Each year on the 20th of June, the world marks World Refugee Day, the international day of recognition that raises awareness on the millions of people who have been forced to flee.
Hope away from home
110 million people are displaced
In 2023, UNHCR announced that the world’s forcibly displaced population has reached over 110 million. Another milestone reached, but not one to celebrate.
On World Refugee Day, we affirm our humanitarian commitment to protect and reduce suffering of the most vulnerable people in displacement, from the crisis in Ukraine, to the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria, to the growing conflict in Sudan.
Life in displacement
Today and everyday, it is important to amplify the voices of the the 110 million people whose daily realities are affected by displacement. Click below to follow the stories of Mohamad, Shefali, Lena and Ender. While they are all people living in different regions of the world, they share the same hopes and dreams of living in a permanent home, having financial independence, and being an inspiration to their community.
Hope is a key theme of World Refugee Day 2023, because everyone is deserving of hope – especially when they are away from home.
World Refugee Day gallery
Click through to see the faces of displaced people who are living in temporary shelters. In these shelters, they healed from trauma, preserved their traditions and created new cherished memories. They are the reason why we commemorate World Refugee Day.
Our projects
So far, we have provided over 80,000 shelters in over 80 countries. But more work is still to be done. Click through our past projects to see the many people and places we’ve reached, from the highlands of Central Asia, to the sand sheets of the Sahel, from the tropics of the Caribbean, to the foothills of the Himalayas.
