The People in Search of Security

“The end of the 20th Century has not brought an end to the bloodshed and persecution that force people to run for their lives. Tens of millions of people have ushered in the new millennium in refugee camps and at other temporary shelters, afraid that they will be killed if they dare to return to their homes.”—Bill Frelick, U.S. Committee for Refugees.

JACOB had a dream. He dreamed of a place where people could live in peace, where bombs would not kill his family’s goats, and where he could go to school.

People in his town told him that such a place really existed, although it was a long distance away. His father said that the journey was too dangerous, since some had died of thirst and hunger on the way. But when a neighbor whose husband had been killed set off with her two children, Jacob decided that he would make the journey alone.

Jacob carried neither food nor clothing, and on the first day, he just ran and ran. The road to safety was strewn with bodies. On the following day, he met a woman from his town who said that he could accompany her and her companions. They walked for days, passing deserted villages. On one occasion they had to cross a minefield, where one of their group was killed. For food, they ate leaves.

Ten days later, people started dying of hunger and exhaustion. Soon thereafter, planes attacked them. Finally, Jacob crossed the border and arrived at a refugee camp. He now goes to school, and the sound of aircraft no longer frightens him. All the planes he now sees carry food instead of bombs. But he misses his family, and he would like to go back home.

There are millions of “Jacobs” around the world. Many of them have been traumatized by war and suffer from hunger and thirst. Few have known a normal family life, and many will never return to their homes. They are the poorest of the world’s poor.

 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees divides these impoverished wanderers into two groups. A refugee is defined as someone who flees his country because of a well-founded fear of persecution or violence. An internally displaced person has likewise been forced to leave his home because of war or similar grave dangers, but he still resides in his own country. *

Nobody knows for sure how many refugees and displaced persons eke out a living in makeshift camps or how many wander helplessly from place to place in search of security. According to some sources, the total worldwide figure may be about 40 million, and half of them are children. Where do they all come from?

A Problem of Our Time

The refugee problem took on a new dimension at the end of the first world war. In the aftermath of that war, empires were dismantled and ethnic minorities persecuted. As a result, millions of Europeans sought asylum in countries other than their own. The second world war—much more devastating than its predecessor—sent millions more fleeing from their homes. Since 1945, wars have become more localized, but they are just as traumatic for the civilian populations caught in the cross fire.

“Although war has always generated some refugees, only in the twentieth century has international conflict affected entire populations,” explains Gil Loescher in his 1993 book Beyond Charity—International Cooperation and the Global Refugee Crisis. “The elimination of the distinction between combatants and noncombatants produced vast numbers of refugees who were desperate to escape the ravages of indiscriminate violence.”

Furthermore, many of today’s conflicts are civil wars that take a terrible toll not only on men of military age but also on women and children. Fueled by deep-rooted ethnic and religious divisions, some of these conflicts seem interminable. In one African country, where the current phase of civil war has already dragged on for 18 years, there are four million internally displaced persons, while hundreds of thousands more have fled abroad.

Invariably, the only way that war-weary civilians can escape the violence is to leave home. “Refugees leave their homeland and seek admission to another country not from choice or for reasons of personal convenience, but out of absolute necessity,” explains the book The State of the World’s Refugees 1997-98. Nowadays, however, gaining admission to another country may not be that easy.

During the 1990’s, the worldwide total of refugees dropped from about 17 million to 14 million. This apparent improvement, however, is misleading. It is estimated that during the same decade, the number of internally  displaced persons reached between 25 million and 30 million. What is happening?

Getting official recognition as a refugee has become more difficult for various reasons. Countries may be reluctant to accept refugees, either because they cannot cope with a massive influx or because they have real concerns that a large refugee population could bring economic and political instability. Sometimes, however, terrified civilians do not even have the stamina, the food, or the money to make the long trek to the border. Their only option is to move to a safer area within their own country.

The Growing Tide of Economic Refugees

Along with the millions of bona fide refugees are millions of other impoverished people who seek to improve their lot in life the only way they know how—by moving to a country where living conditions are much better.

On February 17, 2001, a rusty old freighter ran aground on the French coast. Its cargo consisted of about a thousand men, women, and children, who had been at sea for nearly a week without food. They had paid $2,000 a head for this hazardous journey, without even knowing to which country they were going. The captain and the crew disappeared soon after beaching the ship. But fortunately the frightened passengers were rescued, and the French government promised to consider their requests for asylum. Millions like them attempt similar journeys every year.

Most of these economic migrants willingly face severe hardships and uncertainties. Somehow they scrape together the money for the trip because at home, poverty, violence, discrimination, or repressive regimes—and sometimes a combination of all four—make life seem hopeless.

Not a few perish in their attempt to find a better life. During the last decade, about 3,500 migrants drowned or disappeared while attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar from Africa into Spain. In the year 2000, fifty-eight Chinese migrants suffocated while hidden in a truck taking them from Belgium to England. Countless more migrants die of thirst in the Sahara when their overloaded, ramshackle trucks break down in the middle of the desert.

Despite the dangers, the ranks of the world’s economic refugees are swelling inexorably. About half a million people are smuggled into Europe each year; and another 300,000, into the United States. Back in 1993, the United Nations Population Fund estimated the worldwide number of migrants to be 100 million, of which over a third had settled in Europe and the United States. Since then, the number has doubtless increased considerably.

Many of these migrants never find the security they seek. And few refugees find a safe and permanent refuge. All too frequently, these wanderers exchange one set of problems for another. The following article will take a closer look at some of these problems and their underlying causes.

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