In the article the author regards the problems of definition of the refugee as a legal and social concept, and also criteria of the status of the refugee with reference to the African realities. It is underlined that for defining the status of refugees there are often no accurate criteria. In particular, it is impossible to separate refugees gone from the borders of the country from the internal migrants because both of them frequently are supervised by the same factors. The main criterion to define refugees, more likely, is to search in the fact of leaving from a permanent home place because of the further impossibility to remain there.

African refugees, legal and social status, displaced persons, immigrants, internal migrants