SIR,

This week, 17th to 23rd June, is Refugee Week. The aim of the annual Refugee Week is to foster cross-community understanding and to demystify some of the common myths and misconceptions about refugees.

Refugee Week is the focus of various national events. Amnesty International, along with a number of partner organisations, campaigns to protect the human rights of refugees worldwide and supports the work of the Refugee Council.

As well as protecting human rights, Amnesty focuses on the root causes that bring refugees to seek sanctuary: the conflicts and human rights abuses that have forced so many to flee their homes, unable to return.

One of the most devastating of these conflicts is going on right now. The number of refugees from Syria is reckoned to be about 1.6 million, more than half of them children.

Most of those people have fled for safety into the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan.

Here in the UK, we have a long and proud history of giving sanctuary to people escaping persecution.

Refugee Week highlights the many ways in which refugees have contributed to, and become part of, our rich history and heritage.

It's about people who come in desperation, but who each bring a unique set of knowledge and experience, and who want to work and contribute. So, Refugee Week is also a celebration of success.

In Monmouth, the local Amnesty group will be marking the occasion with a coffee morning on Saturday 22nd June.

From 10am until noon, at Monmouth Priory, the group will be manning the Priory coffee shop and providing information about refugees in the UK and elsewhere in the world.

Marian Fretter

(Monmouth & District Amnesty Group)