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Barham Salih highlights the contributions refugees make to their host communities as workers, students, neighbors, artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and leaders.
“Given the opportunity, they rebuild their lives and help strengthen the communities around them,” He said in front of World Refugee Daycelebrated every year on June 20.
Turbulent times
UN Secretary General António Guterres issued it a message calls for stronger support for forcibly displaced people and the communities that receive them.
“As divisions deepen across the world, new and prolonged conflicts are forcing millions of women, children and men to seek safety far from home,” he said.
He stressed that “these tumultuous times” require new solidarity and strong action to protect refugees.
Difficult choice
“Running away from home to seek safety is one of the most difficult choices anyone can make. I know that from personal experience,” said Salih, who as a young man fled oppression in Iraq.
The High Commissioner emphasized that “although a person may, for a time, be defined as a refugee, being a refugee should not define a person’s life.”
He warned that millions of refugees are “trapped in dependency, dependent on dwindling amounts of aid for their daily survival.”
Overcoming prolonged displacement
Although humanitarian assistance remains necessary to save lives in emergencies, too many refugees must spend years, or even decades, in prolonged displacement.
“Becoming a refugee is meant to be a temporary condition, not a lifelong fatehe said.
“That’s why I set an ambitious goal: to halve, within ten years, the number of refugees living in prolonged displacement and dependent on humanitarian aid.”
These efforts will focus on low- and middle-income countries that host the majority of refugees.
“Achieving this target… will improve the lives of millions of people. This is how we can move from simply managing displacement to solving it,” he said.
Famous anniversary
This year’s World Refugee Day also marks the 75th anniversary of Refugees Refugee Convention.
The 1951 treaty, adopted after the Second World War, stipulates that anyone forced to flee war, conflict or persecution has the right to seek safety and protection.
“We must continue to keep that promise. Until everyone is safe, none of us will be safe,” said Mr Salih.
“This not just a statement of solidarity but a call to action. Because the right to seek safety was created in times like these, and it is up to all of us to defend it.”
Defend refugees
The High Commissioner heads the UN refugee agency, UNHCRwhich rallies young people to stand with refugees and defend asylum under the theme of World Refugee Day Until Everyone is Safe.
The campaign challenges stereotypes about refugees and emphasizes that the right to seek safety is more than simply fleeing war or violence.
It also complements the goal of halving the number of refugees in long-term displacement by 2035 – first outlined in a recent UNHCR report. Global Trends Report.
That 50 by 35 vision aims to increase refugees’ access to employment opportunities, national education, health and social protection systems in an effort to foster independence and reduce dependence on aid.
