Refuge by Alexander Betts

Author:Alexander Betts
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241289242
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

5

Rethinking Havens: Reaching Everyone

Since most refugees, as we’ve seen, remain in their region of origin, that is where solutions primarily need to be found. While the panic is in Europe, the greatest needs are elsewhere, usually just across the border from conflict and crisis zones. And yet there is a mismatch in terms of attention and resources. We focus on the 10 per cent who reach the developed world but neglect the nearly 90 per cent who stay in developing regions of the world.

For the majority who are concentrated in a relatively small number of host countries in the region of origin, existing models are dysfunctional. The dominant approach has become to create a ‘humanitarian silo’, physically segregated from the host population and dominated by a model that was designed to deal just with the emergency phase, but has become the only approach, enduring as refugees remain there year after year. The refugee camp is the silo’s default haven – usually remote, arid, and dangerous; almost always with strict prohibitions on socio-economic activity.

This approach undermines autonomy and dignity; it erodes human potential by focusing almost exclusively on people’s vulnerabilities rather than rebuilding their capacities. Unsurprisingly, many people become disillusioned, and choose to move onwards, whether to urban areas in the host country or risking their lives by crossing oceans.

In this chapter we aim to rethink the humanitarian silo. We recognize that it makes sense to protect most refugees close to home, both because that is where they are and because it is likely to offer by far the most sustainable response at the scale required to address contemporary displacement. However, developing countries are often in need themselves, and we cannot simply let the burden fall largely on countries less able to handle it. A new approach to safe havens that is radically more supportive is urgently needed in order to address this dysfunctional imbalance, and to simultaneously meet the concerns of donors, hosts, and refugees.

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