Are we seeking refuge from a crisis of solidarity?

… Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…

World Refugee Day 2026 passed quietly by this weekend, on June 20th. I’m convinced that not many noticed! A completely unnecessary crisis in the Middle East usurped an obscene amount of attention from those who, one could argue, are ultimately answerable for much of the world’s refugee predicament.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that currently about 117.8 million people worldwide are displaced. A whopping 68% (38% of whom are children) are being hosted by low to middle-income countries, while the prosperous nations, which undeniably initiate much of the conditions responsible for the forced displacements through economic and geopolitical conquest, do as much as they legally can to keep as many out as possible.

World Refugee Day was promulgated in 1951 to serve as a reminder to us to have compassion and respect for the dignity of human beings who become displaced, often forcibly, as a result of war, internal conflict, violence and persecution. It is also a day meant to remind us that refugees require our protection, not contempt, as is so often the case.

I have seen a distinction being made between refugees and illegal immigrants, and this distinction is especially useful to politicians in wealthy countries like the USA and much of Europe. Technically, refugees are legally protected individuals who are forced to flee their native countries for reasons which are commonly grouped under war, internal conflict or political or religious persecution. Illegal immigrants, sometimes referred to as undocumented migrants, on the other hand, are foreigners who enter another country with permission, or who deliberately remain after their legally obtained visas expire. Illegal immigrants are more often than not assumed to be fleeing economic hardship or persecution, which is not an immediate threat to their lives.

As I mentioned earlier, the distinction is immensely beneficial to politicians who regularly abuse the misfortune of both refugees and undocumented migrants to animate their support base, who are desperately looking for a scapegoat for their own misery. The distinction is not immediately conspicuous to a human being fleeing his country of birth to ensure his and his family’s well-being. Such distinctions are designed for the privileged who have no lived experience of imposed suffering.

Currently, both refugees and undocumented migrants are being marginalised and persecuted in the U.S. by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), by the Trump administration as a policy mandate. It is ironic that the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour, which was a gift from the French, is supposed to symbolise their democratic independence and the liberation of their slaves, while a plaque at the base is inscribed with a famous sonnet by Emma Lazarus that welcomes migrants.

As I write, a wave of xenophobic violence is being orchestrated against foreign nationals in South Africa (both documented and undocumented). It is led by an anti-migrant group calling itself March and March and is backed by ActionSA, a registered political party with links to Zionist funding. The group is demanding that migrants leave the country by 30th June. This is not the first time that migrants have been targeted in South Africa since the demise of apartheid. It’s not inconceivable that other political groups and oligarchic manipulation are at work behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, nearly 6 million Palestinians living as refugees in camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank since the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict are the most blatant example of the orchestrated mass displacement of human beings. Israeli propaganda directed globally to conceal and minimise this catastrophic theft of land, persecution and systematic ethnic cleansing has been so successful by the Zionist colonisers that large sections of the world now believe mechanically that the Palestinian refugees who are resisting their oppression are nothing more than terrorists.

The Zionist involvement in the Palestinian refugee tragedy is yet another cruel twist of irony because one of the first historically documented refugee crises occurred in 721 BC when the Assyrian Empire conquered Israel, displacing tens of thousands of Israelites into exile. As in South Africa and elsewhere, are the oppressed destined to eventually become the oppressors?

Paul Millicheap, a British poet and author who writes under the pseudonym Brian Bilston, wrote a brilliant poem in response to the hate and scapegoating directed at migrants. When read from top to bottom, it mirrors this hate. When read from bottom to top, it exposes the bigotry while imploring us to be understanding and empathetic of the plight of refugees and migrants.

They have no need of our help
So do not tell me
These haggard faces could belong to you or me
Should life have dealt a different hand
We need to see them for who they really are
Chancers and scroungers
Layabouts and loungers
With bombs up their sleeves
Cut-throats and thieves
They are not
Welcome here
We should make them
Go back to where they came from
They cannot
Share our food
Share our homes
Share our countries
Instead let us
Build a wall to keep them out
It is not okay to say
These are people just like us
A place should only belong to those who are born there
Do not be so stupid to think that
The world can be looked at another way

(now read from bottom to top)

I don’t know how the call for violence against migrants who have not returned to their home countries by June 30th in my own country will play out. All I can do is hope that those who are being manipulated by the politicians and other interest groups to harm migrants come to their senses. I hope people everywhere come to their senses and realise that their anger against migrants and refugees is being nurtured by corrupt politicians and their wealthy overlords.

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