(June 20,2011) With developing nations hosting 80 per cent of the world’s nearly
44 million refugees, the United Nations chief has appealed for an equitable solution
to the problem lamenting the situation hasn’t improved in the past 60 years. UN secretary-general
Ban ki-Moon made the appeal in a message for World Refugee Day, observed on Monday.
Recalling this year’s 60th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention as well as the
establishment of the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR., Ban said the work of helping the
world’s refugees and other forcibly displaced people has neither decreased nor become
easier. “Then as now, the major cause of displacement is war,” he said, singling
out Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and the crises in North Africa and the Middle East.
Whereas traditionally UNHCR would be called on to support people escaping conflict
or persecution, people are increasingly fleeing their homes because of extreme poverty,
environmental degradation, climate change and the growing and complex interrelationship
between these factors and conflict. The UN chief lamented that the burden of the
world’s forcibly displaced people is being borne more by poor countries than wealthier
ones where anti-refugee sentiment is heard loudest. “Even one refugee forced to flee,
one refugee forced to return to danger is one too many,” Ban said, urging the world
“never lose sight of our shared humanity.” Earlier on the eve of World Refugee Day,
Pope Benedict XVI appealed for refugees saying they deserve a dignified welcome from
countries receiving them, until they can return home freely and safely.