrating the extraordinary rescue of the Wild Boars football team from a flooded cave network in the Mai Sai district of Thailand, but the incident has also shined a spotlight on a humanitarian crisis on the Thailand-Myanmar border that has been overlooked since the start of military rule in Myanmar in the 1960s. Three of the boys, as well as their coach, 25-year-old Ekkapol Chantawong, belong to Thailand’s stateless population. “Coach Ek” and these boys have escaped from the treacherous caves, but remain trapped, as they have been all their lives, in a state of legal limbo.

International Rescue Committee combats COVID-19 along the Thailand-Myanmar border in partnership with Asian Venture Philanthropy Network