The Global Refugee Crisis
Government officials in Kenya’s capital wrote to the UN Refugee Agency last February threatening to close the world’s largest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya, citing national security concerns. Dadaab is a bustling and overcrowded home to nearly a quarter of a million Somali refugees, who have fled their homes and crossed the border into Kenya because of violent conflict, years of civil war, terrorism and severe drought. Somalia remains too unstable and impoverished to reabsorb the refugees currently living in Dadaab.
The closing of refugee camps like Dadaab Refugee Complex leaves the fate of thousands of refugees unclear, and raises the question: how will over 70.8 million displaced people around the world seek asylum?
Kenya is not the only country with hundreds of thousands seeking refuge. In recent years, over 6.5 million people have fled violent conflict and kidnapping in Syria. The Syrian Civil War has generated a refugee crisis in the Middle East that threatens long term damage to the region’s development. Over the past four years, increased violence and devastating natural disasters in Afghanistan have resulted in a new surge of refugees from the region, many of whom have fled to neighboring Pakistan. The genocidal crimes being committed by Myanmar security forces against the Rohingya ethnic group have generated over one million refugees who have sought asylum in Bangladesh and India. South Sudan, among the world’s youngest nations, has been devastated by years of armed conflict. Uganda and Sudan host nearly 2 million South Sudanese refugees, while an additional 1.8 million people have been domestically displaced, making this the biggest refugee crisis in Africa. Recent cyclones in Mozambique have sent a surge of Mozambican climate change refugees out of their homes. Years of economic instability in Venezuela have sent Latin American asylum seekers through the Americas and Europe, creating the largest recorded refugee crisis in the Americas. As the number of refugees worldwide continues to rapidly increase, this pressing issue demands immediate attention and new creative solutions.
We have seen countries come up with innovative ways to offer succor to refugees. For example, the Netherlands, unlike most countries, does not have enough inmates to fill their prisons, so they removed barbed wire and changed doors to convert prison cells into rooms for asylum seekers. Obviously, there’s no one simple solution to every refugee crisis. We need to come up with a comprehensive plan to safely house refugees worldwide. In Algeria, young refugee Tateh Lehbib Breica began building housing from discarded water bottles filled with sand — a method of construction perfect in Algeria’s desert climate. Since 2015, 15,000 Better Shelters- solar-powered safe and durable tents for refugee housing made of recyclable plastic- have been shipped to refugee camps around the world. In Thessaloniki, Greece, private investor Amed Khan partnered with Radcliffe Foundation head Frank Giustra to turn an old, abandoned factory into a refugee housing project. Although an old factory is not completely ideal, it provided temporary housing and comfort from the hot summer in Greece. These spaces may not provide perfect living conditions; however, they served as safe and sanitary places to live.
There is no simple universal solution for migrant housing; however, the ever-increasing number of refugees combined with the closings of refugee camps calls for inventive ideas for sheltering asylum seekers.
