Refugees On Stamps

Moldova
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
50th Anniversary - January 19, 2001
60th Anniversary - November 25, 2011
The UN refugee agency has a small operation in Moldova, where it works with the government to address the needs of more than 2200 people of concern. Most of them are stateless, but there are also several hundred asylum-seekers from former Soviet republics as well as Africa and Asia. Efforts are undergoing to advance an European-supported local integration project.

The Belgian charity stamp is one in a set of six issued in 1960. Two helpless refugee children with a backdrop of ruins, drawn by H. Decuyper. UNICEF is providing care and education to millions of children. (I hope Kuol won't mind my putting this particular stamp on this thread although he already submitted the set on the UNICEF thread. And thanks for the Moldovan stamps. K.)

Each year, UNICEF Germany and the magazine GEO grant the "UNICEF Photo of the Year Award" to photos that best depict the personality and living conditions of children worldwide in an outstanding manner. This year a photo by Georgi Licovski was chosen: Refugees at a border along the "Balkan Route", August 2015.

Another Italian issue (2005) in memory of the forced exodus from Istria, Fiume and Dalmatia beginning during WWII. (see 10/25/2015) These refugees settled not only in Italy, but also in f.e. Australia and the US.

Moldova
70 Years since the first mass deportation in Bessarabia (June 12, 2011)
65 Years since the second mass deportations in Bessarabia (July 5, 2014)
These two stamps were issued in memory of the victims of the Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina between late 1940 and 1951.
The 2014 stamp depicts the monument Trains of Pain produced by sculptor Iurie Plato. The bronze monument, 3 meters high and 12 meters long, was installed in the Railway Station Square in Chisinau on August 23, 2013.

Algeria issued this stamp in 1991 to commemorate the signing of the Geneva Convention on the rights of refugees. http://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10.html


(I think the UN logo is well done because it is so easily understood the world over; it has of course appeared numerous times earlier on the thread, sometimes even with the uprooted tree.)

France depicted the logo in the UN blue on its stamp of 2001. (Note that at this time it was possible to mail a letter in either Francs or Euros.) The Moldova stamp of a few days ago 12/24 has many people of all colors under the shielding hands.

Two more countries that issued the UNHCR logo on their stamps: commemorating 50 and 60 years.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (based in Rome) retains sovereignty under international law, including permanent observer status at the UN, issuing own passports, currency and postal stamps. The order, employs about 25,000 doctors, nurses, auxiliaries and paramedics assisted by 80,000 volunteers in more than 120 countries, assisting children, homeless, handicapped, refugees, elders, terminally ill and lepers around the world without distinction of ethnicity or religion.

Refugees from persecution and violence long ago: The three Wise Men visited the Holy Family and that night Joseph was told to flee Bethlehem with Mary and The Child Jesus; they left before dawn. (I have always admired P.P. Rubens' skill at showing dark and light in his paintings, in this one the light seems to emanate from the Child.) Christmas charity stamp, Germany.

Nepal issued a stamp for the 50th anniversary of the UNHCR in 2001. The UNHCR also helps people after natural catastrophes; after the 2015 earthquake, hundreds of thousands of Nepalese still need very basic help. At first the UNHCR could only bring a few things in by helicopter before roads became passable again (photo, last summer). (Comment: I wondered why this stamp seemed odd until I realized that there are no mountains in the background.)

The Swiss stamp for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UNHCR has young Africans in need of help up front; today there are still many thousands of them.

Georgia issued a stamp to commemorate 50 years of UNHCR. In the early 1990s and again in 2008 South Ossetia (Russo-Georgian war) in Georgia were regions of war. Thousands of refugees from these areas live in a refugee camp close to Tbilisi.

Here is an image of a block of four of a stamp depicting the World Refugee Year uprooted tree emblem, printed by photogravure, and issued by Republic of China (Taiwan) on May 7, 1960, Scott No. 1253.

- nethryk

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Nansen Award Winner, 1955. Queen Juliana left no stone unturned to promote international aid to refugees and lobbied for support from US Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. In her own country, she gave guidance to the most effective fund-raising campaigns for refugees. These charity stamps raised funds for her campaign: "Help them find a safe haven". (Vluchtelingen = Refugees) Two of three stamps out of a mini-sheet, 1966.

Senegal issued a stamp for the 20th year of the UNHCR. The long war in the Casamance region of Senegal, which began in 1982, pitted the Jolo people against the government of Senegal. The rebels sought independence for their region. Despite a cease-fire arranged in 2004, violence has continued on and off ever since. Thousands of Senegalese have sought refuge in Europe.