The Offspring of Calamity

WHAT is it like to be a refugee? Try to imagine you are living in peace, but suddenly your whole world changes. Overnight, neighbors become enemies. Soldiers are coming who will loot and burn your home. You have ten minutes to pack and flee for your life. You can take only one small bag, since you will have to carry it for many miles. What will you put in it?

You leave amid sounds of gunfire and artillery. You join others who are also fleeing. Days pass; you shuffle along hungry, thirsty, and unbelievably tired. To survive, you must drive your body beyond exhaustion. You sleep on the ground. You forage in a field for something to eat.

You approach a safe country, but border guards will not let you cross. They search your bag and seize everything of value. You find another checkpoint and cross the border. You are put into a squalid refugee camp, fenced with barbed wire. Although surrounded by others who share your plight, you feel alone and bewildered.

You miss the companionship of your family and friends. You find yourself utterly dependent on outside assistance. There is no work and nothing to do. You fight feelings of hopelessness, despair, and anger. You worry about your future, knowing that your stay in the camp will likely be temporary. After all, the camp is not a home—it is like a waiting room or a warehouse of people that nobody wants. You wonder if you will be forcibly sent back to where you came from.

This is the experience of millions today. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 27 million people worldwide have fled war or persecution. An additional 23 million people are displaced within their own countries. All told, 1 out of every 115 people on earth has been forced into flight. Most are women and children. The offspring of war and calamity, refugees are set adrift in a world that does not want them, a world that rejects them, not because of who they are, but because of what they are.

Their presence is a sign of the profound upheaval around the world. States UNHCR: “Refugees are the ultimate symptom of social disintegration. They are the last, most obvious, link in a chain of causes and effects that define the extent of a country’s social and political breakdown. Looked at globally, they are a barometer of the current state of human civilization.”

Experts say that the problem is unprecedented in scale and is growing, with no end in sight. What has led to such a situation? Is there any solution? The following articles will examine these questions.

[Picture Credit Lines on page 3]

Boy on left: UN PHOTO 159243/J. Isaac

U.S. Navy photo