We Must Respond To The Worsening Global Refugee Crisis

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(OPINION) It is only February, and 2022 has brought enough concerning news for refugees. The global refugee crisis has hit new levels. In early January, the U.N. asked international donors to provide more than $5 billion in funding to help 22 million Afghans in Afghanistan and 5.7 million Afghan refugees in five neighboring countries to prevent a full-blown humanitarian catastrophe. This was their largest appeal ever for a single country.

Also in early January, two fires tore through two refugee camps in Bangladesh, destroying hundreds of homes and severely damaging a COVID-19 treatment center and two learning centers. One of the fires resulted in the destruction of close to 350 shelters, affecting nearly 2,000 people. More than 1 million refugees live in camps in Bangladesh. Around the same time, at least 200 people were killed in bandit attacks in northwest Nigeria that resulted in the displacement of over 10,000 refugees in one week only. Reports suggest a new rise in attacks on villages and schools in the region.

The United Nations high commissioner for refugees has estimated that 82.4 million people are displaced worldwide, 42% of whom are children. For 51 million, displacement is a result of flaring conflict and violence. Most new displacements occurred in Africa. This includes 1.3 million displacements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 1.2 million in Ethiopia. This trend will continue. As U.N. high commissioner Filippo Grandi said, “The international community is failing to prevent violence, persecution and human rights violations, which continue to drive people from their homes.”

As the refugee crisis worsens, little is being done to provide comprehensive solutions to help those fleeing persecution or to address the root cause and reduce or eliminate the need for people to flee their homes.

The lack of comprehensive responses to assist refugees is nothing new, and indeed, we have not learned anything from the failed responses to the refugee crisis caused by the Nazi atrocities. As the refugees crisis was deteriorating, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt called for an international conference.

In July 1938, representatives of 32 countries gathered in Evian, France, expressing their sympathy for refugees and not more than that. The majority of them refused to change their laws to assist Jewish refugees. Within a year, more than 300,000 Germans and Austrians, most of them Jews, applied for U.S. visas. At that stage, they were facing 11 years of waiting. As we know too well, the majority of them did not have that much time.

This trend continues to date. Strict quotas mean that only a few will find a safe haven. Long waiting lists mean that some people will never see their move to a safe country. All of them hear our words of sympathy but not much more than that.

While we fail to respond to the refugee crisis, we also fail to address the root causes that drive mass migrations. In January, Lord Alton of Liverpool, in a debate at the U.K. Parliament, called for “an urgent international response to address the root causes, recognizing that this is a complex strategic problem which cannot be addressed without systematic and sustained international co-operation.”

As he emphasized, his call is “about facing up to the global duty to understand why mass migration is rapidly on the rise and how we need to respond not by endless barriers but by serious and intentional economic, social and democratic investment to support building lives of dignity, way beyond our borders.” Unfortunately, there appears to be little political will to do so. It is easier to respond with endless barriers. It is easier to close the door and look away.

Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, PhD candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was re-published from Forbes with permission.