While this year’s World Refugee Day highlights people fleeing their country as a major humanitarian issue that needs to be addressed urgently, church representatives and NGOs argue that political measures of improvement are not sufficient and are even counterproductive.
On 20 June 2016 United Nations World Refugee Day drew attention to the challenges facing the world’s growing population of refugees. The UN High Commission for Refugees emphasised that in the past year more people have fled their homes looking for safety than at any time before. Estimations quantify the combined numbers of internally displaced persons, asylum seekers and refugees currently as high as 65.3 million. That is one in every 113 persons on earth. Other figures state that every minute, 24 people are displaced from their homes.
In a joint statement church representatives from all over Europe urged governments and societal actors not to despair but to address their human rights responsibilities.
Political efforts of Europe and other actors of the international community to stabilise countries of origins often are not expedient for addressing the root causes that result in the flight of people from their homes, as evidenced by the growing number of displaced people. While ongoing warfare in Syria and Iraq continues to deplace new people, cooperation with repressive regimes that aims to manage migration is in danger of strengthening repressive tendencies and is consequently likely to increase the urge to leave.
The treatment of refugees within the EU has also been the subject of broad criticism, by the church representatives as well as by independent NGOs. Recently, Doctors without Borders rejected EU funding. The group’s Secretary-General Jérôme Oberreit stated at a press conference in Brussels that the EU-Turkey deal on Syrian refugees was “against the values and the principles that enable assistance” and pursued a “single goal of actually denying people the right to claim asylum.” As a consequence, Doctors without borders, which has treated 200,000 men, women and children in Europe and the sea in the last 18 months alone, decided to reject funding from the EU and its member states for projects worldwide.
World Refugee Day 2016 once again draws attention to the growing importance of accommodating people who flee their homes. Mechanisms of implementation, however, are still lacking in effectiveness and the political will necessary to make them a reality is not there. Much has to be done to prevent further negative records being reached at next year’s World Refugee Day.