The refugee crisis is a complex issue. It is a human rights challenge because people who have fled their homes to escape violence and persecution deserve safe harbor. But it is also an economic challenge, because providing basic services like shelter and food for millions of displaced people requires vast resources. Moreover, unless rich countries are willing to take up their responsibility to host refugees — rather than make them criminals by deporting them or turning them away — it is difficult for international NGOs to do their work.
Conflict, natural disasters, and other events that disturb public order are the primary causes of displacement globally. But as the world’s population grows, other issues have become more prominent, including famine and climate change. In fact, famine and migration go hand-in-hand: hunger is one of the main triggers for forced migration, while climate change can cause it by increasing drought and desertification, or by raising sea levels, thereby altering local ecosystems.
The United Nations established the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1951 to protect the rights of displaced people, but these rights are routinely violated on a daily basis. The only way to solve the refugee crisis is to return refugees safely and voluntarily to their home countries, which must be safe and secure. But that can only happen if there is an end to war, violence, and impunity for perpetrators of atrocities.