Coronavirus pandemic a chance to reflect on plight of refugees, Cate Blanchett says
- The Oscar winner said this year’s World Refugee Day came during a time of ‘challenge and reflection’
- UNHCR said the number of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict had doubled in the past decade to reach 82.4 million at the end of 2020
The Australian actor, a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said the annual June 20 event came during a time of “challenge and reflection”.
“We’ve been forced to confront what uncertainty feels like and of course that is the situation that most refugees live with, year in, year out,” Blanchett said.
“There’s a kind of an opportunity … to think about how we have dealt with uncertainty and perhaps place ourselves in the shoes of mothers and fathers and doctors and lawyers who have been, through no fault of their own, displaced and have been living with, for often for upwards of 18, 19 years, in that state that we have been dealing with for 18 months.”
World Refugee Day honours those who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict or persecution. This year’s theme calls for greater inclusion of refugees in health systems, education and sport.
“Sadly, even in Covid, conflicts have continued around the world,” Gillian Triggs, UNHCR’s assistant high commissioner for protection, said.
“What we’re trying to talk about … is to support the host countries to enable people to be included in access to education, children to school, family members to work, but of course, most particularly in this time of Covid, access to health and to vaccines,” Triggs added.
In its annual report released on Friday, UNHCR said the number of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution and human rights abuses had doubled in the past decade to reach 82.4 million at the end of 2020.
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“There’s been a lot of fear-based rhetoric around the notion of people who have been forcibly displaced, either internally or outside their own country,” she said.
“I think that World Refugee Day couldn’t come at a better time because we can really think about how we can collectively build a stronger and safer and more humane world and that being inclusive is a superhuman power.”
