Justice For All Statement on UN World Refugee Day 2025: Solidarity in Action for Refugees

June 19, 2025

As the world observes U.N. World Refugee Day 2025 under the theme “Solidarity with Refugees,” we face a deepening global displacement crisis. Today, more than 123 million people have been forcibly uprooted due to conflicts across 37 countries, including Burma (Myanmar), Sudan, Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine and Iran. Behind these numbers of displaced are names, faces, families and dreams. Among the most vulnerable are the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees fleeing genocide in Burma – referred to by the United Nations as the world’s most persecuted minority. Nearly a million now live in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement. Tragically, 83 percent of Rohingya refugee children have no access to formal education, robbing an entire generation of their futures.

The United Nations calls on the global community to help create opportunities for refugees to thrive where they are and ensure that host countries receive the resources necessary to support them. It has emphasized that true solidarity “means honoring refugees not just with words but with actions. It means listening to them and making space for their stories. It means defending their right to seek safety, finding solutions to their plight, and ending conflicts so they can return home in safety.”

This message resonates more urgently than ever. The global humanitarian system is under immense strain. The UNHCR faces a 40 percent budget shortfall for 2025, leaving 10 million refugees without adequate shelter or protection. UNICEF has been forced to cut its refugee education programs by 30 percent, depriving over 5 million children of schooling and shuttering 6,200 learning centers in Cox’s Bazar alone. Meanwhile, only 5 percent of refugees are resettled annually. Less than 1 percent of global humanitarian funding reaches refugee-led organizations. The world spends $2 trillion annually on militaries – imagine if just 1 percent of that went to protecting and empowering refugees.

At Justice For All, we believe that true solidarity requires concrete, sustained action. This is the “fierce urgency of now” that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of, for tomorrow may be too late. Solidarity means nothing if Rohingya children still sit in overcrowded bamboo huts instead of classrooms. With UNHCR and UNICEF cuts, we are failing a generation. Funding cuts are not simply austerity – they are a death sentence for vulnerable people. We must reverse this trend immediately.

Solidarity means sharing the responsibility of assisting refugees. Host countries like Bangladesh shelter millions with little global support. With over 70 percent of the world’s refugees hosted in low-income countries and 90 percent of critical programs underfunded in crisis zones, global cooperation has never been more crucial.

We call for host countries to remove barriers to self-reliance through access to education and jobs; currently, only 37 nations grant refugees the right to formal employment. In Bangladesh, 98 percent of Rohingya refugees are completely dependent on aid due to strict movement and work restrictions.

The time to act is now. We urge all people of conscience to support trusted U.N. agencies and human rights and humanitarian organizations, advocate for policy change, and demand full funding for the protection and rights of refugees. This includes ensuring formal registration of refugees with the UNHCR in host countries, addressing the root causes of displacement and holding those responsible fully accountable.

On this World Refugee Day, Justice For All reaffirms that refugees are not statistics, they are human beings entitled to dignity, protection, justice and hope. Together, through meaningful action, we can change the trajectory of this crisis and build a world where no one is left out or left behind.