UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih meets Sudanese refugees at the Adre border crossing in Chad in January 2026. © UNHCR/Hélène Caux
Statement by Barham Salih, UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Tomorrow is World Refugee Day, a moment to recognize the courage and determination of nearly 42 million people uprooted from their countries by war, violence and persecution.
Every day, refugees contribute to the communities that have welcomed them — as workers, students, neighbours, artists, athletes, entrepreneurs and leaders. Given the opportunity, they rebuild their lives and help strengthen the societies around them.
Fleeing home to seek safety is one of the hardest choices anyone can make. I know that from personal experience. But while a person may, for a time, be defined as a refugee, becoming a refugee should not define a person’s life.
Refugees have been forced to abandon their homes, but they should never be forced to abandon their hope: for a safe place to live, for the opportunity to study, for the chance of decent work.
But the unacceptable reality is that millions of refugees today find themselves trapped in dependency, relying on a dwindling amount of aid for their daily survival. Humanitarian assistance remains indispensable, and UNHCR will continue to deliver life-saving support in emergencies. It saves lives, but it cannot be the endpoint. For too many, what begins as an emergency becomes years — sometimes decades — of waiting.
This must change. Refugees need more than protection from danger; they need opportunities to rebuild their lives with dignity. Being a refugee is meant to be a temporary condition, not a lifelong fate.
That is why I have set out an ambitious goal: to cut by half, within ten years, the number of refugees living in protracted displacement and reliant on humanitarian assistance.
Achieving this target – and focusing on low and middle-income countries that host the majority of refugees – would vastly improve the lives of millions of people. It is how we can move from merely managing displacement to resolving it.
This World Refugee Day also marks another significant milestone, not just for refugees but for everyone. Seventy-five years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War, countries came together and agreed that anyone forced to flee war, conflict or persecution had the right to seek safety and protection. That promise was enshrined in the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Today, my message is clear: we must continue to uphold that promise. Until everyone is safe, none of us are safe.
This is not merely a statement of solidarity but a call to action. Because the right to seek safety was made for times like these, and it is up to all of us to defend it.
For the nearly 42 million refugees around the world today, that right has been a lifeline: the difference between fear and protection, between despair and hope, between life and death.
This World Refugee Day, let us renew our commitment to refugees everywhere and to the promise of protection made 75 years ago for everyone.
