More than Syria: the Global Refugee Challenge

One in every 122 people is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report, released in June, announced the highest displacement figures recorded since the agency’s creation in 1950. At the end of 2014, the number of forcibly displaced people reached 59.5 million, a sizable jump from 52.1 million in 2013. The leap is the biggest recorded in a single year. Although the report only includes up to 2014 statistics, there are no indications of a change in trajectory for 2015.

While a large part of the acceleration can be attributed to the Syrian crisis, the situation behind the numbers is more complex. Conflicts worldwide – particularly in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe – are driving people from their home countries. Syria dominates as the world’s largest source of refugees (3.88 million at the end of 2014).

However, the crisis is broader than Syria. It is a crisis that is global in size and scope. Refugees has also fled from Afghanistan, Somalia, Ukraine, Eritrea, Colombia, and Myanmar, among others. Refugees of other nationalities have fallen out of the spotlight due to the urgency of the Syrian crisis and because their respective situations have remained unchanged for years--or in some cases, decades.

The scale of the issue demands an unprecedented humanitarian response, yet states and international agencies have yet to rise to the occasion. International agencies lack sufficient funding, while states lack political willpower to mobilize resources and curb violence.

The scope of the global refugee crisis has overstretched the resources of international agencies, threatening their ability to meet refugees’ basic needs. The United Nation’s humanitarian agencies are on the verge of bankruptcy due to the jump in people in need of shelter, water, sanitation, food, basic sanitation, and medical assistance. Aside from adjusting to the influx, the UNHCR will face an estimated 10 percent drop in income in 2015. As a result, conditions in refugee camps may become uninhabitable.

One such camp is Dadaab, which is home to some 300,000 Somali refugees in Kenya, making it the largest in the world. The World Food Program (WFP) has struggled to fund its operations in the camp and consequently dropped rations by 30 percent this summer, meaning refugees receive less than the bare minimum amount of calories recommended by the United Nations. To meet its own standards, the U.N. must turn to individual member states, which fund the U.N.’s humanitarian relief and development agencies with voluntary contributions.

According to the U.N., developing states have increasingly borne a larger part of the burden of caring for refugees. Developing countries host 86 percent of the world’s refugees, while wealthy countries care for 14 percent. Historically, developing countries have hosted the majority of refugees due to geographical circumstance; however, the gap has widened in recent years.

Yet European states hesitate to accept a larger part of the burden. Some countries, including Germany and Sweden, have taken the lead by adopting generous measures for refugees. However, many European countries are wary of how an influx of newcomers will impact them and face political pressure from voters hostile to refugees.

The international community must reinvigorate its efforts to stem the violence at the heart of the issue. The UNHCR’s report cites at least 15 conflicts of the past five years as the cause behind the unprecedented displaced numbers. While new conflicts erupt, older conflicts seem to persist or reignite regularly. Persistent conflicts give the refugee crisis an indefinite character because refugees are unable to return home.

The international community must renew its commitment to stop violence before more refugees find themselves dependent on the goodwill and resources of humanitarian agencies and countries. Instead of framing the refugee crisis as a Syrian problem or a European problem, the international community should recognize that the refugee question is a global crisis that requires a coordinated, comprehensive response.