Human migration is nothing new. For more than a million years
humans have moved their homes to escape famine, persecution,
natural disasters and war. Sometimes migration
has been voluntary. But more often people were forced to
move to new places, often at great risk. In the last century we have seen
hundreds of millions of people migrate across the planet. World War I created massive waves
of international refugees. This sparked new, international
guidelines, laws and conventions to protect a refugee’s
basic human rights. These guidelines were tested soon
afterwards: at the start of World War II more than a million people - most of them
Jews - attempted to escape Nazi Germany. By 1945, some 40 million people
had been forcibly displaced, deported and resettled
in Europe and elsewhere. The United Nations was
established at the end of WWII. It made a commitment to protect
the most vulnerable people wherever in the world
they found themselves. The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights was established in 1948. Before this time, the rights of refugees
were not anchored in international law, but subject to the laws of the
countries they had fled to. An important, United Nations-backed
convention relating to the status of refugees took place in Geneva,
Switzerland in 1951. In 1967, a protocol was also adopted;
148 countries signed on to one or both. International support was
clearly established. The convention states that
people have these basic rights no matter where they are in the world.
The right… to an education
To exercise religion to justice
to remain in a country to not be punished for illegal
entry into the territory to practice a profession to housing and
to own property to form and
join trade unions to public relief
and assistance to freedom of movement
within the territory to be issued identity
and travel documents. All refugees are required to abide
by the laws of their host country and respect the maintenance
of public order. Today, the Convention is
more important than ever. The planet is facing its worst
refugee crisis since WWII. Almost 1% of the earth's
population is an asylum-seeker, internally displaced or a refugee
according to a 2015 UNHCR report. That’s about 24 people
displaced every minute. There will always be war, famine, drought.
Hunger, crises. There will always be refugees. But respect and care for refugees
is a universal human value. The content of this video does not reflect
the official opinion of the European Union. Responsibility for the
information and views expressed in the video lies entirely
with the author(s).
