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The United Nations defines refugees as people fleeing conflict or persecution. They are granted refugee status by the country they enter, which grants them protection under international law and makes them eligible for aid. People who are displaced from their homes but remain in their country are not considered refugees.

Some 50 million migrant children worldwide were living in other countries or were still living in their native countries after having been forcibly displaced from their homes in 2016, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

Ignacio Sanchez Amor (MP, Spain), Chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s human rights committee, on June 19, criticized the U.S. government’s violation of human rights and humanitarian standards in its treatment of migrants – and especially migrant children – attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

The United Nations refugee agency says a record 68.5 million people around the world were forced to flee their homes last year due to war, violence and persecution.

Today, World Refugee Day, is a time for solidarity with refugees – and with the communities that welcome them. As conflicts emerge, recur, persist and deepen, 68.5 million people are uprooted around the world. Nine out of 10 are in their own countries or countries next door, and the impact is massive – on refugees themselves, and on the communities that open their doors to them. Now, more than ever, taking care of refugees must be a global – and shared – responsibility. It’s time to do things differently.

It will be easier for migration and asylum authorities to identify persons entering or staying irregularly in the EU, under new rules informally agreed with EU Council.

On 18 June 2018, the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) released its 2017 Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union. In 2017, there were 728,470 applications for international protection in the EU. This figure represents a decrease of 44% compared to 2016, when there were almost 1.3 million applications, while provisional data for early 2018 (January - April) shows that application levels have stabilised at an average of less than 50,000 per month.

In response to continued reports of children being separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border, Carolyn Miles, President and CEO of Save the Children, issued the following statement on June 19

Women and children walk through the debris of buildings and vehicles destroyed during intense fighting as they flee for safe areas in Mosul, Iraq.

In a ceremony held at the annual session of the Executive Board of the World Food Programme, the Italian Government handed over the chairmanship of the Group of Friends of UNHRD to the Spanish Government on Jun 18, 2018. Also promoted by the Government of Panama, the event was the opportunity to celebrate the 18th anniversary of UNHRD, which was first established in Brindisi, Italy in June 2000.