With the number of people displaced by conflict reaching a record high at the end of 2015, UNA-UK has joined the United Nations' call for governments to work together and do their fair share for refugees.
In its annual report marking World Refugee Day 2016, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that 65.3 million people were either refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced at the end of 2015, a surge of five million in the space of only a year. The report quotes UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deploring the lack of international cooperation to alleviate the plight of refugees:
"We are facing the biggest refugee and displacement crisis of our time. Above all, this is not just a crisis of numbers; it is also a crisis of solidarity."
As UNA-UK's Executive Director observes in the latest issue of UNA-UK's magazine, New World, compassion for refugees and migrants in the UK "has been fickle". While British volunteers have provided generous support in host countries such as Greece and Turkey, the UK plays host to less than one per cent of the world's refugees and has opted out of an EU scheme to relocate and resettle refugees across Europe.
The UK, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has a special responsibility - in addition to its international obligations - to lead by example and to work with other countries to protect those fleeing conflict and persecution. In her contribution to New World, Baroness Neuberger writes that the UK's "foreign policy bears some responsibility for the current situation" in the Middle East, and that there is "more we could do and more we should do".
Speaking at a UNA-UK event earlier this year, the UN Secretary-General also urged the UK to do more, saying that "the United Nations looks to states such as the United Kingdom for leadership" in responding to such crises.
Sign the petition
Organised by the UNHCR, the #WithRefugees petition will be delivered to UN headquarters in New York ahead of the UN High Level Meeting on Refugees and Migrants, scheduled for 19 September. The petition asks governments to:
- Ensure every refugee child gets an education.
- Ensure every refugee family has somewhere safe to live.
- Ensure every refugee can work or learn new skills to make a positive contribution
to their community.
Click here to sign the petition
We stand #WithRefugees 2016 - please stand with us
Photo credit: Mopaw Foundation
