The world needs creative, daring solutions to refugee crisis

HORRIFIC pictures of starving children from the besieged Syrian town of Madaya are the latest defining images from the tormented country. Conflict there has claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people – 55,000 in 2015 alone. However, peace in Syria is unlikely in the near future. The deluge of humans flowing out of that country – and many other troubled regions – will not abate soon. As the refugee crisis intensifies, Europe will have to consider ambitious, comprehensive solutions, writes World Review expert Lord Alton. Unsurprisingly, the vicious and seemingly unending violence in Syria has driven more than four million refugees out of the country. At least an additional 7.6 million people are displaced within Syria’s borders, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The former head of UNHCR, Antonio Guterres, calls this “the biggest refugee population from a single conflict in a generation.” This exodus, of biblical proportions, has sparked frenzied debate in Europe about how to deal with the new arrivals. But the overwhelming majority of Syria’s refugees are not in Europe at all. Over 2.5 million are in Turkey (home to 45 percent); 1.07 million in Lebanon; 635,000 in Jordan; 245,000 in Iraq; 118,000 in Egypt; and 27,000 elsewhere in North Africa. Increasingly, other countries in the region are not seen as final destinations. In December 2015, a symbolic milestone was crossed when the International Organization for Migration announced that more than a million migrants had crossed into Europe. By the end of last October, Germany had received the lion’s share of new asylum applications – more than 362,000. Worldwide, 55 million people are refugees, asylum seekers or internally displaced persons, with a further 60 million forcibly displaced. In Asia, there are nine million refugees and 15 million internally displaced people. Afghanistan generates the second largest number of refugees globally, while Myanmar is awash with them, including thousands of Rohingyas, cast adrift in rickety boats in the Andaman Sea as they try to reach Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines or Thailand. Whatever strategy Europe comes up with must hold the aggressors to account and address the provision of safe havens and how to enable people to have better lives in their countries of origin. In post-war Europe the enlightened Marshall Plan enabled Europe to be rebuilt from the ashes. In the ruined cities of Iraq, Syria and Libya, something similar must be done. Internationally protected safe havens should be created, where fleeing migrants might rebuild their lives and be given some sense of hope. Small city states – a new Carthage in North Africa, perhaps modeled on the prosperous and diverse city state of Singapore – with opportunities for work and prosperity would also be the perfect answer to Daesh’s Islamic caliphate. Safe havens like those created in the 18th century in Freetown, Sierra Leone, or the one created by the U.S. for freed slaves in Liberia, would offer an alternative to destitution, exploitation, years in refugee camps or death at sea. A North African safe haven might be linked to the admirable idea of turning the Sahara into a massive solar energy producing resource – a huge opportunity for job creation which would also combat carbon emissions and reduce reliance on despots who sell us their oil and gas. Yes, it is “ambitious” to think like this. But if we ask ourselves what must it be like to be at the mercy of Daesh or to be living in the shadow of tyranny and unspeakable violence, wouldn’t we also want to try and get our loved ones to safety or want to make a better life?

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