Originally published by the International Federation of Resistance Fighters
The International Federation of Resistance Fighters (FIR) recalls that over 20 years ago, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 20 as World Refugee Day. Since 2001, World Refugee Day has been celebrated worldwide within the framework of the UN. This day of remembrance commemorates the international “Convention relating to the Status of Refugees”, which the United Nations was able to implement in 1951, the year in which the FIR was founded.
Other social forces also remember the dramatic situation of refugees. Since 1914, the Catholic Church has celebrated a corresponding day of action – first in January and for several decades in September – while national initiatives such as “Pro Asyl” remember the fate of these people in “intercultural weeks”.
World Refugee Day is a reminder that millions of people are still forced to leave their homes today. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) publishes the annual “Global Trends” report, which summarizes the worldwide situation in figures. At the same time, the UNHCR pays tribute to the strength, courage and will to survive that refugees, internally displaced persons and stateless people muster every day.
Anyone reading this year’s UNHCR report must realize that the situation worldwide is more dramatic than ever before. The countless regional and national wars and conflicts, of which in Europe only the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are actually noticed by the media, are driving millions of people from their homes. There are currently 120 million people on the run – the largest number of refugees and displaced persons ever recorded. This number has effectively doubled since 2015.
Behind these incredible numbers are millions of individual fates. Among the displaced persons are millions of children – tens of thousands of them unaccompanied. Entire generations have to grow up under the most difficult conditions, experience no social integration, have no access to education and are not given the opportunities they deserve.
Most refugees have to flee from conflict regions in their own countries. They often seek refuge in parts of the country where there are inadequate living and subsistence conditions. It is dramatic when – as in Gaza – even such refugee camps are attacked by the armed forces involved, deliberately destroying a means of survival. The United Nations rightly described this as a war crime.
Three-quarters of refugees are taken in by countries that border on crisis areas and are low- and middle-income countries. However, those who try to flee from war, violence, hunger and natural disasters to other regions of the world must experience that the destination countries, whether at the border between Mexico and the United States or at the external borders of the European Union, use military and other violent means to defend themselves against the arrival of those seeking protection. Billions are being spent on authoritarian regimes, pushbacks, deportations and non-European detention camps in order to defend “Fortress Europe”, for example.
This blatantly contradicts the international agreement on the legal status of refugees adopted by the United Nations in 1951.
As long as it is not possible internationally to contain conflicts, wars or the effects of natural disasters on people, the international community has a humanitarian responsibility to help those people who are suffering blamelessly from these consequences. Moreover, to take action on their behalf, to show them that the international community stands by their side.
This World Refugee Day should therefore also be a strong social symbol of solidarity and humanity with people on the run. FIR and its member associations see themselves as part of this international community, which draws attention to the fate of millions of refugees and calls for humane treatment of these people in need.