Summary: June 20, 2005: European Commission pays tribute to the courage of refugees on the World Refugee Day (Brussels)
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The European Commission today paid tribute to the extraordinary courage of millions of refugee, people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances and pick themselves up to survive and rebuild their lives. "Courage" is the theme chosen this year by the Office of the UNHCR for World Refugee Day.
The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel said: "Today I want to pay tribute to the courage of refugees, their courage to survive and to rebuild their lives. The European Commission remains committed to provide its strong support to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which, over the past five decades, has helped more than 50 million uprooted people".
In addition to the millions of refugees who have crossed borders, there are between 20 and 25 million internally displaced persons, people who have fled their homes, generally because of conflict or persecution, but who remain in their country of origin and therefore are not legally classified as refugees. Women and children make up about three-quarters of refugee populations.
Although voluntary repatriation is the best solution, when the necessary conditions are met, this is not always possible. Then asylum or resettlement is the only option.
In 2004, the European Commission contributed $80,52M to the UNHCR through its Humanitarian Office, ECHO, and its Co-operation Office, EuropeAid.
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