This year, this annual campaign of awareness-raising on and celebration of refugee rights, experiences and claims worldwide, has a particular urgency and anger in Europe. Last Friday, the infamous new Pact on Migration and Asylum came into force in the European Union, harmonizing migration politics under one of the strictest reforms in the past decades. Three days ago, one of its accompanying laws, known as the euphemistic ‘Return Regulation’, was passed at the European Parliament, with the overwhelming support and alliance of far-right and right-wing groups. This new legislation notably allows for the creation of ‘return hubs‘: deportation centers located outside of the EU, where asylum-seekers will be sent in the wait of the processing of their application or return to their home country. It also legalizes the ‘search’, that is raid, of places of residence of ‘irregular migrants’.
What does it mean to be and build A World of Neighbours in June 2026, in the Europe of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, aimed at facilitating the deportation and imprisonment of people on the move? How do we welcome, protect and stand with all those whose life is increasingly threatened by securitarian and xenophobic laws, behaviours and discourses all around the continent? How do we come and remain together against all the attempts at defining and dividing us?
This year, and for many to come, it is on every one of us to keep each other safe.