World Refugee Day : Right to respect and dignity

REFUGEE: Today we are facing what may prove to be one of the greatest challenges of the century. Almost 40 million people worldwide have been uprooted and forced to flee violence and persecution.

The future is likely to see increasing numbers of people on the move. Many of them will be in search of economic opportunity and better lives or escaping environmental degradation and natural disasters.

Others will be forced to flee failing states wreaked by violence and persecution. But in most instances, people are fleeing a combination of these factors, compounding one another to provoke a perfect storm of loss and dislocation.

I have spent the past few days in Sudan, a country at the epicentre of one of the world’s great displacements. Here I have seen firsthand the stark reality of forced displacement as well as some of the solutions. Hopes that globalisation would naturally bring steady growth while also narrowing the gap between rich and poor have not been fulfilled.

While global trade and wealth have indeed increased, the gap between the world’s rich and poor is widening, driving more people to move and to fall prey to unscrupulous groups whose new business line in human smuggling and trafficking is worth billions of dollars a year.

Climate change and environmental damage lie behind increasingly frequent natural disasters with dramatic human consequences. Different models of the impact of climate change all present a worrying picture of human displacement. East Africa offers a stark example.