REFUGEE CRISIS

“REFUGEES ARE NOT TERRORISTS, THEY ARE OFTEN THE FIRST VICTIMS OF
TERRORISM,” said Antonio Manuel de Oliveria Guterres, Portuguese politician and
diplomat who is serving as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Refugee crisis
can refer to movements of large groups of displaced people, who could be internally
displaced persons, forced people, refugees or other migrants. It can also refer to incidents in
the country of origin or departure, to large problems whilst on the move or even after the
arrival in a safe country that involve large groups of displaced persons, asylum seekers or
refugees. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, in 2017, 65.6 million
people were forcibly displaced worldwide because of persecution, conflict, violence, or
human rights violation alone.

The refugee crisis is a human crisis: Behind the statistics are people filled with unique life
experiences and dreams for the future. There are mothers longing to return home, fathers
yearning to work again, children searching for a childhood. We are witnessing a massive shift
of humanity unlike any seen before. Today more than 68 million people around the world are
displaced from their homes. What does it look for that many people to be displaced? It would
be like over half the population of Japan going homeless.

More than a third of the world’s displaced population- some 25.4 million people- have been
forced to flee their own countries entirely, leaving familiar lands behind. Over two-thirds of
those refugees come from just five countries: Syria (6.3 million refugees), Afghanistan (2.6
million refuges), South Sudan (2.4 million refugees), Myanmar (1.2 million refugees) and
Somalia (986,400 refugees). The Syria crisis has accelerated more dramatically than any
crisis on earth, and Syrians continue to be the largest forcibly displaced population in the
world. After Syrian civil war erupted in March 2011, it took two years for 1million people to
be displaced.

Another million were displaced within six months. Now even seven years on, more than half
of the pre-war population has been internally displaced or forced to seek safety in
neighboring countries. That’s more 6.3 million people who have escaped across the borders.
Years of unemployment, insecurity and political instability have led to a massive migration
from Afghanistan. Over a million people are estimated to be living in new and prolonged
displacement, while nearly 2.6 million people have been forced to leave the country to Iran,
Pakistan or Europe. The situation in South Sudan is dire, and the largest refugee crisis in
Africa.

More than 4 million people have been uprooted from their homes since the start of brutal
South Sudanese civil war in 2013, including about 2.4 million people who have been forced
to cross into neighboring countries, the majority of them women and children. Since violence
broke out in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state in August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya
have fled to Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh. Before the crisis began, Bangladesh was
already grappling with its own humanitarian challenges, and hosting some 212,000 Rohingya
who had escaped Myanmar during earlier periods of violence and persecution.

Page 1 of 5
Two Rohingya refugees alleged that BSF officers were ‘pushing back’ their compatriots at
the border using chilli spray and stun grenades. The Indian government told the Supreme
Court “IT DID NOT WANT INDIA TO BECOME WORLD’S BIGGEST REFUGEE
CAPITAL”.

Supreme Court of India refuses to stop deportation of 7 Rohingya refugees who were set to
be deported from Manipur to Myanmar. This will be the first such official deportation from
India to Myanmar. Chief justice Ranjan Gogoi referring to government’s affidavit said that
seven Rohingyas had been convicted for travelling to the country without requisite papers
and Myanmar also accepts them as their nationals. Assam has about 32 Rohingya refugees in
detention camps in Assam, about 15 of them including seven minors are in Tezpur. They are
mostly believed to be from the Rakhine state in Myanmar and were apprehended in 2014 by
the railway police. The Indian government has an international legal obligation to fully
acknowledge the institutionalized discrimination, persecution, hate and gross human rights
violations these people have faced in their country of origin and provide them the necessary
protection.

Refugee crisis is the biggest problem the world is facing today. There should be some
solution to solve this problem. There are eight ways to solve refugee crisis:

1. Opening up safe routes to sanctuary refugees is one important solution. That means
allowing people to reunite with their relatives, and giving refugees visas so they don’t
have to spend their life savings and risks drowning to reach safety.

2. It also means resettling all refugees who need it. Resettlement is a vital solution for
most vulnerable refugees- including torture survivors and people with serious medical
problems.

3. World leaders also need to put saving lives first. No one should have to die crossing a
border, and yet almost 7,000 people drowned in the Mediterranean alone in two years
since the first big shipwreck in October 2013. Thousands of people fleeing
persecution in Myanmar suffered for weeks on board boats while Thailand, Malaysia,
and Indonesia bickered over who should help them in May 2015.

4. And whether they travel by land or by sea, people fleeing persecution or wars should
be allowed to cross borders, with or without travel documents. Pushing people back
and putting up massive fences only forces them to take more dangerous routes to
safety.

5. All countries should investigate and prosecute trafficking gangs, who exploit refugees
and migrants, and put people’s safety above all else. Survivors whom Amnesty
International, a non-governmental organization met in Southeast Asia said traffickers
killed people on board boats, when their families couldn’t pay ransoms. Others were
thrown overboard and left to drown, or died from starvation because there was no
food and water.

Page 2 of 5
 6. Governments also need to stop blaming refugees and migrants for economic and
social problems, and instead combat all kinds of xenophobia and racial
discrimination. Doing otherwise is deeply unfair, stirs up tensions and fear of
foreigners, and sometimes leads to violence and even death.

7. “FINANCIALLY BROKE” is how Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner

for Refugees, described UN agencies in September 2015. Wealthy countries quite
simply aren’t keeping high- profile to fund aid for refugees abroad. For example, the
UN has received less than half the funding it needs to support Syria’s 4 million
refugees. This is how forcing 80%of refugees living outside the camp in Jordan to do
dangerous, degrading jobs or send their children out to beg. People are dying while
governments spend billions on border control. They urgently need to guarantee full
funding to alleviate refugee crisis worldwide.

8. We need radical solutions, visionary leadership and global co-operation on a scale not
seen for 70 years. That involves setting up strong refugee systems: allowing people to
apply for asylum, treating their refugee claims fairly, resettling the most vulnerable of
all, and providing basics like education and healthcare.

“NONE OF THESE EIGHT SOLUTIONS ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE, IF

POLITICIANS LISTEN TO THE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE SAYING REFUGEES
WELCOME!” said Amnesty International.

More than two decades of ongoing conflict and natural hazards such as prolonged drought
and flooding have driven nearly 1 million Somalian’s to live in destitute refugee camps in the
Horn of Africa and Yemen, while some 2.1 million people remain displaced within the
country. Mercy Corps, a non-governmental humanitarian aid organization, has been working
to providing livelihood opportunities, such as cash for work, to increase farm production and
enhance the ability of communities to handle shocks like drought.

In conclusion, people play an important role in ensuring that refugees have the support they
need. “HELPING HANDS ARE BETTER THAN PRAYING LIPS,” said Mother Teresa.
When people work together, they can help even more people feel safe from conflict, stay
healthy and forge ahead to a better, stronger future. In more than 40 countries, Mercy Corps
partners to put bold solutions into action- helping people triumph over adversity and build
stronger communities from within. With support of NGO’s and Government, Mercy Corps is
helping millions of people meet their urgent needs and build a stronger tomorrow.

References:

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee_crisis
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_Corps
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_in_India
4. https://scroll.in/latest/867058/india-can't-become-worlds-refugee-capital-centre-tells-
supreme-court-in-rohingya-deportation-case

Page 3 of 5
5. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/10/eight-solutions-world-refugee-
crisis/
6. https://www.mercycorps.org/articles/worlds-5-biggest-refugee-crises

Page 4 of 5
Details of the Author:
Name: M.Sruthi

Mobile: 8309514873

Email: sruthimukhirala2000@gmail.com

Details of the Co-Author:

Name: Sonali Guha Roy

Mobile: 9989421885

Email: sonali.guharoy@yahoo.in

College Details:
College Name: University College of Law, Osmania University.

College Address: Osmania University road, Amberpet, Hyderabad, Telangana. PIN: 500007.

Page 5 of 5