Rutland Herald (Vt.), June 19:
It is an astonishing number: the United Nations estimates that violence and poverty have displaced 60 million people around the globe. It is a number that takes us back to the catastrophic era of World War II when vast populations of refugees roamed the European continent and war-torn regions of Asia.
Many of the refugees remain as displaced persons within their own countries. As The New York Times reported, Colombia has one of the world’s largest populations of internally displaced people ”“ 6.5 million. Other sources of refugee flight include Syria, which has produced 11.6 million displaced persons. Sub-Saharan Africa, including Sudan, South Sudan, and Burundi is home to about 14 million refugees. Refugees from Eritrea, Somalia, as well as many parts of the Middle East are among those braving the waters of the Mediterranean in search of safety.
The United States encounters refugees mainly from Latin America. Immigration from Mexico has declined lately, but the Central American nations of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador remain plagued by violence, driving many to flee. But it is not only Latinos seeking refuge in the United States. The dozens of languages spoken in the schools of Burlington show the broad sweep of international migration.
Western nations complain about the burdens of immigration, but the percentage of refugees being received by Europe and the United States is dwarfed by the numbers flooding into nations near conflict zones. Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are among the nations feeling the effects of the wars in Syria and Iraq. Pakistan still has millions of refugees from Afghanistan, decades after war first broke out there.
The nations of Europe have considered various military measures to stop the flotilla of boats bringing refugees across the Mediterranean. But taking potshots at a few boats is not going to stem the tide. Sixty million is a large number.
What is happening is a catastrophic collapse of the nation state. The boundary lines between nations are being erased, as in Syria and Iraq, and as can be seen in Central Africa in the continuing trouble in Congo, Burundi and Central African Republic, not to mention trouble in the West African nations of Nigeria and Mali.
Western nations intervene in turbulent regions with mixed effects. The American-European intervention in Libya in 2012, when it appeared Gadhafi was mounting an extermination campaign against his enemies led to toppling him, which in itself was not a bad thing. Preventing mass killing also was not a bad thing. But chaos has followed, with no functioning government, and free rein for people smugglers seeking to transport refugees to Europe. Refugees also seek to enter Europe by the border between Spain and Morocco.
The response of the West must be twofold. We need to promote stability, which is never easy. What happens when a supposed ally, Saudi Arabia, launches a misguided air campaign against a neighbor, Yemen? Refugees happen, and strife is prolonged. We have backed several horses in Yemen, none of them the right one. It’s hard to tell which one is the right one.
The second element of the West’s response must be compassion. Helping to settle people humanely satisfies the demands of human rights, but also fosters stability. People without a home, living in want and resentment, become a perennial source of new conflict. Palestinians are still living in refugee camps created after the 1948 war. Their grievances have never been satisfied.
Nations have to step forward as they did after World War II to recognize the human catastrophe happening at the moment. The United Nations has been dealing with refugees since its creation, and it must be given the power and money to act aggressively today. In the future there may also need to be an international effort to reconcile borders with peoples, as nations disappear amid the tides of chaos and violence.
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