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Refugee Advocates Will Spotlight Asylum Seekers On World Refugee Day

kidsoutsideinhats.jpg
Photo courtesy of Anne Bridgman
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The Refugee Resettlement Coalition of Lane County will observe World Refugee Day for the 3rd year in a row. The organization will focus on the growing number of asylum seekers at the southern U.S. Border.

Anne Bridgman with the coalition says since the Trump Administration put a cap on refugees, they don’t see as many in Lane County.

BRIDGMAN: “In that that context the Refugee Resettlement Coalition decided to branch out and begin a pilot program to help asylum seekers.”

The focus on asylum seekers coupled with the growing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border contributed to this year’s theme for World Refugee day. As part of the observance, Bridgman will talk about her experience at a Florida facility where thousands of immigrant children are being detained.

BRIDGMAN: “Visiting Homestead was an emotionally jarring experience. I was there for a week, we would climb up on stepladders and look over a fence into a field into where the children were.”

World Refugee Day is June 20th and Bridgman will speak on the 22nd at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene.

Melorie Begay is a multimedia journalist for KLCC News. She was the Inaugural KLCC Public Radio Foundation Journalism Fellow. She has a bachelors in Multimedia Journalism from the University of New Mexico. She previously interned at KUNM public radio in Albuquerque, NM and served as a fellow for the online news publication New Mexico In Depth.
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