Justice For All Marks UN World Refugee Day with Urgent Call for Global Solidarity with Refugees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Washington, D.C. – June 20, 2025

“Refugees Are Not Statistics – They Are Lives at Risk,” Warns Leading Human Rights Organization

On this year’s United Nations World Human Rights Day, observed under the theme “Solidarity with Refugees,” Justice For All is sounding the alarm on the rapidly worsening global displacement crisis, demanding decisive international action amid funding collapses, rising anti-refugee sentiment and a failure to address root causes of displacement.

Today, over 123 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes due to wars and persecution spanning 37 countries – including Burma (Myanmar), Sudan, Palestine, Syria, Ukraine, Iran and Afghanistan. Among them, the Rohingya people remain one of the most persecuted populations on Earth. Over 1.2 million Rohingya refugees, fleeing genocide in Burma, now live in precarious conditions with nearly a million in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, the largest refugee camp in the world.

According to the latest data, the UNHCR faces a 40 percent budget shortfall, leaving 10 million refugees without shelter or protection. UNICEF has cut refugee education programs by 30 percent, shuttering over 6,200 learning centers in Cox’s Bazar alone, leaving 83 percent of Rohingya children without access to formal schooling.

Meanwhile, less than 1 percent of global humanitarian funding reaches refugee-led organizations, and only 5 percent of refugees are resettled each year. Wealthy nations continue to underfund and outsource their moral responsibilities to low-income countries in which over 70 percent of refugees are hosted, like in Bangladesh, which hosts millions with minimal international support; ninety percent of critical programs are underfunded.

Justice For All calls for:

• Full restoration and expansion of funding for UNHCR, UNICEF and refugee services.
• Formal registration and protection of all refugees under U.N. protocols.
• Removal of work and movement restrictions to allow refugee self-reliance.
• Inclusion of refugee voices, especially women and youth, in policy decisions.
• Greater resettlement quotas in wealthy countries.
• Accountability for governments perpetrating displacement and genocide.

Quotes.

“Solidarity must be measured by action, not slogans. If Rohingya children remain in bamboo huts instead of classrooms while UNHCR and UNICEF face crippling cuts, we are complicit in failing an entire generation.”
– Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, President, Justice For All.

“Behind each of the 123 million displaced are families, dreams, and futures at risk. Funding cuts are not just fiscal decisions – they are a death sentence. Refugees are not burdens; they are survivors, builders and contributors. But only if we act. On this World Refugee Day, solidarity means nothing unless it changes lives.”
– Hena Zuberi, Director of Advocacy, Justice For All, and principal researcher of the largest Rohingya women’s survey conducted to date.

“The world spends $2 trillion a year on militaries. What if just 1 percent of that were used to empower refugees instead of creating more of them?”

– Imam Saffet Catovic, Director of U.N. Operations, Justice For All.

Contact Information:
Hena Zuberi, Director Of Advocacy
Email: hena@justiceforall.org
Phone: 202-908-JUST
Website: https://www.justiceforall.org/burma-task-force/

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