[STATEMENT] Stand in Solidarity with Refugee and Asylum Seekers!
IMA Statement for World Refugee Day
20th June 2026
We, International Migrant Alliance (IMA), raise concern about the long standing trend of a far-right politics that drives worsening treatment of refugee and asylum seekers, in both countries of transit and resettlement.
When crisis, conflict and genocide continue to displace people out of their homeland, many countries have repeatedly pushed back boats, tightened their country borders, and criminalised people who seek protection. Many states, through their apparatus, legal framework, policies and practices, and media have been continuously operating in the common tactics. They have framed the displaced communities as a national security threat, illegal immigrants, burden to the country's resources, competitors to the local population, and many more inflammatory narratives that create exclusion and animosity.
The exclusionary and scapegoating narrative has weaponised an anti-refugee sentiment that culminates in various forms of violence, for example, the mob violence in Belfast and online hate campaigns against Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Many governments continue to hide behind their status as non-signatories to the 1951 Convention to emphasise country border control and evade responsibility to protect human rights of the displaced communities. Most countries where refugees are living in transit deny fundamental rights to asylum seekers and refugees to live in dignity including their right to work, access to education, and health care.
We, strongly urge all states to:
Stop making the status of non-signatory to Refugee Convention 1951 as an excuse to evade their responsibility to protect the rights of refugee and asylum seekers. Instead, create and implement a legal framework that grants refugees legal employment, education, and health care that enable them to be self-reliant, contribute to the host society, and live dignified lives.
Develop and ensure interstate cooperation to share responsibility to protect refugee and asylum seekers' lives. No more pushing back boats and criminalisation of people seeking asylum.
Demonstrate proactive leadership to cultivate cohesion among the local population and the displaced communities, promote rights-based narratives of refugee and asylum seekers, and stop xenophobic narratives.
Demonstrate strong commitment and moral stand against genocide and stop enabling the genocidal regimes (e.g. Myanmar Military regime and Israel Zionist regime) through their silence, complacency, and cooperation.
