Just over a year ago, a Syrian toddler whose family had been trying to escape conflict washed up on the shore of a Turkish beach. The photographs of

Editor's note: This story contains images and video that some readers may find disturbing. Refinery29 has not taken the decision to publish these

Few people think of music as something refugees carry with them as they make their harrowing journeys to safety. Yet throughout history, some of the

#RefugeesWelcome. According to U.N. Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador Connie Britton, it's a simple message that the world needs to hear right

This year's World Refugee Day comes as the number of refugees across the world is at a record high, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

When people are forced to flee their homes, they often abandon everything except what they need for the immediate future. And for children, that can mean

It’s not every day that a woman works as a farmhand and tractor driver in Lebanon, but that’s exactly what Nuhad El-Barqa does. When El-Barqa’s

Like many teenagers, Halema Al-Hasan dreams of what she will do after she finally finishes school. But what distinguishes her from other 17-year-olds is

My earliest memory is fleeing war-torn Lebanon when I was three and a half years old. My father had safely made it abroad and was waiting for my mother,

Editor's note: Sahar Mahayni is a recent immigrant to the United States. She left Syria in 2012 to live with her son and her husband in California. The

The last thing Fatima* remembers doing with her hands is brushing her hair. Then there was an explosion that destroyed her house in Syria. Neither

Editor's note: Gene Klein, 88, is a survivor of the Holocaust. Together with his daughter, Jill Klein, he wrote We Got the Water: Tracing My Family’s

Filmmaker Aliya Naumoff met sisters Rahaf, 21, and Habari, 17, in the spring of 2015, when she was filming a documentary about Syrian refugee women in

I sat with four other women at a makeshift table, holding warm mugs of chai in our hands and chatting as though we were longtime girlfriends at a Sunday

Growing up in Baghdad, Tarek Turkey and his classmates used to call Saddam Hussein "Papa Saddam." The authoritarian leader's photo was everywhere, and the

Clarissa Ward knows that Syria is dangerous: she's seen friends and colleagues, Syrians and foreigners, kidnapped and killed while trying to report on

As the devastating civil war in Syria enters its sixth year, one of the world's biggest stars is once again calling on leaders to take action and bring

Syrian astronaut Muhammed Faris has been hailed as "the Neil Armstrong of the Arab world," but he's now one of millions of Syrians who've been forced to

Amid all the headlines about war and violence, it's sometimes easy to forget that refugee families once had lives that didn't revolve around finding

It only took one Facebook comment to spur action. In Ponchatoula, LA, Marie Beechy was scanning the comments section of a Humans Of New York post

Editor's note: Eve Warlow volunteered at the Dunkirk camp from 28th December, 2015 to 2nd January, 2016, and wrote about her experiences and

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Ayat has never experienced what it is like to be in love. And at 18, she is not sure she ever will. "The scars on my face are so clear and not easy to

On a rainy Thursday a week before Thanksgiving, three women arrived at the NYU Law School campus in Manhattan. Wearing jeans and sweaters, black eyeliner

Ikea has applied its innovation to a design problem far more pressing than selling stylish furniture at affordable prices. The Ikea Foundation's Better

This story is part of a Refinery29 series that explores the women behind the headlines of the Syrian refugee crisis. Read the full multimedia feature

This story is part of a Refinery29 series that explores the women behind the headlines of the Syrian refugee crisis. Read the full multimedia feature,

Imagine waking up in the morning without knowing where you will lay your head that night. That's now the fate of millions of children around the world

The leader of nearly every state in the U.S. has now weighed in on whether to accept Syrian refugees, and the numbers are not good. As of Tuesday