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Is COVID-19 an opportunity to achieve the rights of refugees?

Let’s be sure to seize this opportunity that comes in the guise of a terrible pandemic.

By James Milner
Is COVID-19 an opportunity to achieve the rights of refugees?
Asylum seekers wait to register and enter the new temporary refugee camp in Lesbos, Greece on 18 September 2020 | Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/PA Images. All rights reserved
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With COVID-19 disrupting travel, shutting borders, and redefining what is essential work, Pandemic Borders explores what international migration will look like after the pandemic, in this series titled #MigrantFutures

December 2019 was a time for cautious optimism for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They were celebrating the results of the first Global Refugee Forum, during which a wide range of states and other actors made pledges to enhance refugee support and share good practices.

Only a year later, on its 70th anniversary, the UNHCR issued a statement saying it was “in no mood to celebrate” given that conditions for refugees were getting markedly worse, not better.

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0