World Refugee Day 2025
20 June 2025
Solidarity with Refugees: Standing with Those Forced to Flee
Tripoli, 20 June 2025 – On World Refugee Day, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, joins the international community in honouring the courage and strength of people forced to flee persecution, conflict, and violence. This year’s theme, “Solidarity with Refugees”, is a call to action – to stand together, listen to refugees’ stories, and support their right to seek safety.
In Libya, thousands of people who fled war and insecurity, including recent arrivals from Sudan, continue to face enormous challenges. Many families have lost everything and are still unable to return home. Most refugees are living in difficult conditions, often in underserved areas where local Libyan communities are also struggling with overstretched services.
UNHCR is working closely with Libyan authorities and partners across the country to support both refugees and the Libyan people hosting them. This includes distributing core relief items, improving access to water and sanitation, rehabilitating health and education facilities, and providing support through community-based centres. According to the newly released UNHCR Global Trends Report, over 120 million people worldwide are now forcibly displaced – the highest number ever recorded. Ongoing crises, conflicts, and the absence of political solutions continue to push people into forced displacement. In this context, the need for global solidarity and responsibility-sharing has never been greater.
“Solidarity with refugees means standing with people in their hardest moments – not with words, but with actions,” said Karmen Sakhr, UNHCR’s Chief of Mission in Libya. “It means supporting both those forced to flee and the communities who host them. In Libya, we see remarkable examples of solidarity every day – the way the authorities coordinate humanitarian support, and Libyan families who share what they have.”
UNHCR reiterates its commitment to supporting the authorities and people of Libya in responding to humanitarian needs, whilst at the same time advocating for political solutions to enable people to return home.
Refugees are not alone. On World Refugee Day – and every day – we stand with them.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Aml Albarghouti Assistant Communications Officer, UNHCR Libya
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