Michael McGrath urges people across Europe to support Sanctuary Runners' Global Solidarity Run

Michael McGrath led a 5km walk and run through Parc du Cinquantenaire in central Brussels with the Sanctuary Runners.

EU Commissioner Michael McGrath joined colleagues from the European Commission and Irish diplomats in Brussels on Wednesday to give his backing to the Sanctuary Runners' Global Solidarity Run.

The initiative is the brainchild of the not-for-profit organisation Sanctuary Runners and encourages people across the world to run, jog, walk or roll any distance, anywhere, on Saturday, October 11.

The run will be a display of solidarity with all those who are forcibly displaced and living in extreme poverty.

The initiative, which is now in its second year, will have communities taking part in the Solomon Islands, in rural communities of Brazil, in Palestine's West Bank, and across Africa.

Michael McGrath led a 5km walk and run through Parc du Cinquantenaire in central Brussels with the Sanctuary Runners.

Today, Mr McGrath led a 5km walk and run through Parc du Cinquantenaire in central Brussels.

Speaking about the Global Solidarity Run he said: "By walking together with the Sanctuary Runners, we send a powerful message of solidarity — that Europe stands shoulder to shoulder with refugees, asylum seekers, and all those forced to flee war and hardship. 

This global movement, born in Cork and now spreading across the world, unites people through friendship, respect, and shared humanity. 

"In every step we take, we uphold the values at the heart of the European Union.” 

Sanctuary Runners’ founder Graham Clifford told those gathered why solidarity with those facing the most difficult of challenges is especially important now.

He said: “This is an opportunity for people to step up and show, through their actions, that they want to see a world in which every single human life is valued equally. 

"To push back against divisive rhetoric and misinformation which is designed to instill suspicion, mistrust and fear of the other. 

"To harness the collective will of people to say to leaders and those in positions of power that we demand policies and strategies which focus on the treatment of human beings and not other factors. 

"To drop the labelling and the politicising of the most vulnerable and to step up for all in the pursuit of a fairer, more just world for everybody. To run as one.” 

Michael McGrath led a 5km walk and run through Parc du Cinquantenaire in central Brussels with the Sanctuary Runners.

Also adding his voice to the call to action ahead of this year’s Global Solidarity Run is Minister for International Development, Neale Richmond.

Speaking from the UN General Assembly High Level Week in New York, he said: "One of the biggest crises we face today is our collective ability to respond to the suffering of our fellow human beings. 

"At a time of unprecedented need, too many countries are cutting funding aimed at saving lives and making the world a better place. 

"At the UN General Assembly and elsewhere, Ireland is loudly calling for solidarity and cooperation to be at the heart of the international system. 

"The Global Solidarity Run is a fun and positive way people around the world can join that call."