Refugees: a collective problem

Amnesty International’s report on the distribution of refugee populations around the world is another reminder of how little the richer nations are doing to share responsibility for millions of people displaced by war and conflict. According to Amnesty, 56% of the world’s 21 million refugees are being hosted by just 10 countries — all in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The top three refugee hosting countries are Jordan, which has taken in more than 2.7 million people, followed by Turkey (more than 2.5 million) and Pakistan (1.6 million). Included in these ten host nations are also the poorest of countries such as Chad, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Kenya.

Developed countries must take responsibility not only for the sake of mere humanity, but also because they are a part of the problem in much of the war-torn areas. But while the richer parts of the world do not share the burden, others exploit their position as refugee-hosting nations. Many countries, Pakistan among them, are in the business of blaming refugees for their social and economic problems, completely forgetting that a large number of Pakistanis too, in fact the sixth-largest refugee population, is from Pakistan. Seeking asylum is a basic human right, yet refugees are treated as if their refugee status is a fault of their own. The level of harassment and abuse faced by Afghan refugees in Pakistan, for instance, is atrocious, with Afghans used as a bait to cover up for the state’s failure in providing security.

As we have witnessed in the past few years, pushing people out, creating fences or leaving them to die in the waters will not stop them from seeking safety, but only force them to take dangerous routes and increase fatalities.

The increasing number of refugees is a collective problem that the world is not collectively sharing responsibility for. While the number of refugees has substantially increased over the years, they still constitute a mere 0.3% of the global population. Surely, together, we can find homes for such a small number of people.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2016.

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