The wind picks up on the sea these late summer evenings, whipping up the waves. If one hopes  to navigate the Mediterranean with any safety in a small boat, it had best be before winter turns the water colder and rougher.

So this is a crucial time for those fleeing conflict and persecution back home – or simply wishing to feed a family – by crossing the Mediterranean and finding shelter in Europe.

Indeed it is crunch time for refugees everywhere as the spotlight is turned on them by the United Nations General Assembly starting in New York.

The bigoted Matteo Salvini , who aligned himself with United States President Donald Trump in making cruelty a policy for deterring migrants, has disappeared for now as Italy’s Interior Minister. 

The full effect of this has yet to be revealed.

But for now captains of rescue ships do not risk imprisonment by taking aboard those cynically thrown to their fate by people smugglers. 

Some relief then for those taking this route to Europe. Their numbers have dramatically diminished:About a tenth of the number crossing  three year ago. But the Mediterranean  claims proportionately more of their lives.

Thanks to the efforts of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, fewer of them will be taken to Libya where they face detention in appalling conditions or worse.

The country rendered ungovernable after the fall of Muammar Gadaffi is no longer an easy option for European countries trying to reduce the migrant wave.

This does not mean European countries will take appreciably more people from Africa and the Middle East.

No more than the United States will welcome those from Central and South American countries seeking safer, better lives.

Indeed, South Africa will not be able to take in all those Africans coming  across the Limpopo and the Kruger National Park.

One must hope an international understanding can be reached that there is a universal responsibility to provide a refuge.

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This despite a plea by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees for Tanzania to respect international conventions on the rights of those seeking shelter.

The Burundians fled into Uganda in 2015 because of violence following President Pierre Nkurunziza contesting an unconstitutional third term in office.

Tanzania’s Home Affairs Minister Kangi Lugola says there is now peace in Burundi.

He’s brought his Burundia counterpart Pascal Barandagiye to warn the refugees in the camps in southwest Tanzania to come home.

Tanzania maintains the UNHCR is not meeting the agreement reached last year to return 2000 refugees a month to Burundi    

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Around the world international organizations,  governments and civil organizations look at how to improve the lot of the sixty-eight-and-a-half million forcible displaced people. That’e more than were driven from their homes by World War 2.

A third of these are Africans.

Every minute,  around the world, 20 people leave behind everything they own to escape war.

A third of them cross borders seeking shelter and safety.

More than half are displaced in their own countries.

South Africa is the new home to 88 000 refugees.

On June 20, the world looks at how best to deal with the plight of these people.

The Department of Home Affairs will be marking World Refugee Day with the the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the Pan African Parliament and the African Peer Review Mechanism.

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Acting Director General of Home Affairs Thulani Mavuso says 6000 refugees have been given permanent status with the right to become full citizens.

Thulani Mavuso was speaking at the Pan African Parliament where executives of the African Peer Review Mechanism and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees join in a meeting to mark World Refugee Day.

The Acting Director General of Home Affairs read from former ANC leader Oliver Tambo’s 1986 speech to the Swedish Parliament chronicling the suffering of his people under apartheid and expressing gratitude for the assistance given by governments in the  fight against institutionalized racism.

Mavuso says Tambo realized that his emotions would resonate with those of Africans finding safety in South Africa today.  

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