According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a "refugee" is an individual who

owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country….

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that in 2003 there were approximately 10.6 million refugees in the world, broken down as follows: Asia (4 million), Africa (3.3 million), Europe (2 million), North America (600,000), Oceania (65,000), and Latin America (41,000). The largest refugee-producing countries were Afghanistan (2.4 million), Burundi (574,000), the Sudan (505,200), Angola (433,000), and Somalia (429,000). Those countries hosting the largest number of refugees were Iran (1.3 million), Pakistan (1.2 million), Germany (980,000), Tanzania (690,000), and the United States (485,000).

The definition of refugee has several components. The first requirement for refugee status is...