The Refugee Crisis is Everyone’s Problem

Millions of people around the world are displaced by conflict, famine or disease. Many have nowhere else to go and must seek sanctuary. This is a human crisis, and it is everyone’s problem.

Refugee crises are often deeply entangled with the politics of conflict resolution. This is because international law provides states with the right to protect displaced people and offers refugees greater protections than migrants. In practice, this difference is often manipulated and exploited by political leaders and institutions that see refugee populations as bargaining chips. For example, governments that host large numbers of refugees sometimes use them as leverage in negotiations with Western states desperate to prevent the arrival of asylum seekers, while donors encourage this manipulation by offering money for state promises to reduce refugee flows.

The global system of protecting refugees is broken. Many rich countries treat refugees as “somebody else’s problem,” and this leaves them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse and discrimination.

Refugees deserve better. It is a moral failure to leave them in situations where it’s literally impossible for them to live in a dignified manner. We must support all kinds of safe pathways to safety that are closer to home, and invest in community-based sponsorship programmes. We must also investigate and prosecute trafficking gangs that exploit refugee and migrant populations, and put people’s safety above all other considerations. And we must tackle all forms of xenophobia, which create fear and fuel prejudice that leads to violence against vulnerable migrants and refugees.