Movimiento por la Paz

On the World Refugee Day, the Movement for Peace -MPDL- claims for greater protection for refugee population, which in 2007 rose to over 16 million people.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Global Trends 2007 report, presented this week, during the past year the number of refugees rose by more than 15%, reaching a total figure of 16 million people around the world. Undoubtedly, an alarming figure which needs to be added to the nearly 51 million internally displaced persons (26 of them due to conflicts), 12 million stateless people and 740,000 asylum seekers registered in the statistics of the UN organisation.

Faced with this situation, as a social organization that works with refugees and internally displaced people in different continents, the Movement for Peace -MPDL-shows his deep concern over living conditions which are subject to millions of people around the world, and calls for greater protection and attention for them from the international community.

Especially worrisome is the particular situation of some concrete groups, as the Palestinian refugees, who remain the largest refugee population in the world, with 4.3 million people distributed mainly among Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Immersed in a regional context marked by violence and instability, Palestinian refugees live in extreme humanitarian and legal vulnerability which leads to a situation of a permanent violation of their fundamental rights.

Alike, continents as Africa, with over 2 million refugees, or countries such as Colombia, with over 3 million of internally displaced people, Western Sahara with about 165.000 and even regions much closer to us, as the Balkans, where there is still more than half a million refugees and internally displaced people, deserve special attention from all the governments and institutions responsible for the safety and welfare of refugee population, protected by the International Law.

Since its inception in 1983, the Movement for Peace has firmly believed in freedom, respect and solidarity as tools for achieving a peaceful coexistence between men and women, so it puts all its efforts on the defence and promotion of Human Rights as an essential element for building peace throughout the world.