A quick look at the refugee crises around the world

As the old adage goes, the rights of some is the privilege of others. Nothing exemplifies this saying more than the situation of refugees, internally displaced people and stateless people.

I remember giving a presentation in the first year of my undergrad degree which was around four years ago… At that time, there were three major refugee concerns across the globe. Today, four years hence, the global refugee concerns have nearly doubled.

Can we do something to help them? Can we stop more people from losing their chances at having a life? Yes, we can. It can start by educating ourselves more about the places refugees came from. Maybe, then we can understand more about the people, who were simply people before they became refugees.

Yemen emergency

Yemen was one of middle east’s poorest nations with a longstanding authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh. After the Arab Spring, he was to transfer the power to his deputy Abradduh Mansoor Hadi. Among problems like food insecurity and corruption, Hadi also had to deal with insurgency in the state. A rebellion began between two factions, the civil Government and Houthi Shia rebels in 2014. The country broke into a civil war after that. The factions spared no one, civil structures were damaged and public institutions collapsed. The country is suffering from famine and water scarcity. According to UNHCR, 8 out of 10 people live below the poverty line and around 17,700 civilians are dead.

Rohingya crisis

The Rohingyas are a minority community who lived in the Rakhine province of Myanmar. The community was always eyed with scepticism and so, in spite of being inhabitants of Myanmar for more than a hundred years, the Rohingyas did not have equal citizenship rights. In 2017, there was a systematic ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingya people by the Military and police of Myanmar. People were looted, murdered and villages burnt. The community became the most persecuted community in the world. With little or no possessions, they fled from Myanmar on rafts and small boats. They reached Bangladesh where they were taken in as refugees. Cases of Rohingya women being trafficked and men being forced into bonded labour made headlines. Around 742,000 Rohingyas (UNHCR figures) have fled Myanmar since 2017.

Venezuela Emergency

The communist country located on the coast of South America is known for its whimsical dictator Nicholas Maduro. Venezuelans have started fleeing the country because of lack of food supplies, medicine and crippling economy. The oil-rich country is characterised by corruption, violence and caravans of people fleeing in the hope of a better life. Figures given by UNHCR show that, over 4.5 million Venezuelans have left their country and are living as refugees and migrants.

Central African Republic (CAR) Emergency

The resource rich country in Africa has been torn in violence for years. Just when the situation was normalising in 2016, sporadic violent attacks started taking place. Refugees fleeing come from an agrarian background. They don’t have much to carry with them, they have usually seen graphic episodes of violence and have walked on foot to neighbouring countries after hiding in forests for days without food to eat or water to drink. It is so far one of the most under-funded refugee crisis. UNHCR data shows that currently, there are around 601,000 refugees in CAR.

South Sudan emergency

When in 2015, South Sudan broke from Sudan to form a democracy, a wave of optimism spread across the inhabitants of the country. But, the happiness was short-lived. There were two factions or rebel groups that had fought for the secession from Sudan. When the time came to form a Government after that, power play became more important and the rebel groups started fighting amongst eachother. So, the cycle of violence kept persisting in South Sudan and the youngest democracy became the country with Africa’s largest refugee crisis. UNHCR says that around 2.2 million civilians have become refugees. They face threats of violence, disease, malnourishment and water scarcity.

Syria and Iraq emergency

Iraq has been an unstable country since the American Invasion in 2002. Syria, on the other hand had was a stable country under the leadership of Bashar Al Assad. He has been accused of committing human rights abuses and crimes on his own citizens. So when the Arab spring broke out, the country saw an armed rebellion with terrorist groups emerging out of it. Around 8.5 million people have fled Syria and Iraq. While many refugees move to neighbouring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, many get on floats take a perilous journey through the sea to Europe. One can spot some isolated headlines about an improving situation in Syria and Iraq, there is still a long way to go for repatriation and civilians are still escaping the violence in their countries.

The common theme across all emergencies is the need to escape violence, safety and hope for a better life. Maybe the first step to help refugees can be to understand where they come from and acknowledge that what is happening is not okay, because basic human needs being met should not be a privilege. It is a right, human right.

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