While there is no definitive “start” of the current refugee crisis, certain events have contributed greatly to it. More than 4 million Ukrainians have been registered as refugees (and a total of 10 million have been forcibly displaced as of April 2022).
Over the last 11 years, displacement numbers accelerated due to the Syrian civil war. One out of every 10 refugees today has come from Afghanistan as part of a 40-year crisis. And the roots of the current refugee crisis also owe much to the early 1960s: Between 1957 and 1962, 24 African countries achieved independence from European colonial rule. While most of these transitions were peaceful, they also left the newly-sovereign nations on shaky ground that led to decades of instability and violence.
Recent UN figures show that, on average, 44,000 people leave their homes due to conflict and persecution every day. Conflict, however, is not the only cause of the global refugee crisis; in fact, it’s precisely because there are so many reasons people will flee their homes that so many of our current humanitarian crises are also refugee crises.
The biggest problem of the refugee crisis is usually the needs of refugees themselves. Escaping persecution or any other threat is just the beginning of their story, and the challenges faced in displacement range from language barriers and not being able to legally work, to living in substandard conditions (often informal tented settlements), to facing gender-based violence, sexual assault, and post-traumatic stress.
Part of the problem with the current crisis is one of capacity: Providing the bare necessities to nearly 30 million refugees and ensuring protection of their rights is, to say the least, a challenge. Further complicating this is that many refugees are hosted in countries that are also prone to conflict, violence and insecurity, making supplies and support that much harder to get to the right people.
Along these lines, host communities also face pressure. Many of the largest communities for refugees are in neighbouring countries (of the twelve largest host communities at the end of 2021, only one—Germany—was in Europe, the rest were in Africa, the Middle East and Asia). Temporary displacement is one thing, but the protracted nature of most conflicts now means that host communities with limited resources can be left with refugee communities for years, if not decades.
There is a migration crisis on all continents and the population of each country feels and experiences the problems and consequences of this crisis phenomenon.
Do you recognize the problem? What do you think needs to be done today to resolve the problem?