Mr. Speaker. Somalia has the largest group of refugees in the world. Its 1.3 million refugees674.000 in camps and another 500.000 to 700.000 located in villages outside campsrepresent 25 percent of all the refugees in the world. Despite the magnitude of this problem. Somalia is receiving limited attention from the international community. Comparisons to the Cambodian relief effort illustrate the neglect of Somalia. While there are 26 voluntary agenciesvolagsin Cambodia and Thailand. there are only6 volags active in Somalia. The proposed U.S. budget for fiscal 1981 calls for $323 million for Indochinese refugees. yet only $54 million is budgeted for African refugees. Somalias refugee problem is getting bigger. not smaller. The number of refugees coming into the camps peaked at 3.800 per day during the last 2 weeks in February. Currently that rate is approximately 1.000 new refugees per day. It is difficult to estimate the rate at which refugees will continue to enter Somalia as this depends on the conditions in neighboring regions. However. if refugees enter the camps at an average of 1.500 per day during 1980. then by the end of the year the total camp population will exceed 1 million persons and the average camp population for the year will amount to 750.000 persons. An extraordinary feature of the camp population is the almost total lack of men among the refugees. Approximately 61 percent of the refugees are children. 15 years old and younger. and approximately 30 percent are women. Only 9 percent are men. most of whom are elderly. injured. or sick. This unusual age and sex distribution creates relatively high requirements for international aid. because selfhelp programs are extremely difficult to design for this type of camp population.
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refugees674 refugee refugees