For many years, the stories of people becoming displaced and children suddenly becoming orphans have taken up permanent residence in the global news, like a gray imminent cloud. But recently, that gray cloud seems to be getting darker and thunderous as the cases of displacement and new orphans rapidly increase. “For more than a decade, the number of children forced to flee their homes has risen at an alarming rate, and our global capacity to respond remains under serious strain”, these are the words of the UNICEF Executive Director, Catherine Russell. She goes further to mention that wars, climate disasters, and conflict are some of the major reasons for this rapid increase that unfortunately doesn’t seem to be decreasing any time soon.
In case you are wondering what exactly being displaced means, or who exactly is given the status “refugee”, here’s how they are defined. According to UNICEF, internally displaced persons are persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border. Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict, or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country. An orphan has been defined as a child under 18 years old who has lost one or both parents to any course of death. Today, there are 110 million displaced people in the world, forty-one percent of these are children.
The war in Ukraine started over a year ago on February 24, 2022. Due to the missile attacks, heavy shelling, fighting, widespread death, and destruction, more than 6.2 million people have become displaced as of July 2023, while nearly 5.1 million people have become internally displaced as of May 2023. This rapid increase in displaced people has created the fastest displacement of people in Europe since the Second World War. Unfortunately, Ukraine isn’t the only country whose crisis is increasing the number of displaced people. On April 15, 2023, the war in Sudan broke out between two rival military factions causing nearly 2.3 million people to become both globally and internally displaced, becoming the largest refugee crisis in Africa. Sadly according to the UNHCR, 63 percent of these people are under the age of eighteen.
Internal conflict and war aren’t the only reasons for the drastic increase in the number of refugees, displaced people, and orphans, climate change also plays a significant role. The 2022 floods in Pakistan caused great destruction and left about 7.6 million people displaced. It also placed many people, especially women and children, under the threat of waterborne diseases, growing cold weather, and inability to access proper education. Meanwhile in the continent of
Africa, displaced people in the regions of Somalia and Ethiopia face the worst and longest drought they have ever encountered. Their water sources have dried up as they experience their sixth consecutive rainy season without any rain. These terrible conditions have caused over 1.7 million people to become displaced.
Although the problematic increase in the number of refugees, internally displaced people, and orphans seems insurmountable, there are steps that we (as individuals) and governments can take to better the lives of the people in these situations and to decrease the number of internally displaced people. As individuals, we can provide financial and material assistance through monetary, food, and educational donations and fundraisers. We can also volunteer in local orphanage homes, and humanitarian networks like Red Cross, Unicef, and WHO. Doing something as simple as spreading awareness and speaking out can be quite helpful to people in these situations. For example, sharing an Instagram or Facebook post by a refugee might just attract the much-needed help.
Governments can also help people in these situations by placing primary importance on the safety and living conditions of refugees, orphans, and internally displaced people. Taking extra care to listen to their needs and problems and provide lasting solutions. They could also create more humanitarian organizations focused on helping people in these situations and simplify processes for admitting refugees, based on their capacity. In addition to all these, they should try their best to avoid internal and external political conflicts that can lead to the displacement of people. The UNICEF also encourages governments to help orphan, displaced, and refugee children by:
● Recognising refugee, migrant, and displaced children as children first and foremost – with rights to protection, inclusion, and participation
● Providing safe and legal pathways for children to move, seek asylum, and reunite with family
● Ensuring no child is detained because of their migration status or returned without safeguards unless the return has been determined to be in a child’s best interests
● Strengthening national education, health, child protection, and social protection systems to include displaced children without discrimination
● Investing in national child protection systems to better protect children on the move at risk from exploitation and violence, particularly unaccompanied children
● Listening to and meaningfully engaging displaced children in finding solutions that are sustainable and inclusive and that can help them realize their full potential
To conclude, in recent years, there has been a tremendous increase in the number of orphans, refugees, and internally displaced persons all over the world. This tremendous increase has caused what seems to be an insurmountable problem, but there are steps that can be taken as individuals ( speaking out and volunteering) and as governments ( placing key emphasis on the safety of refugees, internally displaced people, and orphans and providing lasting solutions) to lessen and even eventually solve this problem. You are never too young to help and no problem cannot be solved if everybody contributes to the cause.