A Refugee Crisis

  

Almost 10 million Ukrainians were driven from their homes. Nearly 6.5 million people have been forcibly displaced within Ukraine and almost 3.4 million have fled across international borders. 

They add to the number of people displaced by war, persecution, general violence, or human-rights violations worldwide, a staggering 84 million in 2021, according to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency. 

If they formed their own country, it would be the 17th largest on earth, slightly bigger than Iran or Germany. 

Add in those driven across borders by economic desperation and the number balloons past one billion, making it one of the three largest nations on Earth.

Up to 60 million people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, and Yemenhave been displaced by the war on terror, according to Brown University's Costs of War Project. 

"People want to do anything they can to help," said Christina Kaesshoefer, a co-founder of JobAidUkraine, a new website that helps Ukrainian refugees find work.

Don't bother looking on the web for JobAidSyria or JobAidSomalia.

For almost a decade, much of Europe has been content to turn its back on desperate refugees put to flight by the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria; the Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somali, Sudanese, and other migrants imprisoned and tortured in Libyan detention centers; and the countless others.

At least 18,600 between 2014 and 2021 drowned attempting to cross from North Africa to Italy.  

"It's like this: you stay in the detention center for years. No resettlement. No evacuation. You try the sea. You get intercepted or you die. Only a small percentage reach their destiny." People want to risk dying at sea rather than stay in detention centers.

At the moment, there is great concern for 10 million Ukrainians tragically displaced by the Russian war, but that leaves another 84 million displaced people in dire straits and desperate need. In a world of callous governments, awful aid agencies, sealed borders, and heartless policies that criminalize humanity's most ancient response to danger—flight—we're nonetheless more connected than ever. 

Opinion | Before Ukraine, A Massive Refugee Crisis Ignored and Largely Created by the West | Nick Turse (commondreams.org)