Send this page to someone via email

Today is World Refugee Day, an annual initiative by the United Nations (UN) to recognize people who have been displaced due to “war, persecution or terror.”

Like many other prominent people around the world, Ivanka Trump took an opportunity to mark the day on Tuesday, saying in a tweet, “we remember the plight and courage of the 22 million+ refugees globally. We must work to restore peace and end this crisis.”

On #WorldRefugeeDay we remember the plight & courage of the 22 million+ refugees globally. We must work to restore peace & end this crisis. https://t.co/CMMn8zno10 — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 20, 2017

But Twitter users were quick to remind her of a few things that her father, U.S. President Donald Trump, has said about refugees — remarks that form a clear contrast with her sympathetic words.

They reminded Ivanka of this cartoon, which the president re-tweeted last year, before he took office:

Story continues below advertisement

And that was just one of many tweets that took Ivanka to task for her father’s remarks on refugees:

Are you serious right now?! You tweeting you care about refugees while your father is actively screwing them … pic.twitter.com/PxF1IGmUMw — AE 🇧🇸🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@iamchefapple) June 20, 2017

You're joking, right? Your father is actively trying to ban an entire religious group from entering the country. — Darwin Brandis (@DarwinBrandis) June 20, 2017

How do you reconcile this comment with the oppressive policies of your administration? Are you clueless, or just have no shame? — Hillary Haldane (@HillaryHaldane) June 20, 2017

Earlier this year, the U.S. president signed an executive order that suspended the country’s refugee program and limited immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries including Syria, Iraq, Libya, Iran, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen.

The so-called “travel ban” was later shot down in the courts before Trump introduced a revised measure, which was also blocked by judges.

Last year, as he sought the Republican nomination to run for president, Trump said that he could “look in [Syrian children’s] faces and say, ‘You can’t come.’ I’ll look them in the face,” the Daily Telegraph reported.

Story continues below advertisement

“Look, we don’t know where their parents come from. Their parents should always stay with them, that’s very important, but we don’t know where the parents come from, they have no documentation. They may be ISIL, they may be ISIL-related. It could be a Trojan horse.”

READ MORE: Trump refugee ban causes chaos, panic, anger worldwide

The UN has noted that “every minute, 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror.”

The UN Refugee Agency says that over 5 million people have left Syria since 2011 and headed for countries such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

Many have arrived in these countries with “little or no financial resources.”

In Lebanon alone, 70 per cent of Syrian refugees live below the poverty line, and, as there aren’t any formal refugee camps there, over a million registered Syrians have been spread throughout over 2,100 communities and locations.