Why We Do What We Do
When you think of refugees, you probably picture large swaths of people living in tents in a camp located in a dusty, rural landscape. While this image is accurate in some senses, refugees are also hardworking families of women, men and children who have lost everything they own, were forced out of their homes, and have sought out safety in a new, deeply unfamiliar place. More than half of the worlds refugees live in urban cities.
Here they must quickly learn a new language, adapt to a new culture, and hope for a new life and sense of belonging, all while coping with the trauma and fear of living in a foreign place.
Imagine if you were suddenly ripped from your home and forced to move to a place you know little about with only what you can carry on your back. This is the very real struggle that most refugees face daily.
Currently, there are around 70.8 million forcibly displaced individuals around the world. These people have been pushed out of their homes and their livelihoods. Displacement is confirmed by the United Nations as the fastest growing human catastrophe in nearly 70 years. Every day, 34,000 people are displaced. That is 24 people every minute. Almost half of all refugees are under the age of 18. (1) Nearly 41.3 million are internally displaced within their country, and mainly placed in camps and temporary shelters. 25.9 million of the displaced people have been forced to leave their country of origin and embark on a dangerous and unsafe journey, seeking asylum in other countries, and have been given the label ‘Refugees’.
Only 1% of refugees are granted asylum from third-world countries and can begin their journey to a new home. “At sea, a frightening number of refugees and migrants are dying each year; on land, people fleeing war are finding their way blocked by closed borders.” Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
(2) In the last four years, half of the refugees have come from three countries: Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia. Refugees initially move to neighboring countries or sometimes remain stranded in a no-man’s land between countries’ borders. 40% of the refugees seek temporary shelters in camps set in rural areas, while 60% try to find shelter in urban places which can complicate the aiding process. Offering refuge does not often come from the world’s richest nations, and the hosting countries are not necessarily the ones that are the most financially able or willing to sustain a large refugee population. In fact, the top hosting countries are developing countries like Turkey, Jordan, Ethiopia, and Lebanon. For instance, as a result of the crisis in Syria, Turkey hosts 2.5 million Syrian refugees. Because of the insufficient aid and the country’s lack of resources to support all of these refugees, more than 1.5 million refugees pass through Turkey and try to seek asylum in the neighboring European countries which has sometimes been met with rejection.
Our daily lives become so ingrained in our minds that it is hard to imagine leaving everything behind to escape war-torn regions or religious persecution. This is on top of having to readjust and start from scratch in a completely new country while also assimilating into a strange and unfamiliar culture.
1 (United Nations High Commision for refugees 2016)
2 (Ewing 2016)