When World Refugee Day was observed last week, on 20 June, it also marked the 75th anniversary of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which was established in 1951 in accordance with the UN Refugee Convention adopted the previous year. This year’s theme was “Until Everyone is Safe”. Alas, with over 120 million displaced people worldwide, that represents a hope and vision rather than a reality. UNHCR’s protection and assistance mandate extends to well over 32 million people. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), established in 1949, has an even wider mandate, supporting over 6 million Palestinians. In addition, there are over 72 million internally displaced people (IDPs) and 8 million asylum seekers, to be assisted by various organisations, if any at all. At the end of 2024, the total figure stood at 122.6 million people who had been forcibly displaced from their homes due to persecution, conflict and war, violence, human rights violations, environmental and natural disasters, and other events and reasons seriously disturbing public order and living conditions.

In spite of good intentions and much good work, and sometimes neglect too, one could twist this year’s theme to “Nobody is Safe” instead of “Until Everyone is Safe”, especially now that even the wealthy West has less sympathy for forced and other migrants, with many host countries now considering the establishment of return centres outside their own territories, mainly to avoid, or reduce, their legal responsibilities towards them.

The Refugee Convention is being challenged and, in the European Union (EU) and the rest of Europe, there is no genuine migration policy. The numbers entering Europe have become high and, therefore, the so-called policies are basically about how to keep refugees, illegal migrants and other groups of migrants out, and how to find ways of sending........

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