We all must play our role and contribute to a better future

“We all must play our role and contribute to a better future for all of our community members”, Kahin Ismail, UNHCR Malta Representative, said during an event co-organised with the President’s Foundation for the Well Being of Society on World Refugee Day.

June 20 is the day the world commemorates the strength, courage, and perseverance of millions of refugees. Held every year, World Refugee Day also marks a key moment for the public to show support for families forced to flee.

UNHCR released the annual Global Trends report. The new release highlights that some 68.5 people are forcibly displaced in the world today, including 25.4 million refugees – This is 2.9 million more than in 2016, the biggest increase UNHCR has seen in a single year.

“World Refugee Day is not a day to be celebrated, exactly, for nobody would wish to be a refugee, but we should definitely mark the day, to pay tribute to the strength and resilience of refugees and to acknowledge and thank those of you who protect and assist them,” Mr Ismail said.

The UNHCR Malta Representative said that Malta should be very proud of its role in saving many lives at sea and providing a second opportunity to many refugees. “Malta has made great strides forward, from previous years marked by restrictive measures, to today when we have an integration framework that is forward-looking, among other positive improvements in the asylum system overall.”

Turning on integration and social inclusion Mr Ismail said that they are no longer taboo subjects. “Malta is recognising the need for a greater debate on social inclusion. It recognizes that culture and identity are not fixed points – unchanged – but quite the opposite – identity is continuously evolving.”

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