Refugee rights matter.

Every year on 20 June, we share a message to raise awareness of the challenges faced by refugees around the world. However, today we want to talk about an issue that is closer to home for the EU. We stand strong with all refugees, whether they are in Ukraine, Palestine, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, or anywhere else where grand forces wish to undermine people's dignity simply because of their situation. As the EU tightens the restrictions on refugees' rights, making it harder for those who have no choice but to seek refuge, we speak out alongside refugees as a refugee-centric, refugee-founded initiative.

Today, we would like to shine a spotlight on the people who deserve it: the refugees who have fled to seek safety despite everything they had. They have had to rebuild their lives time and time again, all while facing the judgemental gaze of people who could never begin to imagine what it is like to be a refugee. It is an experience that cannot be simply put into words; it can only be lived through.

Refugees from the occupied regions of Ukraine who have faced torture simply for being Ukrainian. Refugees from Palestine who have suffered genocide at the hands of Israel. LGBTQIA refugees from Eastern Europe as a whole who are denied their identities even in countries that are supposed to be safe. No refugee has it easy. Even within the EU, they are treated in ways that do not align with humanism. They are denied aid, work, shelter and asylum. They are deported to countries that later kill them, despite it being illegal on paper. This happens just because of their color or ethnicity, or sometimes even because they don't speak a language perfectly enough. This should never be justified.

While these issues are present in today's world, it is a far cry from dignified to claim to welcome refugees only to treat them like a PR case. Only to remember them for one day of the whole year. Countries that voted for the "Bring Them Home" bill, MEPs that shouted "Send them home" should never be allowed to call themselves welcoming.

FUR/HELP would forever stand with refugees, remember their stories and tell them for all.
Refugee rights matter. Human rights matter.