World Refugee Day—June 20—demands that the world show solidarity with people forced to flee. Solidarity means honouring refugees not just with words but with action. Beyond making space for them, it means finding solutions to their plight and ending conflicts so they can return home in safety. Most of all, it means challenging the world’s leadership to do more and to do better for those forcibly on the move.
This World Refugee Day, Caritas Internationalis calls on communities, governments, and international organizations to work together to maintain and increase humanitarian funding, keep borders open to those seeking asylum and address the root causes of forced displacement.
Caritas Europa, in turn, highlights the need to safeguard the right to asylum in Europe and to expand safe pathways, such as resettlement and family reunification procedures, instead of eroding them. Now, more than ever, Europe must demonstrate global leadership by crafting policies that respect refugees’ human rights and dignity at all points in their difficult journeys.
Read the full Caritas Europa statement in Greek.