“Those of us who work in the humanitarian sector tend to be a pessimistic group of people,” Jeff Crisp writes to open his opinion piece for the Kaldor Centre. While this pessimism is not always warranted, as he says “it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are currently living through a particularly dark period with respect to refugee protection.”
With around 65 million people now displaced by violence globally, he highlights that repatriation levels are “at an all-time low”, and the refugee policies pursued by many states leave much to be desired. And while there have been “a flurry of activities and initiatives that are intended to address and resolve the world’s growing refugee problem”, he demonstrates how “these initiatives have failed to live up to the hopes and expectations which they have raised”.
Looking ahead, Dr Crisp says, “That leaves the forthcoming UN Summit in New York on the large-scale movement of refugees and migrants. To what extent will that event be able to deliver outcomes that are commensurate with the scale of the current displacement crisis? Unfortunately, the omens are not good.”
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