Refugee crisis deepens

June 20, 2025

In December 2000, the UN General Assembly set June 20 as World Refugee Day.

Constant efforts have been made worldwide to solve the refugee problem but the prospects for it are gloomy.

Refugees increase

Even at this moment, many people have taken refuge from such African countries as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia and Sudan and such Middle Eastern countries as Palestine, Lebanon and Yemen.

This is because armed conflicts and disputes persist in these areas.

Thus, Africa and the Middle East have become global refugee exporters.

According to a recent statement by an international investigation organization, the number of refugees worldwide reached 83.4 million, an all-time high, last year.

Lots of people leave their beloved native places to seek refuge from wars that occur at any time. However, their situations are extremely miserable. Many of them die of hunger, diseases and accidents on their way to refuges.

Last year, the number of refugees and emigrants worldwide who died or were missing at accidents reached 8 542. The Mediterranean, where many refugees are buried, is called the “sea of death”.

The fate of the refugees who narrowly escaped death and reached their destinations is tragic. They are subjected to maltreatment and contempt at camps with no elementary protective facilities, and are forced into slave labour and fall victim to violence, separated from their families. They also lose their lives after suffering from various epidemics and starvation. In particular, most of children and young women are subjected to human trafficking.

What is worse is that some European countries are blocking the entry of refugees on the pretext that among them there are terrorists or that the countries are in no condition to look after refugees and expelling refugees from their territories.

Cause of refugee crisis

The international community has been agreed that the refugee crisis can never be solved without removing the cause of the issue.

What then is the cause of the grim humanitarian crisis?

To state the conclusion first, it lies in the armed conflicts and disputes caused by the hegemonic policy of the US and its vassal forces and their violent moves of interference.

Africa is a continent, where there have occurred more conflicts between ethic and national and border disputes than other continents. This is because colonialists who had invaded Africa since the 15th century arbitrarily fixed the borders between African countries with the result that people similar in tribe and nation had to live divided into different countries and regions.

Thus many African countries have long suffered from conflicts and disputes between tribes and nations, being faced with serious refugee problems.

Different countries in the Middle East, too, produce refugees continuously.

In the 21st century the US ignited wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries and regions under signboard of “war on terror” to commit all sorts of crimes.

In Afghanistan alone, about 11 million refugees came into being during the US’ 20-year-long occupation of it. In Iraq, about 9.2 million people were reduced to refugees in 2003-2021. In these countries, many people are now wandering to seek refuge from terror, conflicts, confusion and disorders still rampant owing to the aftereffects of the “war on terror” provoked by the US.

Recently the US has been instigating its stooges and anti-government forces to wage proxy wars in the countries and regions that it regards as hindrance to realizing its wild ambition for world domination. The Gaza crisis in Palestine, which has produced about 2 million refugees that are close to the total number of its population, is also due to the manoeuvres of the US trying to achieve its goal by getting Israel to act as the “ruler of the Middle East”.

The US attempts to invent pretexts for interference in internal affairs of other countries by fomenting and worsening disputes of various kinds in different parts of the world or aggravating situations and thus achieve its aggressive and predatory purposes with ease. It is getting more cunning and vicious in its method of aggression.

The US and its vassal forces’ moves for domination are threatening the existence of innocent people and creating a serious humanitarian crisis and they are the object of strong denunciation from the international community.

KCNA

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