Until Everyone Is Safe

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"Migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes for various reasons."- Pope Francis. The world is witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 70.8 million people around the world have been forced from home by conflict and persecution at the end of 2018. Among them are nearly 30 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18. There are also millions of stateless people, who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. Refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect them. They are the only global legal instruments explicitly covering the most important aspects of a refugee’s life. According to their provisions, refugees deserve, as a minimum, the same standards of treatment enjoyed by other foreign nationals in a given country and, in many cases, the same treatment as nationals. A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters. World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives. The theme this year is, “Until Everyone Is Safe”. This year’s theme is a call to action of governments to uphold fair and accessible asylum systems, donors to sustain life-saving support, communities to welcome those forced to flee and each of us to defend the principle that safety must never depend on nationality, wealth, race, religion, gender, political opinion or migration status. The United Nations (UN) states that, millions of people are forcibly displaced worldwide, including families uprooted by war in the Sudan, violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and prolonged crises in Ukraine, Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Myanmar and beyond. When people fleeing danger are denied protection, insecurity deepens: families are driven on to perilous routes, children lose years of learning, women and girls face greater risks, and host communities are left without the support they need. Protecting refugees is therefore not only an act of compassion; it is a condition of stability and peace. Unfortunately, there are different types of forcibly displaced persons: Asylum Seekers: Asylum seekers say they are refugees and have fled their homes as refugees do, but their claim to refugee status is not yet definitively evaluated in the country to which they fled. Internally Displaced Persons: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are people who have not crossed an international border but have moved to a different region than the one they call home within their own country. Stateless Persons: Stateless persons do not have a recognized nationality and do not belong to any country. Statelessness situations are usually caused by discrimination against certain groups. Their lack of identification or a citizenship certificate can exclude them from access to important government services, including health care, education or employment. Returnees: Returnees are former refugees who return to their own countries or regions of origin after time in exile. Returnees need continuous support and reintegration assistance to ensure that they can rebuild their lives at home. No one at birth has refugee printed on their birth certificate. We must protect the dignity and safety of our fellow human beings. The international community must move away from the weaponization of refugees for political gains and uphold the principles of human rights. On this World Refugee Day, let us reaffirm the right to seek safety. Let us utilize the day to highlight the rights, needs and dreams of refugees. May the day be one also of reflection regarding our shared humanity. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo ©

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