The BBC launches a landmark series on the world of refugees

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service radio network is producing one of its most ambitious series ever to coincide with the anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Entitled The Right to Refuge, the landmark package will cover every aspect of the complex world of the refugee – from flight, to asylum and eventual return home.

BBC teams were deployed worldwide for many weeks to gather material. Programs will be broadcast in a total of nine languages, some to a global audience, others to regional listeners, over a period of several months starting in June.

A special web site will carry audio of series programs, analysis, first person refugee testimonies and interactive maps. In a related program, Talking Point, World Service listeners will be able to put their questions to Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The BBC calls the refugee community "a hugely misunderstood and misrepresented group." The series will present a "dispassionate and clear appraisal of an issue" which is surrounded by myths and obscured by a mounting controversy over 'bogus asylum seekers'.

The programs will be designed to raise awareness of refugee issues, "cut through the claims and counter claims" about refugees, give uprooted peoples themselves a direct voice in talking about their lives and create a dialogue between refugees and various government and agency officials.

The main six programs, each 30 minutes long, will be broadcast in English. They will include a historical overview of the changing world of refugees, the increasing threats to refugee protection worldwide, 'forgotten' refugees in developing countries and asylum seekers in the West. Other programs will tackle the problem of when refugees should return home and the future of the Geneva Convention.

Twelve shorter, 15-minute programs aimed specifically for educational use, will tackle key themes and issues and eight series of up to 10 programs exploring regional problems will be broadcast in Persian/Pashto, French for Africa, Indonesian, Albanian, Serbian/Croatian, Urdu, Russian and Spanish for the Americas.

Source: Refugees Magazine Issue 123: "The Wall Behind Which Refugees Can Shelter" – The 1951 Geneva Convention 50th Anniversary (July 2001). Download the complete issue (pdf, 1.2Mb) here