Tomorrow evening, the public is invited to celebrate World Refugee Day at Aperture Gallery. Co-sponsored by The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Aperture Foundation, and FilmAid International, this is one of many celebrations in over a hundred countries to honor the contributions of refugees who have rebuilt their lives.

A presentation will be made by documentary photographer Zalmai, who was born in Afghanistan, and at age 15 was forced into exile after the Soviet invasion. He will share his experience as a refugee and present photographs from his upcoming book Silent Exodus: Portraits of Iraqi Refugees in Exile (Aperture/UNHCR). Over the course of several trips in 2007, made with the support of Human Rights Watch, Zalmai photographed and interviewed Iraqi refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Although running out of options for survival abroad, they are still afraid to return to Iraq, given the instability and violence that lingers there.

Photographs by Zalmaï, from Silent Exodus: Portraits of Iraqi Refugees in Exile (Aperture/UNHCR, October 2008).

Also on hand will be Abraham Awolich, one of the "lost boys of Sudan." He will recount his story as a refugee from South Sudan and his work as an activist for the New Sudan Education Initiative. In addition, there will be presentations by UNHCR and FilmAid on the global efforts being made to protect and support refugees around the world.

One of the first photographers to chronicle the plight of people displaced by war, poverty and natural disaster is Sebastiao Salgado. During the early 1990s when he was photographing the war and famine in southern Sudan, the refugee population shot up to nearly 18 million worldwide during the time of the Balkan wars. Salgado then began a seven-year documentation of refugees in 39 countries, which resulted in Migrations: Humanity in Transition (Aperture 2000).

Salgado writes, "My hope is that, as individuals, as groups, as societies, we can pause and reflect on the human condition at the turn of the millennium. In its rawest form, individualism remains a prescription for catastrophe. We have to create a new regimen of coexistence."

Nearly two decades later, the world refugee population is again on the rise. According to a recent report in the International Herald Tribune, it jumped to 11.4 million in 2007, up from 9.9 million in 2006. The number of people displaced by conflict but remaining within their own countries is a staggering 26 million. One of the misconceptions that the UN hopes to dispel through educational programs such as World Refugee Day is that 80 percent of refugees in developing countries are not welcomed as fugitives in the West. Instead they flee to neighboring states, which are increasingly unwilling to shoulder the refugee burden. "It's becoming a more and more inhospitable world for refugees," said William Spindler, an agency spokesman.

The World Refugee Day celebration at Aperture Gallery, Friday June 20 from 5 to 8 pm, is free and open to the public with RSVP. 547 West 27^th Street, 4^th floor.