A message from our special officer for Humanitarian affairs Jean-Paul Bizoza to mark World Refugee Day.

23 June 2021

Sunday 20th June marked World Refugee Day. The theme this year was “Together we heal, learn and shine". The World Refugee Day (WRD) aims to honor refugees' courage, contribution to host communities, resilience and highlights their plight to the world. If you need to understand the refugees' experience, please read the book: Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

Please remember to distinguish between refugees and migrants. However, in my previous years with So Humanitarian Affairs, I just learnt that mixed movements of migrants and refugees affect everybody & all countries including the pacific particularly NZ and Australia.

Way forward: A closer collaboration, cooperation and responsibility-sharing are urgently needed! From lived experience, refugee issues are so contentious and make no mistake climate change and pandemic such as COVID-19 will displace millions in coming years.

Key points are : (a) there is no single country, or international community are well prepared to deal with “climate refugees / migrants, (b) no current legal definition of climate migrant (refuges) or strategic plan as how NZ will deal with climate change refugees and (c) there is no global arrangements to assist millions of people who will be displaced by natural calamities or pandemic like COVID-19! For more about WRD events , please browse UBNHC website and UNHCR live blog : https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/news/latest/2021/6/60ad1e2f4/live-blog-2021-world-refugee-day-stronger-together.html