Today we are celebrating World Refugee Day

Today we are celebrating World Refugee Day

Annually, on June 20th, the United Nations honour this day in order to support refugees, forced to leave their homeland caused by conflicts related to political, financial and humanitarian causes.

World Refugee Day

The World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives. Whoever they are, people forced to flee should be treated with dignity. Anyone can seek protection, regardless of who they are or what they believe. It is non-negotiable: seeking safety is a human right.

Wherever they come from, people forced to flee should be welcomed. Refugees come from all over the globe. To get out of harm’s way, they might take a plane, a boat, or travel on foot. What remains universal is the right to seek safety. Whenever people are forced to flee, they have a right to be protected. Whatever the threat – war, violence, persecution – everyone deserves protection. Everyone has a right to be safe.

Nowadays, many organizations are dealing with the current refugee wave coming from Ukraine. Many Ukrainians are forced to seek peace outside their country in order to save their lives, threatened by the Russian invasion. In this case, many international humanitarian organizations aim to provide resources and shelters to them in order to create a peaceful environment during the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

UNHCR, which has recently presented at the #FootballforPeace panel at EFDN’s 17th Conference, has been working in Ukraine since 1994, alongside local authorities, partners and community organizations. Ukraine has been affected by years of conflict and uncertainty — throughout these years, UNHCR has delivered essential aid to persons affected by the conflict, internally displaced people, refugees and stateless people in the country. At the end of 2021, almost three million people in Ukraine needed humanitarian support including more than 850,000 displaced by conflict, 5,000 refugees and 36,000 stateless people. 

Welcome Through Football

As part of this situation, EFDN provides its support by delivering donations to Ukraine in collaboration with football club foundations. The Welcome Through Football 2021 project aims to assist in the integration and inclusion of recently arrived young refugees, asylum seekers and young people with a migrant background.EFDN and partners will develop and test a European methodology that uses football as a tool to reach refugees and migrants from different ages (7-25 years old) to get them physically and social active in European communities.

EFDN Members on #WorldRefugeeDay