{"id":50023,"date":"2018-09-21T15:36:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T19:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=50023"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T22:00:03","slug":"global-team-refugees","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/global-team-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Team on Refugees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n
<\/div>\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Global Team on Refugees\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The global community’s current approach to the needs of refugees is deeply flawed, if the recent past is any testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the midst of the crisis in 2015 and the chaotic response to the arrival of a million people to Europe, there was global public demand for change in the way we collectively respond to the needs of refugees and migrants,” says Carleton University Prof. James Milner<\/a>, who specializes in refugees and forced migration research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Global
James Milner and Simran Singh at Care Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This fall, member states of the United Nations (UN)<\/a> will gather for the meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly<\/a> in New York. The committee, which addresses human rights, and humanitarian and social issues, will debate a new approach to tackling one of the most pressing emergencies facing our time \u2014 responding to the needs of refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UNHCR estimates<\/a> there are about 68.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, the highest number ever. This translates into about 20 people forcibly displaced each minute. Some 25.4 million of these displaced people are refugees (another 40 million are internally displaced and 3.1 million are asylum seekers) and more than half are under the age of 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main issues with the current approach is directly linked to the time refugees spend in temporary settlements, or refugee camps, outside their country of origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refugees spent an average of about 20 years in exile in 2015, according to a report<\/a> released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)<\/a> in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Global<\/figure>\n\n\n

Practices Create Dependency on International Assistance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“To contain refugees in very isolated and insecure camps, denying them the right to work, denying them freedom of movement, this makes them dependent on international assistance . . . that is dwindling,” Milner says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, while the UNHCR reveals that 84 per cent<\/a> of refugees are in the global south (Africa, Latin America and developing countries in Asia), most research into refugee issues comes out of the global north (North America, Europe and Australia), disconnected from refugee communities themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n