Madeliene Habib aboard the Dignity 1. Image © 2015 Marta Soszynska/ MSF

To mark World Refugee Day, we are putting the spotlight on the inspiring Madeleine Habib, a woman making waves in her effort to offer dignity and compassion to some of the thousands of people making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea every year.

A report on Tuesday by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) highlighted that as of this year, 68.5 million people have been driven from their homes by persecution, conflict, natural disasters and human rights violations. To put this immense figure into tangible terms, that’s 1 in every 110 people. If they were able to form their own country, it would overshadow the population of the United Kingdom. Moreover, these figures have increased by 10 percent since last year and continue to rise, with every minute that passes seeing at least 20 people forced to leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror.

Today, June 20, is World Refugee Day. Since its announcement back in 2000, UNHCR and innumerable civic groups have hosted a variety of inspiring events every year in order to raise public awareness of this global humanitarian crisis and the courageous people who are challenging, changing and advocating for the defence of human rights.

As demonstrations are taking place around the world, we are profiling one inspiring woman who is doing just this. Madeleine Habib was the first female captain of the Dignity 1, a Médecins Sans Frontières boat providing safe passage to those attempting to cross the Mediterranean.

Having gone out to sea at just 22, Madeleine found herself involved in social justice and environmental protection campaigns which have proven to be both physically and mentally challenging over the years as she bears witness to some of the gravest human rights violations of our time.

Madeleine most recently skippered the all-female Women’s Boat to Gaza, where she was detained along with 12 others by the Israeli Military as they tried to break the naval blockade on the occupied Palestinian territories.

She told MSF that her urge to be involved in humanitarian aid stemmed fromher inability to turn a blind eye to hardship.

“Once you’re aware of the suffering that’s going on in the world, it just brings out something in you that makes you want to address the situation and do what you can to improve it.”

In response to rising negative sentiments towards asylum seekers, Madeleine stresses the necessity of keeping the crisis in perspective, not dismissing people as numbers and keeping their faces real.   

“We all need to recognise the fact that humans migrate – that’s what we do. We will always be moving to seek a better life, a safer life – when our families are threatened, when there isn’t enough food, we’ll look somewhere else. We need to keep it in perspective – to see how much we have, see how little other people have – and have a bit of generosity of spirit.”

Being forced into the situation that refugees are in is not a choice, it is an act of desperation, and that people are dying while crossing the Mediterranean is absurd according to Habib, who now devotes her life to humanitarian rescue operations in the region.

This year Madeleine Habib will be speaking at the Beyond Borders International Festival, as she discusses her experience aboard the Dignity 1 and talks to the Scottish Government supported Human Rights Defenders’ Fellows about their concerns over the move away from upholding the universality of international human rights standards. 

The Festival will also be hosting UN Special Envoys to Yemen and Somalia, Martin Griffiths and Michael Keating as well as Head of OSE Syria Political Office Stephanie Koury; New York Times’ Jodi Rudoren and David Furst as part of the award-winning Hard Truths exhibition which sheds light on the shocking humanitarian crises and political upheavals sweeping the world from Venezuela to Iran, amongst many other panels covering themes such as modern slavery, peace-making and women’s rights.