Right Now the World is in a Very Dark Place
Russia and Ukraine are at war. Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Libya, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Colombia, and Mali are currently in civil wars.
Gaza/West Bank: The continuing destruction of the homes of Palestinians in Gaza by Israeli armed forces is a daily picture on the front of every broadcast around the world. The atrocities taking place in the West Bank, mainly at the hands of Jewish settlers, are far worse than what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The UN’s humanitarian aid chief today Friday 29th December, called out the “impossible situation” facing people in Gaza and those trying to help them, as the humanitarian situation on the ground worsens and dozens more civilians are reported killed in Israeli attacks.
10 Largest Refugee Crises In 2024
52% of all refugees and other people in need of international protection come from three countries: Syria, Ukraine, and Afghanistan.
In the past decade, the global refugee crisis has more than doubled in scope. In 2022, the UNHCR announced that we had surpassed the 100 million mark for total displacement, meaning that over 1.2% of the global population have been forced to leave their homes. As of mid-2023, that also includes 30.51 million refugees. Over half of those refugees come from just three countries. These numbers are high — almost beyond comprehension — but each one represents a person who has been forced to leave everything behind due to circumstances beyond their control.
1. Syria - Continues to be the world’s largest refugee crisis as we enter 2024, representing nearly 25% of the total global refugee population. As of mid-2023, 6.49 million Syrians have sought refuge, primarily in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Türkiye . In Lebanon, there are no formal camps, which leaves its population of over 1 million Syrians living across 2,000 communities, often in overcrowded temporary shelters.
2. Afghanistan - The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has made it one of the top countries of origin for refugees. One in every five refugees originated from this country, and over 6.1 million Afghans are internationally displaced — largely in neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
3. Ukraine - In February 2022, escalated conflict in Ukraine led to a full humanitarian crisis, that has displaced over 5.8 million refugees in the last two years. This is more than 13% of the country’s population, and just under 20% of the world’s global refugee population.
4. South Sudan - The world’s youngest nation is also the site of one of its largest refugee crises, one that entered its tenth year last month. Over 4 million South Sudanese have been forced from their homes, with 2.2 million of those having to leave the country entirely.
5. Myanmar - Beginning in August 2017, over 1 million stateless Rohingya fled ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Many are still living in the world’s largest refugee camp, located in nearby Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The Rohingya represent the majority of the 1.26 million refugees displaced from Myanmar over the last six years.
6. Sudan - Conditions in Sudan have deteriorated throughout 2023 as the country faces some of the worst violence in decades. At the end of 2022, approximately 844,000 refugees around the world were Sudanese. As of mid-2023, that number exceeded 1.02 million, and showed no signs of abating.
7. Democratic Republic of Congo - Remains one of the world’s largest “forgotten” humanitarian crises, with events in a protracted situation rarely making headlines. Combining refugees and IDPs, its displacement numbers are the highest in Africa. This includes over 948,000 refugees — an increase of nearly 100,000 over just two years. In tandem with this, the DRC is also a large host community for refugees from neighboring countries.
8. Somalia - In recent years, the number of Somali refugees around the world had been in decline, registering as less than 800,000 last year. Unfortunately, Somalia’s protracted cycle of crisis has once again lead to an increase in refugees with over 814,000 as of mid-2023.
9. Central African Republic - For more than a decade, a humanitarian crisis has raged in Central African Republic. It’s gone largely unnoticed in mainstream western media, however over 750,000 Central Africans were registered as refugees in 2023 — with thousands more displaced internally.
10. Eritrea - As of mid-2023, over 537,000 Eritreans — nearly 15% of the country’s population — have been displaced abroad due to ongoing violence and political instability. This represents an increase of approximately 36,000 people compared to 2022.
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EU’s Migration Pact a Disaster for Migrants and Asylum Seekers
A new “political agreement” to overhaul the European Union’s asylum and migration system will severely curtail the rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Despite triumphant rhetoric surrounding the announcement, these reforms are no cause for celebration.
The December 20 agreement between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and EU member states covers major pieces of EU legislation relating to border management, asylum procedures, and data collection. The changes are based on deterrence, an approach proven to be both ineffective and abusive.
The European Council on Exiles and Refugees, an alliance of nongovernmental groups working on migrants’ rights, described the changes as “byzantine in their complexity and Orban-esque in their cruelty.”
Under the new system, many people who arrive irregularly, including those disembarked after a rescue at sea, will be detained and channeled into substandard accelerated asylum procedures that strip safeguards available under normal procedure, such as legal aid. Children as young as six years old will be fingerprinted.
The package includes a “crisis regulation” that will allow EU countries experiencing a vaguely-defined “mass influx” or a “situation of instrumentalization of migrants by a third country or non-state actor” to derogate from key human rights obligations, moving closer to legalizing the denial of the right to asylum.
Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch, https://is.gd/qK2xwl
Come Sleep! O Sleep, That Certain Knot of Peace
The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
Th' indifferent judge between the high and low.
With shield of proof shield me from out the prease--
Of those fierce darts despair at me doth throw:
O make in me those civil wars to cease;
I will good tribute pay, if thou do so.
Take thou of me smooth pillows, sweetest bed,
A chamber deaf to noise and blind to light,
A rosy garland and a weary head:
And if these things, as being thine by right,
Move not thy heavy grace, thou shalt in me,
Livelier than elsewhere, Stella's image see.
Philip Sidney: (1554 – 1586)
No One lives for Ever and Dead People Rise up Never
Here, where the world is quiet; Here, where all trouble seems
Dead winds' and spent waves' riot doubtful dreams of dreams;
I watch the green field growing for reaping folk and sowing,
For harvest-time and mowing, a sleepy world of streams.
I am tired of tears and laughter, and men that laugh and weep;
Of what may come hereafter for men that sow to reap:
I am weary of days and hours, blown buds of barren flowers,
Desires and dreams and powers and everything but sleep.
Here life has death for neighbour, and far from eye or ear
Wan waves and wet winds labour, weak ships and spirits steer;
They drive adrift, and whither they wot not who make thither;
But no such winds blow hither, and no such things grow here.
No growth of moor or coppice, no heather-flower or vine,
But bloomless buds of poppies, green grapes of Proserpine,
Pale beds of blowing rushes where no leaf blooms or blushes
Save this whereout she crushes for dead men deadly wine.
Pale, without name or number, in fruitless fields of corn,
They bow themselves and slumber all night till light is born;
And like a soul belated, in hell and heaven unmated,
By cloud and mist abated comes out of darkness morn.
Though one were strong as seven, he too with death shall dwell,
Nor wake with wings in heaven, nor weep for pains in hell;
Though one were fair as roses, his beauty clouds and closes;
And well though love reposes, in the end it is not well.
Pale, beyond porch and portal, crowned with calm leaves, she stands
Who gathers all things mortal with cold immortal hands;
Her languid lips are sweeter than love's who fears to greet her
To men that mix and meet her from many times and lands.
She waits for each and other, she waits for all men born;
Forgets the earth her mother, the life of fruits and corn;
And spring and seed and swallow take wing for her and follow
Where summer song rings hollow and flowers are put to scorn.
There go the loves that wither, the old loves with wearier wings;
And all dead years draw thither, and all disastrous things;
Dead dreams of days forsaken, blind buds that snows have shaken,
Wild leaves that winds have taken, red strays of ruined springs.
We are not sure of sorrow, and joy was never sure;
To-day will die to-morrow; time stoops to no man's lure;
And love, grown faint and fretful, with lips but half regretful
Sighs, and with eyes forgetful weeps that no loves endure.
From too much love of living, from hope and fear set free,
We thank with brief thanksgiving whatever gods may be
That no life lives for ever; that dead men rise up never;
That even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.
Then star nor sun shall waken, nor any change of light:
Nor sound of waters shaken, nor any sound or sight:
Nor wintry leaves nor vernal, nor days nor things diurnal;
Only the sleep eternal In an eternal night.
By Algernon Charles Swinburne
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