Nearly 80 million people were displaced from their homes at the end of 2019, according to the U.N.’s refugee agency
Nearly 80 million people were displaced from their homes at the end of 2019, forced out by conflict, food insecurity and economic upheaval, according to fresh figures from the United Nations’ refugee agency.
About 1% of the world’s population had fled their homes as of the end of last year, which includes both refugees and those internally displaced within their own countries, according to a new U.N. report.
The wars in Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan, the persecution of the Rohingya in Myanmar and the economic and political crisis in Venezuela have all been major contributors to the highest number of forcibly displaced people since the U.N. began tracking the number after World War II.
Shots fired at foreigners, assaults on minorities, neo-fascist marches: Italy’s extreme right wing feels emboldened by the country’s new leadership. Many are pointing fingers at Interior Minister Matteo Salvini. But is he to blame?
He has hardly got off the airplane before the stream of invective begins. Refugees, says Matteo Salvini at the end of a trip to Africa, „who rape, steal and deal“ will be stopped by the new security decree. Italy, he fumes, has had enough of migrants „who aren’t fleeing from war but who are bringing war to our country.“
Not a day goes by without an incitement from Salvini. In office as interior minister since June 1, the head of the right-wing party Lega has become the voice of the government led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. Salvini’s motto is simple: „Italians first.“ His tone is combative. And the consequences can be seen everywhere. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, is United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. He chairs the Advisory Board of the Catalyst Foundation.
Long-term educational and employment needs have historically been severely undervalued in humanitarian planning. But, as much as refugees need proper food, shelter, and health care today, they also need the knowledge and tools to build new lives and contribute to society tomorrow, whether in their home country or in a new one.
LONDON – It has long been known that the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos is plagued by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and rampant violence, including riots that have left many injured. But when aid workers reported in April that children as young as ten were attempting suicide, another tragic facet of the refugee crisis was highlighted: 30 million children around the world are currently displaced, many in appalling conditions. The crisis is not just putting them in danger today; it is threatening to destroy their futures.
In the Moria camp, children live in fear. Recent riots have displaced hundreds of camp residents and badly injured several. This is traumatizing for children who are with their families, but even more so for the many who are unaccompanied. Making matters worse, many children lack even basic shelter, with thousands of families crammed into cheap donated tents that often aren’t even waterproof. Last winter, three people died of carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to stay warm. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
NEW YORK – Der moderne Mensch, der in ein klimatisches Zeitalter – das Holozän – hineingeboren wurde, hat nun die Grenze in ein anderes – das Anthropozän – überschritten. Doch statt eines Moses, der der Menschheit in dieser neuen und gefährlichen Wildnis vorangeht, führt derzeit eine Bande von Wissenschaftsverleugnern und Umweltverschmutzern die Menschheit in die Irre und in immer größere Gefahr. Wir sind inzwischen alle Klimaflüchtlinge und müssen einen Weg in Sicherheit abstecken.
Das Holozän war das geologische Zeitalter, das vor mehr als 10.000 Jahren begann und sich durch günstige klimatische Umstände auszeichnete, die die menschliche Zivilisation, so wie wir sie kennen, stützten. Das Anthropozän ist eine neue geologische Ära mit Umweltbedingungen, wie sie die Menschheit noch nie erlebt hat. Unheilverkündender Weise ist die Erdtemperatur inzwischen höher als während des Holozäns, was durch das Kohlendioxid bedingt ist, das die Menschheit durch Verbrennen von Kohle, Öl und Gas sowie durch die wahllose Umwandlung der Wälder und Steppen unserer Welt in Agrarbetriebe und Weideflächen in die Atmosphäre entlassen hat. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Last year the number of forcibly displaced people grew to 68.5m according to a report released today by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.Driven by unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo, war in South Sudan and the exodus of the Rohingya people from Myanmar into Bangladesh, 2017 was the fifth straight year in which the number of people fleeing violence or persecution reached a record. More than half were children, many separated from their families. Fully 85% of refugees are in developing countries, nearly all in countries bordering their own. And 40m of the global displaced population never make it across borders at all, remaining adrift in their homelands. Solutions are in short supply. Only 5m people were able to return home, often under duress, while the number of resettlements plummeted by 45% from 2016. Though no longer on the nightly news, the refugee crisis is far from over.
THE canteen of Stockholm University could scarcely be more Swedish. Young blond students sip coffee and tap away on Macs. In room 3.89, an outpost of the campus, is another, newer Sweden. Refugees, all of them teachers, from lands far to the south and east are preparing for the classrooms of their new home. Several keep their coats on as Khadije Obeid takes them through the basics of the curriculum and shows a YouTube clip about education law. “In Syria the teacher has much authority,” says Samer, an English teacher, as he raises his hand above his head. “Here he is equal to the students,” he adds as he lowers it.
The ten women and seven men are on a “fast-track” programme for refugeeswith experience in occupations where labour is short. As well as learning Swedish, they get 26 weeks of daily classes, teaching practice and mentoring. The hope is that they will then train or, if their previous qualifications are recognised, go straight to the classroom. The government is running some 30 other programmes, for builders, chefs, medics and more; 5,300 people were enrolled in 2016 and 2017, of whom around 1,000 were in the teachers’ scheme. Within two years most fast-trackers are employed. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
The cameras have gone – but the suffering endures. Daniel Trilling deconstructs the beliefs that still shape policy and public opinion
Myth 1: The crisis is over
The refugee crisis that dominated the news in 2015 and 2016 consisted primarily of a sharp rise in the number of people coming to Europe to claim asylum. Arrivals have now dropped, and governments have cracked down on the movement of undocumented migrants within the EU; many thousands are stuck in reception centres or camps in southern Europe, while others try to make new lives in the places they have settled.
But to see the crisis as an event that began in 2015 and ended the following year is a mistake, because it obscures the fact that the underlying causes have not changed. To see it in those terms only gives the impression of a hitherto unsullied Europe, visited by hordes of foreigners it has little to do with. This is misleading. The disaster of recent years has as much to do with immigration policies drawn up in European capitals as it does with events outside the continent, and the crisis also consists of overreaction and panic, fuelled by a series of misconceptions about who the migrants are, why they come, and what it means for Europe.
The European Union has perhaps the world’s most complex system to deter unwanted migrants. Since the 1990s, as borders have come down within Europe, giving most EU citizens free movement and passport-free travel, its external frontier has become increasingly militarised. Amnesty International estimates that, between 2007-2013, before the crisis, the EU spent almost €2bn on fences, surveillance systems and patrols on land or at sea. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
European countries should make it easier for refugees to work It eases the fiscal burden without hurting locals’ prospects
MOUHANAD SALHA would like nothing better than to work. But since arriving in the Netherlands in late 2014, he has managed to do so for just one week. Like more than 80% of Syrian refugees in Europe, he is unemployed.
He was studying information technology when he fled Syria in 2012, and worked as an apprentice electrician in Lebanon, where “you can just go in and fix everything.” Not so in the Netherlands. Becoming an electrician requires elaborate certification, and jobs usually need proficiency in Dutch. Such rules, intended to shield native workers, deter asylum-seekers from looking for jobs. Refugees who do find work lose their government-paid benefits.
Asylum-seekers in the Netherlands are housed in government-run centres and not allowed to work until six months after they arrive. If they then find a job, the government withholds 75% of their wages to cover room and board. (Unsurprisingly, few do.) Once granted refugee status, as Mr Salha was last year, they are moved out into subsidised housing. Mr Salha registered with a temporary-job agency, but the local government told him working would mean losing housing and other subsidies. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Erik Berglöf, a former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, is Professor of Economics and Director at the Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Erik Berglöf, Project Syndicate
The 2015 refugee crisis is still a raw issue for millions of Europeans, and continues to serve as fodder for populist and nationalist movements. But, in reality, the situation has started to improve dramatically in many host countries, and it is now incumbent on European leaders to ensure that the trend continues.
LONDON – As they celebrate Christmas, Germans are also remembering the dead from last year’s attack on a Berlin Christmas market by a migrant who had been denied asylum. That incident fanned the flames of public sentiment against immigration, and probably played a role in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s stunning failure to form a new a coalition government after the federal election in September. Within the German electorate, there are widespread fears that another wave of migrants like the influx two years ago will deluge the country.
But the facts on the ground have changed dramatically.On November 15, 2015, a migration command center in the German Foreign Ministry on Werderscher Markt in Berlin was tracking refugee flows at every potential border crossing on the route from Greece to Germany. Eventually, of 12 million displaced Syrians, one million arrived in Europe. And despite a massive response from the German government and members of the public, many asylum-seekers ended up sleeping on the streets and in railway stations. At the time, there were rumors of a migrant-fueled crime wave sweeping the country, though later research found little increase in crime along migration routes. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Meeting refugees’ basic needs – food, shelter, medical care, and safety – is essential. But so is providing the knowledge and tools displaced people need to support themselves and their children in the long term, whether in a new country or the one they fled, should they ever return.
BRUSSELS – In recent years, few issues have generated as much public debate as the plight of refugees. With an unprecedented number of people uprooted by political instability, conflict, or persecution and forced to seek protection beyond their countries’ borders, the inadequacy of international responses has been laid bare.
One central problem with current approaches is that they fail to ensure sustainable futures for refugees. Meeting refugees’ basic needs – food, shelter, medical care, and safety – is essential. But so is providing the knowledge, tools, and opportunities displaced people need to support themselves and their children in countries where they seek asylum, in countries to which they are resettled, or when they return home. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »
Föhrenbergkreis Finanzwirtschaft 
LONDON – It has long been known that the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos is plagued by overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and rampant violence, including riots that have left many injured. But when aid workers reported in April that children as young as ten were attempting suicide, another tragic facet of the refugee crisis was highlighted: 30 million children around the world are currently displaced, many in appalling conditions. The crisis is not just putting them in danger today; it is threatening to destroy their futures.