IT is an incontrovertible fact that more people are on the move owing to globalisation. Fifteen per cent of the world’s population are on the move. In other words, of the world population of seven billion, one billion are on the move.
Seven hundred and forty million people are referred to as internal or as domestic migrants within their countries of origin.
The number of internally displaced persons reaches about 60 million.
On top of this, the world has more than 244 million international migrants who cross borders often into the unknown.
Lastly, there are 22.5 million refugees — encompassing the 5.3 million Palestinian refugees — registered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who have been forced to flee their home societies as a result of violence and armed conflict.
The first two decades of the 21st century will go down in history as the era in which the world has witnessed the most complex and massive movement of people since the end of the Second World War.
The inflow of displaced people to Europe has been exploited by a populist tidal wave to fuel xenophobia and in particular Islamophobia.
Walls and fences are being built in the North in flawed attempts to prevent displaced people from reaching their destination countries and to criminalise migrants and refugees.
Although the arrival of displaced people to Europe only add up to 0.2 per cent of Europe’s population, human solidarity and justice are being frayed by the fear of the other.
On the eastern and southern side of the Mediterranean Sea, millions of people have sought refuge and protection. They have found shelter in countries of the Arab region as the right to free movement further to the North has been “postponed” and denied to displaced people.
Lebanon — a country of approximately four million people — is providing protection and refuge to approximately one million displaced people. Jordan — neighbouring both Iraq and Syria — has accommodated around 1.2 million refugees.
Although Iraq and Egypt face internal turmoil, Baghdad and Cairo are hosting about 240,000 and 120,000 people, respectively.
Turkey has likewise given refuge to roughly three million refugees, primarily Syrians.
While rich countries in the North bicker about burden-sharing between them of inflows of migrants representing 0.2 per cent of their global population, MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries provide access without blinking to inflows that may add up to 25 per cent of their own nationals!
How can the world move forward to respond in unison to address the resulting rise of populism and the lack of social justice that prevails in our modern societies in relation to human mobility?
According to International Organization for Migration, the 2017 migrant death toll in the Mediterranean has exceeded 2,950.
Despite that, migrants risk their lives to seek protection. Populist and right wing extremist forces continue — in a flawed and misleading attempt to promote policies of exclusion — to depict migrants and refugees as the source of instability, although the adverse impact of globalisation is mainly to blame.
The campaign of fear waged against migrants and refugees is bringing back the spectre of nationalism and chauvinism that threatens international cooperation and peace over the long run.
How can this threat be overcome?
We need to return to a climate in which diversity is embraced and celebrated.
If contemporary nations want to repeat the successes of countries with strong traditions in upholding and harnessing the power of diversity, they must resort to the promotion of equal and inclusive citizenship rights for all peoples regardless of religious, cultural, ethnic, and/or national backgrounds. Societies that demonstrate respect for human dignity are the ones most likely to be winners in the long run.
Governments in the Middle East and in the West should address jointly the protracted refugee and migrant crisis in a multicultural context.
The UN Global Compact for Refugees to be convened this year will offer an opportunity to proceed along these lines.
Enhancing international cooperation among countries in Europe and in the Arab region is indeed key to identifying a more equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing system in response to the current situation in which displaced people are restricted in the exercise of their right to seek refuge and protection.
This goal can be achieved through the allocation of resources, development aid as well as through internationally funded capacity-building programmes to raise the preparedness level for hosting large numbers of displaced people.
Identifying new approaches to promote equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing mechanisms would enable countries in Europe and in the Arab region to speak with one voice and to build coalitions on a variety of issues related to the safe and orderly movement of people in accordance with international law.
The international community needs to commit to sharing responsibility for hosting displaced people more fairly and proportionately, being guided by the principles of international solidarity and justice.
This is an occasion for all to recommit themselves to the lofty aims of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. Global problems require global solutions. Attempts to regionalise such issues — as witnessed in many societies — are doomed to failure.
Over the long term the international community must act to eradicate the underlying causes leading to an excessive flow of destitute migrants.
That means phasing out foreign military interventions, respecting sovereignty, supporting democracy and human rights through peaceful means only and joining forces to address impoverishment of the Global South as a result of climate change.
Ambassador Idriss Jazairy is executive director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue