The Refugee Crisis as a Test of Our Commitment to Peace

October 28, 2025
Madrid, Spain

The world today faces what is likely the greatest forced displacement in human history: more than 122 million people globally have been uprooted by conflict, persecution, and climate disasters, many seeking refuge across borders. In Europe alone, over 13 million refugees are hosted, including more than 6 million from Ukraine, while new asylum applications continue to challenge the capacity and will of states to respond humanely. The scale of the crisis is not just a concern of migration policy, but a profound humanitarian and peace challenge: displaced lives live under constant insecurity, separation, legal limbo, and exclusion. When basic dignity and protection are denied, societies fracture, tensions surge, and peace becomes ever more fragile.

At the Europe Peace Foundation, we believe that sustainable peace must reckon with forced displacement, not ignore it. We work to connect refugee protection to peacebuilding: supporting legal advocacy, fostering social integration, safeguarding rights, and promoting corridors for safe return or resettlement. We push for a global peace plan that treats displacement as a core dimension of human security, insists on responsibility sharing among nations, and weaves together conflict resolution, development, and humanitarian action. We call on European governments, civil society, and international bodies to act boldly: expand legal pathways for asylum, increase resettlement quotas, dismantle barriers to inclusion, invest in host communities, and build mechanisms so that no human remains stateless or voiceless. Peace must not leave refugees behind; only when all people are protected can our shared peace endure.