World Refugee Day - 20 June

The United Nations observes 20 June every year as World Refugee Day. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR declares that a refugee is someone who has been put on to run away from his or her country due to harassment, war, or hostility. As a result, the refugee’s revisit to his or her home country is prohibited for the reason of the terror of harassment on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political judgment and devotion in a particular social group.

World Refugee Day is observed to celebrate the courage, bravery and strength of mind of all those men, women and children who are forced to flee their homes and their mother land under the danger of persecution, discrimination and violence. They often get separated from their family members, friends, work and their community. About 40 million people have been expatriated from their home due to the fear of persecution and violence. A third of these refugees are people who have fled their homes due to civil wars and racial violence.

Refugee influx is a problem faced by almost all countries of the world. But even responsible nations see refugees as a nuisance and often see them as criminals. It needs to be understood that refugees seek refuge in another country because they have no other option left with them. Unfortunately refugees are met with closed borders, xenophobia, violence, detention and terrible living conditions in countries that they take refuge in. Sometimes they are denied a fair hearing of their asylum claims and are forced to return to their home country, where they are often met with life threatening circumstances.

The recent spate of ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan against the Uzbeks has left 30,000 people internally displaced. There are refugee crises in Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh’s border with India, to name few.

On the occasion of the World Refugee Day, Amnesty International calls on states to reiterate the rights of human beings to seek and enjoy asylum as envisaged by Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 14 of the UDHR states that

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

It is incumbent upon all states to make sure that their policies and actions are not preventing refugees from seeking asylum and human rights violations are not committed against them. Amnesty International intends to spread and to reinforce the fact that a refugee is not a criminal and is not someone else’s problem. A refugee is a person fleeing torture or persecution and has a right to seek asylum. Therefore it is the responsibility of all individuals and nation states to do everything possible to protect the rights of asylum seekers and refugees.