World Refugee Day is “a day to honour the courage and resilience of millions of people around the globe forced to flee war, violence and persecution. But it is also an opportunity to sound the alarm on their behalf”, declared the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Friday 20 June.
“Record numbers of men, women and children – over 122 million people worldwide – have been uprooted from their homes [while] the abject failure to end conflicts – from Sudan to Ukraine, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Gaza – continues to create untold human suffering”, he says.
“Yet the innocent people who run for their lives as the bullets fly and the missiles rain down are unjustly stigmatised”.
And “brutal cuts to humanitarian aid” are “choking off assistance” and threatening “millions of people”. It is “vital that we reaffirm our solidarity with refugees – not just with words but with urgent action”.
On the same day, 71 migrant defence organisations, including Equinox, called on European leaders to “change course” and “put an end to the war on migrants”. “From the agreement between Italy and Albania, to pushback at land and sea borders, to facilitating expulsions to countries where people are exposed to serious dangers, the EU is complicit in serious human rights violations”.
Link to the call: https://aeur.eu/f/hgl (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)