Diplomacy & Crisis News

On connaît l'auteure belge néerlandophone Lieve Joris pour ses récits sur le Congo ou sur le Proche-Orient . La voilà qui embarque « sur les ailes du dragon » pour un périple en Chine, à la rencontre de ceux qui font « la mondialisation par le bas », selon l'expression d'un de ses interlocuteurs. (...) / Afrique, Chine, République démocratique du Congo, Commerce international, Économie, Migrations, Mondialisation, Travail, Commerce, Dubaï - 2015/08

The Italian coastguard rescues survivors from a crash at Lampedusa Island. Lampedusa, the closest Italian island to Africa, has become a destination for tens of thousands of refugees seeking to reach Western Europe. Credit: Guardia Costiera

By Katherine Tan

Conflict, persecution, and human rights violations have forcibly displaced an unprecedented 59.5 million people worldwide at the end of 2014, according to a recent UNHCR report. That figure, roughly equivalent to the population of the United Kingdom, was up from 51.2 million the previous year, already a level unseen since World War II. From 2011 to 2014 alone, the total number of forcibly displaced people increased by 40 percent. The international community must do more to support them. Inaction will not stem the tide of forced migration; it will simply exacerbate the toll on countries already struggling to bear the burden. Developed countries must come to terms with the scale of this escalating crisis and commit to resettling more of the most vulnerable and persecuted refugees.

The global forced migration crisis is perhaps the most under-reported and disturbing development facing the world today. Even more troubling than the staggering figures are the tragedy’s human dimensions and governments’ hesitance to address the plight of refugees stranded in horrific conditions along coastlines and borders worldwide. This year, an estimated 1,750 migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean Sea, over 30 times more than during the same period last year. Meanwhile, in Southeast Asia, over 100,000 Rohingya have fled persecution and apartheid-like conditions in Myanmar. Many have endured starvation and brutality aboard overcrowded boats as they are ping-ponged between nations refusing to accept them. Others have suffered imprisonment, torture and death at the hands of Thai traffickers with alleged government complicity.

The international community’s response to this humanitarian crisis has been anemic at best and morally negligent at worst. The United Kingdom recently announced that it would not accept any migrants as part of the European Union’s agreement to redistribute 40,000 Syrian migrants already in Italy and Greece. London has faced backlash for accepting just 140 Syrian refugees so far this year. Indonesia and Malaysia, two comparatively well-off Southeast Asian nations, previously announced that they would turn back any Rohingya boats found along their shores. They later agreed to accept 7,000 stranded migrants, but only on the condition that those migrants would be resettled elsewhere within a year.

Underlying this crisis is an international system ill-prepared to tackle the current scale of displacement head on. According to Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Research Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights, developed states are primarily concerned with keeping migrants outside their borders so they can avoid responsibility for admitting refugees while technically complying with international law. This simply “passes the buck” to poorer states without addressing the problem. According to the UNHCR, the world’s poorest countries bear the brunt of the refugee burden, with 86 percent of refugees hosted by developing countries and one in four hosted by the least developed countries. This imbalance threatens to destabilize states already under pressure at the periphery of conflict zones and may lead to even greater migration rates if unaddressed.

The plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya poignantly demonstrates the international system’s failure to protect the most vulnerable refugees and the broader consequences of inaction. Stripped of citizenship rights by Myanmar’s military government in 1982, the Rohingya face severe persecution and mob violence as a Muslim minority in a majority Buddhist state. Today, they are confined to heavily policed ghettos where they are forbidden access to basic services and international aid.

The United States and human rights organizations have called upon Myanmar to recognize the Rohingya as citizens, but the ruling regime has shown little interest in stemming what observers call a “slow genocide.” Whether any appeal to Myanmar’s government will gain much traction in the foreseeable future is questionable. In the meantime, the international community has failed to resettle Rohingya refugees at rates necessary to ease regional pressures. Many Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh, a country even poorer than Myanmar and with its own migration problems, thereby exacerbating the crisis.

These circumstances make a compelling case for developed countries to offer long-term resettlement to the Rohingya. However, Australia, one of the Asian-Pacific region’s wealthiest countries, has categorically refused to resettle any Rohingya, despite urging from the UNHCR.

“Australia will do absolutely nothing that gives any encouragement to anyone to think that they can get on a boat, that they can work with people smugglers to start a new life,” said Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Abbott’s callous statement ignores the fact that most Rohingya aren’t voluntary migrants, but victims of ethnic cleansing fleeing a state that has branded them pariahs. India and China, regional giants that share borders with Myanmar, also remain on the sidelines, despite holding significant sway with Myanmar’s government.

The international community has resettled refugees en masse before, most notably after the Indochina Wars of the mid-1970s, when the United States, Australia, Canada, and others resettled more than 3 million refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

With such a precedent, one must ask why states are failing to act decisively now. Indeed, they may soon have little choice. Even if humanitarian motives aren’t enough to compel action, these crises’ destabilizing effects may well prove difficult to ignore.

Katherine Tan is a fellow at Young Professionals in Foreign Policy and a development professional, specializing in private sector development.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the views of their employer or Young Professionals in Foreign Policy.

The recent confirmation of the death of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the symbolic leader of the Taliban, has added fresh uncertainty to Afghanistan's fledgling peace process.

L'annonce d'une visite officielle du président français à Cuba, le 11 mai 2015, a marqué une nouvelle étape du dégel entre La Havane et les puissances occidentales. Une accélération de l'histoire qui suscite quelques interrogations dans l'île... / Amérique latine, Caraïbes, États-Unis (affaires (...) / Amérique latine, Caraïbes, États-Unis (affaires extérieures), Christianisme, Commerce international, Économie, Entreprise, Finance, Inégalités, Libéralisme, Monnaie, Mutation, Parti politique, Politique, Cuba, Socialisme, Commerce - 2015/05

Première exportatrice mondiale, la Chine cherche à se dégager de sa subordination financière — et politique — au dollar par une internationalisation du yuan. La monnaie chinoise est d'ores et déjà devenue la cinquième devise mondiale pour le commerce. / Asie, Chine, États-Unis, Banque, Commerce (...) / Asie, Chine, États-Unis, Banque, Commerce international, Économie, Finance, Mondialisation, Monnaie, Commerce - 2015/07

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and the injuries to scores of people as a result of deadly explosions in Tianjin, China.

After a midnight explosion in Tianjin killed dozens, citizen-journalists are pressing the government to do more and share more.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is about to give a major speech on Japan’s World War II aggression. But in Tokyo, history is never really about history.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conducted today an urgent video conference with the heads of United Nations peacekeeping operations, Force Commanders, and Police Commissioners following a series of revelations alleging abuse by UN ‘blue helmets’ in the field, including, most recently, in the Central African Republic.

In Tehran’s bustling markets, high hopes for sanctions relief may not live up to the reality.

Tom Fletcher says goodbye to all that.

Will China's decision to devaluate its currency cause Fed chief Janet Yellen to balk on a rate hike?

As the battle against cholera outbreak continues in South Sudan, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners are boosting assistance to help children and the most vulnerable prevent and reduce the spread of further cases.

The head of United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) called today on the international community to continue supporting Syrian refugees displaced in neighboring countries, appealing to the world “not to forget” the crisis and to provide the agency the means to meet their needs.

It's time to end the Iraq surge revisionism.

Yes, some of the potential $150 billion windfall coming to Tehran will help support Assad. But it isn’t quite as dangerous as opponents of the deal are making it out to be.

Secretary of State John Kerry is frustrated and angry about the high-profile leaks coming out of Foggy Bottom, and is hammering his staff to stop. It’s not working out so well.

Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Evil But Stupid
The Editors
n+1

A couple of months ago, the London Review of Books published a 10,000 word piece questioning the White House’s narrative regarding the death of Osama bin Laden. The story, written by investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, resulted in a sea of backlash, much of which was aimed at Hersh on a personal level. The media has charged Hersh with being too paranoid. But, as n+1 asks, why isn’t the media more paranoid?

My Grandfather’s Imposter
By James McGirk
Roads and Kingdoms

To join the Explorer Club in New York, you have to do something extraordinary, to make your own adventures — by land, by sea or by air. Or, as was the case with James McGirk’s grandfather, you could loan your stories out to a friend. In this piece, McGirk delves into his grandfather’s history and grapples with the question — are our experiences, our stories really ours to give away?

The Nation-State: Not Dead Yet
By Alasdair Roberts
The Wilson Quarterly

Pundits and academics have claimed many things have supposedly come to an “end” in the past two decades or so. From history to capitalism, most have had experienced a revival shortly thereafter. In this piece, Roberts looks into what caused the obsession with the “death” of the nation-state, and why those predictions were premature.

ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape
By Rukmini Callimachi
The New York Times

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) introduction to systematic sexual slavery began in 2014. Ever since, the group has (ab)used the Quran to justify its horrific human rights abuses and enshrine a “theology of rape.” Callimachi investigates the group’s history with sexual slavery, its practices and the twisted logic behind it.

Hellbent, But Not Broken
By Eva Holland
SB Nation

Holland tells the story of her experience with the Yukon River Quest, which at 445 miles, is the world’s longest canoe and kayak race. It’s as much a battle against nature as it’s a battle of wills.

Blogs:

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Somalia, No Political Legitimacy without Genuine Reconciliation by Abukar Arman
Kenya’s Catholic Leadership Takes on the WHO by Hannah Gais
A Challenging August for Dilma by Gary Sands
Obama’s Foreign Policy “Bully Pulpit” by Michael Crowley

Major equity markets are a sea of red in the wake of China's falling renminbi.

The acting head of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq has strongly condemned today’s truck bomb attack on a market in east Baghdad, which initial reports say killed at least 45 people and for which the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility.