120.000.000!

Today is World Refugee Day

Today is World Refugee Day. For 2024, the UNHCR estimates that 120 million people were forcibly displaced in the first four months of the year.

There are currently more than 92 conflicts worldwide, a number that exceeds the number of conflicts during World War II. Most of these conflicts are the product of the colonial legacy, intensified capitalism, and an extensive patriarchal system that prefers to use its resources for the destruction of living beings and the environment rather than for forms of peaceful coexistence.

Simultaneously, the European Union has adopted and is currently implementing amendments to the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). These amendments include “express” deportations to so-called third countries, such as Tunisia or Libya, which offer no safety to the people. It was decided to allocate more funds to Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, tasked with managing the EU’s external borders and supporting Schengen area security, which has intensified its operations—a fact clearly denounced by the BBC, for example, which uses images and witness accounts to show how the Greek coast guard throws people into the sea and refuses to help them.

In addition to this, a new digital payment system has been approved and is already being rolled out to prevent refugees from handling cash, threatening their autonomy and humanity.

All of these measures constitute a clear violation of human rights.

Far-right and conservative parties exploit migrants, fuelling racism, discrimination, and hate speech. These circumstances are clear examples of the rapidly increasing, dangerous, and dehumanizing reality in which refugees and migrants are currently living.

The routes to Europe are dangerous, and many people die along the way, including children and women:

"Between 2021 and 2023, an estimated 950 people lost their lives while crossing the Sahara Desert; however, the actual number is likely to be much higher. During the same period, 7,600 people who were in a situation of human mobility died or went missing in the Mediterranean."

The situation is alarming and incredibly disheartening.

At Space2groW, however, we will continue to work to support refugee women living in refugee shelters. We want to break through the isolation, we want to break down the prejudices, we want to amplify the voices of migrants. Migration has always existed; borders have not.

We want to say no to borders!

We believe that the free movement of people should be a human right!