United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called this Thursday for “global solidarity” so that some 43.5 million refugees can “rebuild their lives with dignity,” recalling the “record numbers” of people forced to flee their homes.
“From Sudan to Ukraine, the Middle East to Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and beyond, conflict, climate chaos and political upheaval are forcing record numbers of people from their homes and exacerbating deep human suffering,” the official event highlighted World Refugee Day.
The UN leader noted that there are more than 120 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, including 43.5 million refugees, who, when given opportunities, “make significant contributions to the communities that host them.”
There must be “a commitment to reaffirm collective responsibility for helping and hosting refugees, respecting their human rights, including the right to seek asylum, protecting the integrity of the refugee protection regime, and ultimately resolving conflicts so that people forced to flee their communities can return home” – he stated.
Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejčinović Burić stressed that over the past decade, Europe has “faced a refugee crisis on a scale not seen since the Second World War, when more than ten million people sought refuge” in the organization’s member states.
“They were displaced due to Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine, other conflicts and political persecution outside our continent,” the official recalled, listing various measures taken to resolve the situation.
In turn, the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, in a message published on his account on the social network X (formerly Twitter), said that “the eyes of refugees ask us not to look away.”
“The faces and eyes of refugees ask us not to look away, not to deny the humanity that unites us, to make their stories our own and not to forget their tragedies,” it says.
Last week, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) condemned the international community’s “apathy” and “inaction” in the face of rising forced displacement, which is particularly affecting populations in war zones such as Sudan, Burma and the Gaza Strip. .
In its Global Trends in Forced Displacement report, UNHCR warned that for 12 years in a row there has been an increase in forced displacement worldwide.
The same document emphasized that the increase in 2024 is due both to the consequences of new and existing conflicts and to the inability to resolve protracted crises. Based on this data, if the world’s displaced population were a country, it would be the 12th largest in the world, about the same as Japan.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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