World Refugee Day, there are more than 80 million in the world

20 June has been there for twenty years World Refugee Day. The UN has launched it to celebrate “the strength, courage and perseverance” of millions of people who are forced to leave their country of origin every year.

According to the Global trends report ofUNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, 89.3 million people were fleeing war, violence, persecution and human rights violations at the end of 2021. This number increased by 8% compared to 2020 and increased again in 2022 to exceed 100 million with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Action in favor of refugees must be strengthened now, in moments of acute crisis, according to that multilateral approach, of which Italy is historic and convinced”, the president said today. Sergio Mattarella. As of May 25, just over 80 thousand Ukrainians have applied for a residence permit for temporary protection in our country.

In the world, the numbers are much higher. Since February 24, more than 2 million boys and girls have fled Ukraine due to the war, and 3 million have been internally displaced. He remembers it Terre des Hommes which insists on the need to protect children in emergency contexts. “There are frequent cases of boys or girls who reveal a lot aggression, or who refuse to eat, who cannot stay in too small spaces because they feel trapped like in the bunkers they hid in before fleeing. When there is a storm they are terrified by the noises of thunder, I have to reassure them, remind them that they are now in a safe place »says Svitlana, psychologist Terre des Hommes.

However, there is not only Ukraine. In Libya there are an estimated 600,000 migrants of 44 nationalities trapped without even being counted. Doctors Without Borders’ appeal is for them with the report Outside Libya. “It is necessary that safe countries offer protection to migrants trapped in Libya and urgently accelerate the evacuation of the most vulnerable, strengthening the existing mechanisms and opening alternative channels”. The few legal channels to safe countries developed by UNHCR and IOM are slow and restrictive. The medical teams present in Libya for years have denounced the impossibility of protecting migrants from abuse and violence. There is Syria, there is Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

For all the appeal of the vice president of OTB Foundation Arianna Alessi is valid: “It is important to welcome migrants but it is essential to help them find a job, to guarantee dignity, independence and better integration into the community”. OTB Foundation has chosen ItaliaHello as the winning organization of its 200 thousand euro call for the Job Clinic Online projectan innovative digital tool created to facilitate the matching of labor supply and demand and to promote the socio-economic integration of migrants and foreigners between 18 and 45 years of age.

The digital platform has been made accessible since February 2022 and in the last 4 months has allowed the inclusion of 314 curricula, an average of 25-30 per week. 94 interviews were organized, 33 of which were successful. The beneficiaries, 20% by womenhave found work in catering (dishwasher, assistant cook), tourism (floor waiters and receptionists), goods storage (warehouse workers), linguistic-cultural mediation, family and domestic assistance (cleaning, nannies, maids and carers ) and construction (general workers and carpenters).

– Ukraine, 100 days of a war with no end in sight

– Ukraine, the story of Vitaly and Alla, married and dead in the steel mill