World
Issues 120
Refugees
The Problem
The issue of conflicts around the globe causes people to be forcibly displaced from their homes, 43 million people to be exact. Beyond simply due to conflicts or persecution, several million others are displaced because of natural disasters. Of these displaced persons, more than 15 million fled their home country, whereas another 27 million are displaced from their homes but have remained in their countries. Of these millions of displaced persons, about 41 percent are children, and about half of all of the refugees are women. Roughly two-thirds have been in exile for more than five years, and four-fifths are in the developing world.
Canadian Perspective
Within Canada, there are two main parts of Canadian refugee protection programs, these being the Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program, for those seeking protection from outside Canada, as well as the In-Canada Asylum Program for people making refugee protection claims within Canada. Canada takes roughly 10% of all the refugees in the world through government-assisted and privately sponsored refugee programs. As conflicts arise around the globe, Canada will set of goal of how many individuals they can help flee to safety, as has been the case during with the Bhutanese and also the Iraqi refugees.
The Solution
Ways to limit refugees would first and foremost be to tackle statelessness as everyone has a right to a nationality and a place to go, not simply spend their lives in a refugee camp. As well, urbanization plays a key role in that roughly 3.3 billion people live in cities, with roughly 80% of these urban-dwellers living in the developing world. A straight forward approach would be to limit conflicts and persecution causing the refugees to flee. Beyond humanity’s control is the fact of natural disasters which uproot homes each year, and have become much more frequent from as they’ve doubled over the last 2 decades.
Our Perspective
The concept of refugees fleeing to safety is one that’s lasted ages. Perhaps one of the most memorable instances of turning away refugees is that of Canada turning away Jewish individuals from Europe who would later be killed during WWII. Currently, with all the conflicts arising around the world, there are needs for refugee camps, as well as countries to take in the displaced. The world is in need of compassion and understanding to see that these citizens are not fleeing due to self-gain, but rather because they are in desperate need of help, aid, and protection.