Political Quotes

“Mr. President, this past Saturday, June 20, we marked the 20th commemoration of World Refugee Day. Since 2000, World Refugee Day annually shines a light on the struggles of displaced people all over the globe and encourages us all to redouble our efforts to help them. We are currently experiencing the most severe refugee crisis in recorded history. There are almost 80 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, of which more than 30 million are refugees and asylum- seekers. Every 2 seconds, someone is forced to leave his or her home because of conflict or persecution. That means that, since I began speaking, roughly 20 individuals have become newly displaced. These numbers are staggering and difficult to comprehend, but try to imagine for a moment what it means to be a refugee: to watch your home torn apart by conflict; to become the target of violence and oppression; to fear so greatly for your life and the lives of your loved ones that you choose to leave everything you know behind and take a dangerous journey to a place where the language and the culture are unfamiliar, where you have no support system, where you may struggle every day to make ends meet. This nightmare is the reality for almost 80 million human beings around the world. The situation has only worsened since the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of refugees are in low and middle-income countries, where weak health systems are already struggling to provide the basics of care.…”