REFUGEES: LIFE OF FEAR, SUFFERING, WANT AND INSECURITY
By Babatunde Jose
Forced migration has been a core element of human experience throughout history. The Islamic tradition is rich with stories of forced migration and teachings on the importance of providing protection for those seeking refuge. Migration and escape from persecution has played a prominent role in the stories of many of Islam’s great Prophets – such as Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH)’s migration to Canaan (Q29:26), or Prophet Musa (PBUH)’s migration to Midian (Q28:20–28).
Forced migration played a particular role in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his first companions. In 615 AD approximately 100 early Muslims sought refuge with the Christian King Negus of Abyssinia to escape the brutal persecution of the ruling Quraysh tribe in Makkah. This was followed by a larger migration to Madinah in 622 AD, which the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) joined. This emigration by the Prophet SAW is known as the Hegira and it marked the starting point of the Muslim era.
We might also reference the case of Huguenots, French Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who followed the teachings of theologian John Calvin. Persecuted by the French Catholic government during a violent period, Huguenots fled the country in the 17th century, creating Huguenot settlements all over Europe, in the United States and Africa.
*A refugee therefore, is someone who: “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it”*
Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection.
More than 114 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. The world is now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. Among those were 36.4 million refugees, (30.5 million refugees under United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s mandate, and 5.94 million Palestine refugees under United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA’s mandate).
There were also 62.1 million internally displaced people, 6.08 million asylum seekers, and 5.6 million Venezuelans refugees or in need of international protection. There are also millions of stateless people, who have been denied nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment, and freedom of movement.
The experience of being uprooted transcends identities and borders. Forced displacement always carries with it a deep, personal pain, resulting from involuntary dislocation and alienation. At a practical level, persons fleeing persecution are cut off from traditional livelihoods and sources of income, as well as from fundamental forms of national protection, rendering them vulnerable. These harsh conditions are compounded when flight takes place en-mass due to generalized armed conflict, or where opportunities for quick recovery are lacking.
These factors are ever present for Palestine refugees, who, for more than seven decades, have coped with unresolved memories of flight passed down through the generations, uncertainties about their future, daily struggles for survival under conditions of occupation and human rights constraints that have precluded adequate chances for recovering losses.
In addition, Palestine refugees have withstood an added hardship of loss of patrimony and country when, in the wake of their flight in 1948, their historic homeland was transformed into a state for others. The result was the dispersal of the Palestinian nation, or el-Naqba, and the creation of the world’s largest refugee population. Palestinian refugees who fled areas over which Israel asserted sovereignty were subsequently denationalized, compounding their plight into a situation of stateless refugees.
Some of the refugees who fled to the West Bank and Jordan in 1948 were granted Jordanian citizenship – later revoked for Palestinian residents of the West Bank when Jordan severed its legal and administrative control over the territory in 1988. The majority of Palestine refugees in the Middle East region have remained stateless for multiple generations. Stateless Palestinian refugees are also especially vulnerable in periods of instability, as witnessed in the case of Palestinian refugees who fled from Iraq due to persecution.
In 2023, approximately 90% of newly displaced individuals globally resulted from seven significant displacement situations. These situations consist of both ongoing and new conflicts and humanitarian crises in various countries such as Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latin America and the Caribbean nations, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Ukraine.
In the past decade, the global refugee crisis has more than doubled in scope, surpassing the 100 million mark for total displacement, meaning that over 1.2% of the global population have been forced to leave their homes.
As of mid-2023, over 537,000 Eritreans — nearly 15% of the country’s population — have been displaced abroad due to ongoing violence and political instability.
For more than a decade, a humanitarian crisis has raged in the Central African Republic. It’s gone largely unnoticed in mainstream media; however over 750,000 Central Africans were registered as refugees in 2023 — with thousands more displaced internally. This escalation in violence (which has been ongoing since CAR gained independence from France in 1960) has made it increasingly dangerous for Central Africans to live in the country.
Unfortunately, Somalia’s protracted cycle of crisis has once again led to an increase in refugees with over 814,000 as of mid-2023. The situation is dire for many, who are forced to contend with drought, conflict, and hunger. Last year and earlier this year, the country was at the epicenter of the current Horn of Africa crisis and facing famine-like conditions.
The Democratic Republic of Congo remains one of the world’s largest “forgotten” humanitarian crises, with events in a protracted situation rarely making headlines. Combining refugees and IDPs, its displacement numbers are the highest in Africa, with 6.1 million people displaced. This figure includes 1 million refugees seeking asylum outside DRC. In tandem with this, the DRC is also a large host community for refugees from neighbouring countries.
Conditions in Sudan have deteriorated throughout 2023 as the country faced some of the worst violence in decades. At the end of 2022, approximately 844,000 refugees around the world were Sudanese. As of mid-2023, that number exceeded 1.02 million, and showed no signs of abating.
Beginning in August 2017, over 1 million stateless Rohingya fled ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Many are still living in the world’s largest refugee camp, located in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The Rohingya represent the majority of the 1.26 million refugees displaced from Myanmar over the last six years.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, is also the site of one of its largest refugee crises, that entered its tenth year in 2023. Over 4 million South Sudanese have been forced from their homes, with 2.2 million of those having to leave the country entirely.
In February 2022, escalated conflict in Ukraine led to a full humanitarian crisis that has displaced over 5.8 million refugees in the last two years. This is more than 13% of the country’s population, and just under 20% of the world’s global refugee population.
The ongoing crisis in Afghanistan has made it one of the top countries of origin for refugees. One out of every six refugees originated from this country, and over 6.1 million Afghans are internationally displaced — largely in neighbouring Pakistan and Iran.
Syria continues to be the world’s largest refugee crisis as at 2024, representing nearly 25% of the total global refugee population. As of mid-2023, 6.49 million Syrians have sought refuge, primarily in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Türkiye.
Though poor, Uganda is the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, with over a million refugees, most of them from South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Somalia. Kenya, Sudan, DRC, and Ethiopia are also among the top refugee-hosting countries on the continent.
Research has shown that displacement and dislocation cause special cultural, economic, and technical problems. About one third of displaced persons will experience high rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) as a result of the circumstances they faced during their migration, which can significantly affect the quality of their life.
The armed conflict in Nigeria has forced an estimated two million people to flee from their homes. Many of them are now internally displaced persons while others have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.
Reportedly, 55,000 people have been displaced in the last two months, over 30,000 of whom arrived in Borno’s capital Maiduguri; which already hosts more than one million internally displaced persons (IDP) in 14 camps as well as host communities. Because the existing camps cannot cope with the sudden influx, the authorities are in the process of opening a new IDP camp.
Nearly 22,000 Nigerians have been reported as missing to the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) during a decade of conflict in northeast Nigeria, the highest number of missing persons registered with the ICRC in any country. Nearly 60 per cent were minors at the time they went missing, meaning thousands of parents don’t know where their children are and if they are alive or dead.
Families in north-east Nigeria are often separated while fleeing attacks. Others have had loved ones abducted or detained and do not know their whereabouts.
Being a refugee is therefore a traumatic experience and we do not pray for a worsening of our present situation of insecurity and economic regression that would unleash a catastrophic situation which would warrant mass movement of our people to neighboring countries. It would be worse than the Mfecane and the Great Trek. The geography of the West African region will never be the same again. This rings a word of caution to those ethnic and tribal irridentists beating the Tom-Tom of ethnic and religious jingoism, whipping the cord of separatist tendencies.
*Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith (Quran2:286)
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend.
Babatunde Jose
