Protracted Refugee Situations: What Can We Do? In Commemoration of World Refugee Day – June 20
June 20 is World Refugee Day.
As of the end of April 2025, UNHCR reports that the number of people forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution, and violence has reached an unprecedented 122.1 million.
This figure is nearly equivalent to the entire population of Japan.
In just the past decade, the number of forcibly displaced people has nearly doubled—while humanitarian aid has faced continuous and severe budget cuts.
As a result, refugees and others fleeing danger are being pushed into even more vulnerable and fragile conditions.
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
One such crisis is unfolding in the Myanmar (Burma) refugee camps in Thailand, where Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA) has been working since 2000.
For the first time since their establishment, these camps are facing the risk of losing access to food aid.
Nearly 100,000 people who fled conflict in Myanmar live in these camps—some of the oldest refugee camps in the world, often referred to as “forgotten camps.”
Until the 2021 coup in Myanmar, efforts were underway to gradually close the camps through repatriation and third-country resettlement.
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
Now, as the situation drags on, five generations have been born and raised within the camps.
While the camps may appear stable at first glance, they remain heavily restricted: economic activity is limited, and refugees are not legally allowed to earn an income.
Although the camps are run largely by the residents themselves, basic necessities such as food, shelter, and public services continue to rely entirely on external aid.
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
Today, even this lifeline of food assistance is under threat.
For years, food aid to over 100,000 refugees was provided by a single overseas NGO. However, due to funding shortages, this organization can no longer sustain the full burden.
Many other organizations are now working urgently and collaboratively to find ways to respond to this crisis.
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
When humanitarian support is withdrawn without any long-term solutions in place, it leaves people—especially children—with nowhere to turn.
Refugees who attempt to leave the camps risk arrest and detention.
In Myanmar, there is no safe land or home awaiting their return.
How terrifying it must be to see your child’s food supply disappear, with no way to replenish it.
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
At SVA’s libraries within the camps, many children are still too young to grasp the full extent of what’s happening.
Trusting in the happy endings they read in Japanese picture books, they continue to come to the library, turning each page with hope.
(c)Yoshifumi Kawabata
This World Refugee Day, we invite you to reflect with us:
What can we do—now, and for the long-term—to support those in urgent need and to help build a future where such suffering is no longer repeated?
June 20, 2025
Secretary General Eri Yamamoto
[Learn more about our refugee camp activities here (Japanese)]
【Video (Japanese)】 “Picture Books: A Window to the World” – SVA’s Work in the Myanmar Refugee Camps
