about refugees

The United Nations describes a refugee as a citizen who is not in his home country and is unable to return due to fear of prosecution for reasons such as political or religious beliefs (United Nations nd). As depicted in the four books mentioned below, they face various obstacles when fleeing their war-torn nations. The Kite Runner is about Afghani refugees, The Happiest Refugee is about a Vietnam refugee resettled in Australia, The Bone Sparrow is about the Rohingya refugees, and Songs of War Boy is about a South Sudanese refugee. These challenges faced by refugees include rape for women and girls, murder, transportation problems among other problems. These problems can be seen in as Kamal tried to smuggle Amir, Baba and other refugees out of Afghani to Pakistan which was safe (Hosseini 2003). A Russian soldier demanded thirty minutes with a married woman among the refugees being smuggled at the Afghani-Russia checkpoint. The truck which was set to take them to Pakistan also broke down leaving them with no means of transportation. The Happiest Refugee also shows transportation problems where they escaped from Vietnam via an over-crowded bus. Adut (2016) fled Sudan to Kenya via hiding at the back of a truck.A lot of refugees also lose their lives while on transit. Kamal, for instance, lost his life due to fuel fumes while in the fuel tank that was taking them to Pakistan, his father committed suicide following his death. Vietnam’s refugees died due to hunger, dehydration, and diseases (Do 2010). More challenges are encountered when the refugees reach their destination (Fraillon 2016). Ann Do (2010) in his book, Happiest Refugee, describes the many problems they faced upon entering Australia. They faced challenges such as language barrier where they were forced to learn a new language, extreme poverty, family breakup, cruelty, and racism. ReferencesAdut, D & Mckelvey, B., 2016. Songs of a War Boy. Sydey: Hachette Australia.Do, A.,2010 . The Happiest Refugee. Sydney: Read HowYouWant Publishers.Fraillon, Z., 2016. The Bone Sparrow. London: Orion Children's BooksHosseini, K., 2003. The Kite Runner. New York City: Riverhead Books.United Nations High Commission for Refugees., (n.d). Refugees. [Online] Available at:< http://www.unhcr.org/refugees.html>