World Refugee Day. MedGlobal in Solidarity with Re

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

June 20, 2025

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lucy Carradine, [email protected] 

CHICAGO – June 20, 2025 – On this World Refugee Day, a record 123 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide – nearly double the number just a decade ago. This includes over 30 million refugees who have sought safety abroad. Children account for nearly half of all refugees – a generation uprooted by war and instability.  

“Being a refugee frequently means lacking access to the basic means of survival, being exposed to violence and exploitation, embarking on dangerous journeys, and facing stigma, exclusion and closed borders. It is both a label and a reality that creates vulnerability,” said Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director of MedGlobal. “That is why working with refugees and displaced persons is central to MedGlobal’s humanitarian ethos.”  

MedGlobal and our partners are on the ground in many of the top displacement crises. In Sudan, which has become the world’s largest displacement crisis, MedGlobal delivered 5.6 million liters of clean water to conflict-affected internally displaced persons (IDPs) in 2024. While intense conflict in Ukraine prevents more than five million Ukrainian refugees from safely returning home, MedGlobal trains medics in surgery and trauma care while supplying equipment and medicines to 124 hospitals and clinics last year. In Gaza, where aerial bombardments and forced evacuations have caused 90% of people to flee their homes, MedGlobal is treating the wounded and malnourished, and providing maternal and child healthcare. And in Syria, MedGlobal is at the forefront of efforts to rebuild the health system after decades destruction and neglect by the previous regime, as many of the millions of Syrian refugees being returning home.  

Three-quarters of the world’s refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries, such as Colombia, Lebanon and Bangladesh, all of which have received less than 25% funding of their humanitarian appeals this year. In these settings, MedGlobal’s locally-led responses include direct medical care, strengthening fragile health systems, and training frontline health workers. In Bangladesh, for example, MedGlobal’s local team provides primary healthcare in the vast, over-crowded and impoverished Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’ Bazaar.  

Displacement is a life-altering emergency for millions, but it becomes a global crisis when the world fails to step up. How the world responds determines whether displacement leads to prolonged suffering—or to safety, dignity, and recovery. 

“It’s often not the number of displaced people that creates chaos—it’s the international response. Governments cannot claim to stand with refugees while supplying the bombs that displace them, closing borders to those fleeing violence, or slashing the aid that keeps them alive. When governments support refugees, it shows in their laws, aid budgets, and the resources for frontline host countries. An unprecedented displacement crisis calls for unprecedented global commitments and collective responsibility,” said Anastasia Moran, MedGlobal’s Director of Advocacy. 

Refugees require systems that protect, include, and empower them. This necessitates more effort to integrate refugees into national systems and expand access to health care, education, housing, and the right to work. With the right policies, displaced people don’t just survive—they contribute, rebuild, and help strengthen the very communities that welcome them. 

This World Refugee Day, we at MedGlobal stand in solidarity with every refugee and internally displaced person.  

Contact Lucy Carradine at [email protected] to arrange an interview.  

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MedGlobal is a humanitarian nonprofit organization that provides emergency response and health programs to build resilience among vulnerable communities around the world.