A refugee crisis has as one of the causes the increase in migratory flows, phenomena that accompany humanity since its beginnings and whose reasons can be the most diverse, although the most common is the search for better living conditions, that is, economic migration.
However, there is a specific type of migrant, the refugee, who is forced to flee your country because of persecution of any nature and fear for their physical integrity and for their own lives. Armed conflicts and wars have caused the mass displacement of refugees around the world, especially from 2015 onwards.
Although initially they move within the borders of their country, in dramatic situations it is necessary to seek asylum in neighboring countries and, sometimes, in distant countries. This specific type of migrant, recognized in the 1950s, has become a protagonist on the agenda of countries and international organizations in recent years, when there has been a mass entry of them into the European continent.
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Migrants and refugees
According to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a refugee is someone who flees their homeland because of persecution or armed conflict. Being part of this group gives you the right enshrined in international law to receive assistance from UNHCR, States and specialized organizations.
UNHCR was created in 1950, his first assignment was to assist the remaining European refugees from World War II. Some refugee camps created in the middle of the last century still exist and are active, such as a camp located in Zambia, from 1966, which initially housed refugees from the Angolan civil war and, in 2020, began to welcome Congolese fleeing conflicts led by militias. armed forces plaguing their politically unstable country.
O Status of Refugeesadopted by the United Nations Convention in 1951, provides that a refugee cannot be expelled from a country or returned to his country in situations that put his life and freedom at risk.
What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant? The migrant moves to another country by personal choice, and not because he is under direct threat, his intention is to improve his life and not to flee from imminent dangers. Even if they are migrants in extreme poverty, they are not defined as refugees, refugee status is closely linked to situations of violence. Therefore, migrants are not covered by the same law as refugees, each country treats them according to their specific legislation, and there is no restriction on returning them to their countries of origin.
Generally, the itinerary of a refugee is as follows: first, he moves internally within his own country in search of protection, in this circumstance he is conventionally called “internally displaced”. When generalized insecurity pushes them to cross borders, in order for their refugee status to be officially recognized, they need to apply for asylum in the country where they took shelter, a situation in which they are called “asylum seekers”, and the request is not always asylum is served.
According to the United Nations (UN), in 2019 there were about 68 million refugees in the world. Of these, an average of 40 million were internally displaced, 25 million were refugees and 3 million were asylum seekers. Note that the number of internally displaced people is significantly greater than that of refugees, which reinforces the thesis defended by specialists that fleeing one’s own country is the last resort of those living in conflict situationsis a dramatic attitude, as it requires moving away from cultural and blood ties and living with restricted rights.
Many refugees intend to return to their places of origin after the end of the conflicts, but the global average of time lived as a refugee is 26 years.
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refugees in europe
O historic peak of migrant arrivals in Europe it was in 2015, when about a million people entered European territory. Although intensified by waves of Syrians fleeing the war in their country, there were also many migrants fleeing hunger and poverty, particularly from African countries.
This migratory flow slowed down in later years due to measures adopted by the countries of the European bloc, such as the closing borders, especially on the Balkan route, where migrants went on foot; the agreement between Italy and the Libyan Coast Guard, a country that was the main point of departure for clandestine trips to Europe; and the controversial and criticized agreement signed in 2016 between the European Union and Turkey, whereby for every Syrian refugee who arrived on the Greek coast and was returned to Turkey, another refugee who was on Turkish territory would be taken to Europe.
This agreement is criticized by human rights defenders, who claim that it violates international legislation not to reject asylum seekers. The effect of these measures meant that, in 2018, the number of refugees and migrants entering Europe was less than 200,000.
Signing of an agreement between the Government Board and the NGO ACCEM to assist refugees in Madrid (Spain), 2019.
Main refugee routes
Refugee crises are an old phenomenon. In the most recent refugee crisis, felt especially from 2015 because of the civil war that terrorizes Syria, the routes were different from previous crisesgiven that the geographical situation in which the conflict that led to the crisis unfolds is crucial for the formation of escape routes.
It is common for refugees to initially move within their own territory and, when this is no longer possible, cross borders to neighboring countries. Syrian refugees, for example, did not go directly to Europe when the crisis intensified, but to closer countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiyeand in the latter, in 2019, there were about 3.3 million Syrian refugees.
This represents approximately half of the total number of Syrian refugees around the world. That tendency to seek asylum in countries bordering their country of origin it is one of the main reasons why 85% of displaced people are sheltering in developing countries, according to UNHCR.
The country with the largest number of refugees in the world, in 2018, was Turkey, with 3.3 million; in second place are Uganda and Pakistan, with 1.4 million refugees each; and, in third place, Lebanon, with approximately 1 million. For the sake of comparison, Italy, in that same year, had an average of 150,000 refugees and 180,000 asylum seekers, which represents a third of the total number of refugees from Lebanon.
Syrian and Iraqi refugees arriving from Turkey to the island of Lesbos (Greece, 2015) and being helped by a Spanish NGO (Proactiva Open Arms).
Starting in 2015, an intensified flow of migrants tried to enter Europe. Many went to Libya, a country in North Africa, where smugglers organized the trip in precarious boats that made dangerous and, not infrequently, deadly crossings through the Mediterranean Sea, with countries like Greece and Italy as the gateway to the continent. According to the UN, in 2016, more than 5,000 people died during crossings in the Mediterranean.
Crossings are divided into three routes: the central Mediterranean route, part of Libya to the Italian coast (Island of Lampedusa); western Mediterranean route, part of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria to the Spanish coast; route from the eastern Mediterranean, part of Türkiye to the Greek coast. Another commonly used path is the Balkan route, less dangerous because it can be overland. These incursions have decreased due to measures taken by European countries.
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Causes of the refugee crisis
Humanitarian crises driven by mass migration are an age-old phenomenon. Throughout human history, there have been situations in which populations have had to flee persecution, famine and war. However, according to international law, refugee status is conditioned to migration motivated by situations of violent conflict, such as persecution of a specific ethnic group, localized armed conflicts or civil war.
Therefore, the causes of a refugee crisis are related to the violence, insecurity and threat to life. Crises motivated by poverty and hunger are migratory crises. A refugee crisis can only be so defined if the cause is persecution or war. Therefore, every refugee crisis is a migration crisis, but not every migration crisis is a refugee crisis.
In addition to the definition of refugees as fugitives from war and armed conflicts, recent years have discussed the emergence of a new category, the “Climate Refugees”referring to people who flee their countries on account of natural disasters resulting from climate changes. This category, although gaining more and more space in the public debate, is not recognized by the UN or other international organizations.
According to data presented by The globe |1|in 2019 more than half of the world’s refugees (57%) came from three countries: Syria (6.3 million), Afghanistan (2.6 million) and South Sudan (2.4 million), three countries at war civil, the first from 2011 to the present, the second from 1978 to the present, and the third from 2013 to February 2020.
A civil war in Syria caused, from 2015, the Biggest migration crisis since World War II. Other countries that are also experiencing serious conflicts that force their countrymen to flee are: Eritrea, Central African Republic, Iraq, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Nigeria.
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Refugees in Brazil
In Brazil, in 2019, there were about one million foreign residents. This corresponds to less than 0.5% of the Brazilian population. In the last decade, three migratory waves were outstanding in the country: from 2010, the Haitians; from 2015, the Syrians; and from 2018, that of Venezuelans. Around 11,000 foreigners were recognized as refugees and there were 161,057 requests for recognition. According to the research “Haven in numbers” |2|of the recognized refugees, 36% were Syrian, 15% were Congolese9% were Angolans7% were Colombians, and 3% were Venezuelan.
Even though it is the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil has a small migratory flow compared to other countries. When we analyze, for example, the migration of Venezuelans that, mainly from 2018, intensified in the state of Roraima, we realize that, compared to other neighboring countries, Brazil, in that year, received about 455 thousand Venezuelans, less than Peru (506 thousand) and…