Refugee finding foreign article in river (5)
I believe the answer is:
exile
'refugee' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'foreign article in river' is the wordplay.
'foreign article' becomes 'il' (definite article in Italian).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'river' becomes 'exe' (River Exe).
'il' put inside 'exe' is 'EXILE'.
'finding' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for exile that I've seen before include "One barred from their native country" , "Person absent from home or country" , "being always away from home" , "Banish from one's country" , "officially banish" .)