- Opening upsafe routes to sanctuary for refugees is one important solution. That means allowing people to reunite with their relatives, and giving refugees visas so they don’t have to spend their life savings and risk drowning to reach safety.
- It also means resettling all refugees who need it.Resettlement is a vital solution for the most vulnerable refugees – including torture survivors and people with serious medical problems.
Right now, 1.15 million people urgently need this lifeline. But so far, the world’s wealthiest nations are offering to resettle less than 10% every year. Amnesty estimates that 1.45 million refugees will need resettlement by end-2017.
Saving lives
- World leaders also need to put saving lives first. No one should have to die crossing a border, and yet almost 7,000 people drowned in the Mediterranean alone in the two years since the first big shipwreck in October 2013.
In May 2015, thousands of people fleeing persecution in Myanmar suffered for weeks onboard boats while Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia bickered over who should help them.
States can stop this by investing in search and rescue operations and immediately helping people in distress.
- And whether they travel by land or by sea, people fleeing persecution or wars should be allowed to cross borders, with or without travel documents.Pushing people back and putting up massive fences only forces them to take more dangerous routes to safety.
Stop trafficking and racism
- All countries shouldinvestigate and prosecute trafficking gangs who exploit refugees and migrants, and put people’s safety above all else.
- Governments also need to stop blaming refugees and migrants for economic and social problems, and insteadcombat all kinds of xenophobia and racial discrimination. Doing otherwise is deeply unfair, stirs up tensions and fear of foreigners, and sometimes leads to violence – even death.
In Durban, South Africa, at least four people died, many were seriously injured, and over 1,000 mainly Burundian and Congolese refugees forced to flee after violence and looting broke out in April and May 2015.
