More than 51 milliion people have been forcibly displaced – almost as the total population of five EU Member States. Half of them are children. The EU makes serious efforts to help the people affected, the European Commissioners Kristalina Georgieva, Andris Piebalgs and Cecilia Malmstrom said in a joint statement on the occasion of the World Refugee Day.
“Every four seconds somewhere in the world a person is forced to flee her or his home due to conflict or natural disaster. On the 20th June each year we take the opportunity to highlight the plight of these people,” the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs and the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström said in the statement.
“The latest numbers published today by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are dramatic. More than 51 million people have been forcibly displaced: 16.7 million of them are refugees, 33.3 million are internally displaced within their own countries and 1.2 million are seeking asylum. This is almost the same as the combined population of five EU Member States: the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,Austria and Romania.
What we cannot quantify is their suffering, the broken families, destroyed childhoods and livelihoods that come with fleeing a conflict or a disaster. Half of the refugee population are children,” the commissioners said.
First among severely affected countries is Syria which has, in the last three years, forced nearly ten million people to become refugees in neighbouring countries or to flee and seek shelter within the country.
“Syria – so recently a middle-income nation – now rivals Afghanistan as the world’s largest refugee-producing country. In South Sudan, 1.3 million people have been displaced or have sought refuge outside of the country by the ongoing conflict. The Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali are other examples of countries where every day people are forced to leave their homes and are uncertain about their future,” the commissioners said.
“The EU makes serious efforts to help the many millions of people affected. The EU’s humanitarian aid is helping refugees and IDPs in 33 countries. The EU’s development assistance is to support refugees in their host countries in order to make them self-reliant.
“For instance, we are supporting projects to increase access to education in the refugee camps of Dadaab (Kenya). Only this way will they be truly protected, while mitigating the impact that their presence may have on local communities. Regional Protection Programmes help to provide shelter to those in need of international protection, often in close cooperation with the UNHCR,” they added.
“On this day let’s remind ourselves of the European values, especially the solidarity we must show to the less fortunate. Millions of people around the world can continue to count on our help to survive and live with dignity,” Georgieva, Piebalgs and Malmstrom said.
Full statement: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-14-203_en.htm
