1. A perilous journey
in the hope of
a better life
[Columnist] Ian Rainey, Former International Banker
An unprecedented migrant crisis is reshaping our world, writes Ian Rainey.
T
he world is undergoing a dramatic,
perhaps unprecedented migrant crisis.
All around the globe, people are fleeing
war zones, persecutions or economic instability
in search of a better life. They are undertaking
perilous journeys and many are dying in huge
numbers. Those that make it to their destination
often face anxious, sometimes even outright
hostile, hosts. A report released by the United
Nations estimates that around 60 million people
(similar to the population of Great Britain) form
a global nation of the displaced.
The reaction to the crisis differs from country
to country. We are well aware of the daily
problem at ports such as Calais but these are
minor compared to the problems faced in
other countries. In 2014 almost 1.7 million
people applied for asylum around the world.
The countries that saw the most applicants
were Russia (274,000) Germany (173,000)
USA (121,000) Turkey (88,000) and Sweden
(75,100). But there are less well known
problem areas such as the South China Sea,
where thousands of migrants have ended up
stranded in South East Asian waters for months.
In May this year, it was estimated that as many
as 20,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants
were stranded at sea in the Bay of Bengal.
Those migrants had paid human traffickers large
sums of money to make arduous journeys to
places like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia but
many found themselves turned away. Globally,
the world is witnessing a period of instability and
conflict that has produced what the United Nations
now describes as the largest pool of refugees,
asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons
since the ravages of the Second World War.
The headlines are grabbed almost monthly by
the plight of the ‘boat people’ trying to escape
out of Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea
to Italy. There seems to be an increasing flow of
Arab and African migrants churned through the
lawlessness of post-Gadhafi Libya and spewed
into the Mediterranean. Approximately 1,750
of about 25,000 migrants trying to cross to Italy
from Libya have drowned in the first weeks of
the Spring sailing season this year. That includes
more than 700 in one boat that capsized in
early July but not those lost in the last few days
as this article was being written but estimated
at about 185 missing bodies. Those hapless
migrants make the terrible journey through
desserts into Libya, a country which today is a
‘failed state’ in which border security is all but
non-existent, corruption is rampant and the
human trafficking business has been estimated
last year as a $170 million business according
to conservative estimates in a recent United
Nations report. At the shortest distance, the
Western end of the Libyan coast is just 290
miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa. The
average cost for such a perilous trip is around
$2000 – reportedly dark-skinned Africans sail
for less than lighter skinned Moroccans, Syrians
and Tunisians because the latter are assumed to
have more money.
The problem though in North Africa is
miniscule compared with the situation in
Syria where the number who have fled to
neighbouring countries to escape the civil war
in that country has passed the 4 million mark.
More than a million new refugees have fled
Syria since September 2014, thus confirming
the conflict as the world’s single largest refugee
crisis since the mid-90s collapse of Yugoslavia.
One of the major sufferers from Syria’s civil
war is Greece. According to Medecins Sans
Frontieres, more than 46,000 refugees have
arrived on Greek islands by sea since the start
of 2015. However, Turkey reputedly has the
largest number of refugees of any country in
the world with an estimated influx of 2 million
people in the last year, the majority of whom
have come from Syria.
And the problem is not just a European
problem. The problem is fast becoming an
African problem spurred on largely with the
Jihadist spread from the Middle East into much
of Africa. Boko Haram’s incursion into Nigeria
earlier this year has been well documented
but its spread into Kenya particularly and
much of Sub-Saharan African is reaching crisis
proportions. More than a dozen Sub-Saharan
countries are now dealing with Jihadism at
home. The two major brands of violent
jihadism, IS and Al-Qaeda, compete for the
allegiance of various groups of African Jihadists.
In short, the permanent effect that this crisis
may leave on the world is hard to predict – it’s so
new, so complicated and so global.
66 NI Chamber
“The headlines
are grabbed
almost monthly
by the plight of
the ‘boat people’
trying to escape
out of Libya
and across the
Mediterranean
Sea to Italy.”