UNHCR launches global campaign to seek action on refugees

The UN refugee agency on Thursday launched a global campaign calling on governments to take action for refugees.

The campaign launched through video messages in the lead-up to World Refugee Day asks the world to stand together #WithRefugees.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the campaign seeks to mobilize massive audiences, creating the largest-ever petition to support refugee cause.

"We are in a period of deepening conflict and turmoil in the world, which is causing many more people to flee their homes than before,"said Grandi in a statement received in Nairobi.

"It affects and involves us all, and what it needs is understanding, compassion and political will to come together and find real answers for the refugee plight. This has become a defining challenge of our times," he added.

In a stunning video message more than 60 global celebrities join with refugees and aid workers to echo the message, "we stand with refugees, please stand with us." The petition appeals for government action on behalf of the world's forcibly displaced.

The campaign aims to demonstrate public support for families forced to flee against a backdrop of dramatically increased displacement from conflict and persecution on the one hand, and heightened anti-refugee rhetoric and greater restrictions to asylum on the other.

The petition will be delivered in advance of September's historic UN High-Level Plenary of the General Assembly on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants.

Grandi said millions of people were newly displaced in 2015, adding again to the global refugee and internal displacement totals.

"Overwhelmingly, it was countries of the developing world that were most affected, but Europe too witnessed dramatic scenes, as hundreds of thousands of people crossed the Mediterranean in search of safety and refuge. Thousands died along the way," he said.

The UNHCR said the #WithRefugees campaign and petition aims to amplify those voices of welcome and show that the world stands with refugees.

"At the same time, there was an extraordinary outpouring of empathy and solidarity, as ordinary people and communities opened their homes and their hearts to refugees, and some countries have welcomed new arrivals even while already hosting large numbers of refugees," Grandi said. Endit