Development Ratings

Refugees United (RU) was started after the Danish founders, David and Christopher Mikkelsen, helped a young Afghan refugee with the problem of locating members of his family. He had lost contact with them as a 12 year old escaping the Taliban regime. After five years with no news of his family, he has been reunited with only one brother as yet. Realising that the extensive difficulties involved would have been easier with a global network, the Mikkelsen brothers began the development of Refugees United. RU was established in Copenhagen in 2005 and the website was officially launched in November 2008. RU is a US registered charity, as well as a Danish charity, company and foundation.

The Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951) defines refugees as those who have fled their country of nationality due to a well-founded fear of persecution and who are unable or unwilling to take advantage of protection by their country of nationality. The 1967 Protocol removed the Convention’s geographical and time limitations. The definition excludes refugee status due to disaster or migrant working, and does not cover internally displaced people (IDP).

According to the UNHCR, in 2007, there were 11m refugees worldwide plus nearly 14m IDPs. The UNHCR currently helps over 30 million people, ranging from official refugees, IDPs, asylum seekers, repatriated refugees, stateless persons, and others of concern. There are national organisations that help refugees locally.

The International Committee of the Red Cross and national Red Cross branches have family contacting and relocation services. The free message service requires completion of a form with names, alternative spellings, pseudonyms, and places and dates of detention or forced employment, all of which is kept confidential. For the messages, the names and addresses of the sender and receiver are needed to increase the possibility of locating the recipient. The letters are unsealed for safe passage in dangerous situations, and are restricted to personal and family news. But if the receiver is not at the address specified, the options are limited. Once located, the Red Cross can help with physically reuniting separated family members and with travel assistance, paying for flights for relatives to settle in the UK, for instance, assuming visa requirements are met.