“Ten years ago, I crossed the Aegean Sea on an overcrowded rubber boat, hoping only to survive,” Yusra Mardini, former swimmer of the Refugee Olympic Team, writes in an opinion piece marking the 75th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention, published by Al Jazeera.
Mardini did not leave Syria for a different life, but because her old life had vanished. War took her home, disrupted her education, and replaced every certainty with fear, loss, and insecurity. “Like millions before me, I suddenly became something I never thought I’d be: a refugee.”
The 1951 Refugee Convention was created after one of the darkest chapters in history to ensure that those forced to flee persecution would never be abandoned. For Mardini, it is not merely a legal document: “It represents protection, hope, and a new beginning.”
Thanks to the right to seek asylum, she built a new life in Germany, competed in two Olympic Games, and became a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. “The Convention did not give me success. It gave me a chance.”
Today, over 120 million people worldwide are forced to leave their homes due to conflict, violence, and persecution. “But no one experiences displacement as a number. Every number represents a human being.” Mardini stresses that refugees are often seen as political problems or security challenges, rarely as individuals with professions, talents, ambitions, and dreams.
The international refugee system is under immense strain. Conflicts are lasting longer, and new crises keep emerging. Host countries with large refugee populations are bearing a responsibility that should be shared more equitably. Meanwhile, many seeking safety face closed borders, dangerous journeys, and rising hostility.
In early 2025, Mardini returned to Syria for the first time in a decade. She hugged long-lost relatives, visited childhood places, and saw both remaining beauty and deep scars of war. “That journey reminded me that returning home is never just about crossing a border. People need safety. They need functioning schools and hospitals. They need housing, jobs, and the belief that they won’t have to flee again.”
She concludes: “75 years ago, the world promised that those forced to flee would not be abandoned. 75 years on, the Refugee Convention remains one of the clearest expressions of that promise. In an increasingly divided world, protecting it matters more than ever. Because one day, any one of us might depend on the protection it provides.”
