By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Red Deerians come together for World Refugee Day

Jun 20, 2018 | 4:00 PM

Make friends with people and be a good neighbour.

That is one of the overarching messages for World Refugee Day in Red Deer, which took place on Wednesday with a number of activities at The Hub on Ross, the Red Deer Museum and at Festival Hall.

Jan Underwood, Public Awareness Coordinator with Central Alberta Refugee Effort, says more than 500 refugees have now come to Red Deer since the beginning of 2015.

“Sometimes there are negative assumptions and misconceptions that are made about people from different areas or different faiths, so what we’re trying to do is to get both refugee families and people that are members of the public — mainstream Canadian people — get them together so they can meet each other, and to try and encourage a welcoming and inclusive community in Red Deer.”

During an event at Festival Hall, speakers with lived experiences as refugees shared their stories, including Ethiopia-born Jamil Mohamed, who arrived in Canada in April 2017 before coming to Red Deer last January. He now works for Catholic Social Services.

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“All human beings deserve an equal right, but all people seeking asylum do not have equal ground for asylum. They have been discriminated based on their religion and ethnicity,” Mohamed said. “There are no Muslim refugees or Christian refugees. Refugees are mothers, sisters, sons, and daughters and a person with equal right to stand with dignity on this planet. I assure you that we will fail the basic test of humanity if we discriminate based on religion and ethnicity.”

He added that no one wants or deserves needing to be a refugee, but as long as war is happening, they will exist and they deserve respect and compassion.

“On one hand, the refugee crisis has produced a great act of generosity and solidarity with refugees here in Canada, so on behalf of all refugees, I would like to thank the Canadian government, and of course the city of Red Deer which is now my new home,” he went on. “On the other hand, the fear of uncontrolled migration has ended public confidence and ability of government and international institution to control the situation.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are 68 million people who’ve been forcibly displaced worldwide — 25.4 million are refugees and more than half of those are under the age of 18.

More on World Refugee Day is available at UNHCR.org.