Millions of refugees with no place to call home

by Tony Magliano · March 28, 2014

By Tony Magliano

Emergency: Syria! Emergency: South Sudan! Emergency: Democratic Republic of the Congo! These are the alarming messages being displayed on the homepage of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (www.unhcr.org).

People carry their belongings in a rebel-controlled territory of South Sudan’s Jonglei state Jan. 30. In a Jan. 30 letter, bishops from South Sudan and Sudan called for “repentance and conversion of heart” and said “corruption and nepotism have contributed to the destabilization” of South Sudan. (CNS photo/Goran Tomasevic, Reuters)

According to the UNHCR, Syria has more people forcibly displaced than any country on earth. Over 9 million Syrians have been uprooted from their homes due to civil war � over 2.5 million of them have fled to neighbouring countries as refugees. And most distressing, more than half of the displaced are children.

In South Sudan, UNHCR reports the civil war and growing food shortages there has led to approximately 2,000 people crossing into nearby countries per day. Many of these refugees have been arriving exhausted, nutritionally weak and in poor health.

According to UNHCR, armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has caused about 450,000 people to cross into neighbouring countries as refugees.

And armed conflict in the Central African Republic has created a refugee population of more than 312,000. While its number of refugees is not the continent�s largest, the violence there is so overwhelming that Steve Hilbert, foreign policy advisor for Africa at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, believes it is Africa�s most desperate nation.

These tragic examples highlight the massive refugee crisis throughout much of the world. While many poorer countries are stretching their meagre resources to accept and aid refugees, most rich nations are not adequately responding.

For example, UNHCR reports that Lebanon continues to host nearly 1 million refugees from Syria, while according to legislative specialist Jill Marie Gerschutz-Bell of Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. took in only 30 Syrian refugees in 2013. She said CRS is urging the Obama administration to allow 15,000 Syrians into the U.S. this coming year.

The number of Syrian refugees hosted in Lebanon would be equivalent to over 73 million refugees in the U.S, reports UNHCR.

Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explained that the U.S. must set the example, so that other rich nations will follow.

Appleby said on average the U.S. takes in 60,000 refugees per year. He noted that during the height of the Vietnam War the U.S. took in 132,000 Vietnamese in a single year. He said the U.S. could easily take in at least 100,000 annually.

Soon to be canonised Pope John Paul II said, �Concern for refugees must�highlight universally recognised human rights,� and �that the effective recognition of these rights be guaranteed to refugees.�

During Lent, when are called to remember the poor in a special way, we would do well to remember that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were once refugees.