World at crossroads as migrant crisis worsens

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The devastating scale of migrant crisis during the World War II led the global community to take steps to rescue people fleeing conflicts. Did it improve the situation?

The answer is not that simple, and the solutions are hardly straightforward.

The Second World War resulted in an estimated 60 million people displaced. Around the same time, Indian subcontinent saw one of the greatest migrations in human history that was a result of the partition of India in August 1947, which eventually ended up with two countries later, India and Pakistan.

Undated picture released during the Second World War of inhabitants of Caen around the ruins of the cathedral, France. /AFP Photo

During the 10-year Soviet-Afghan war that lasted from 1979-1989, thousands of people from Afghanistan crossed the border into Pakistan. Many never returned.

Three decades later, despite the efforts of many countries and organizations, the world is yet to find a solution to the migration problem.

The specter of hundreds of thousands of people still fleeing violence is history repeating itself for the umpteenth time.

Never ending quest

How was each exodus different from that of the earlier influxes of migrants?

An undated handout image released by the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on June 13, 2017 and taken around 1947/1948 shows a camp for displaced Indian Muslims next to Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, during the period of unrest following the Partition of India and Pakistan. /AFP Photo/Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

The nature of displacements during the World War II was different as many at that time left their native places as a result of uneasy struggles for independence, Pakistani political scientist Dr. Muhammad Ijaz Butt told CGTN while pointing to the partition of Indian sub-continent.

The present-day exoduses are "the result of the policies of the major powers, which prompt crisis to gain their economic interests", he said.

"The phenomenon of migration … is as old as civilization itself", said Iqbal Ahmed Khan, former Pakistani ambassador and a professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

Afghan refugees wait for their turn outside a Pakistani registration center in Peshawar on August 17, 2017. A record 370,000 Afghans left Pakistan last year, many of whom were second or even third generation migrants of people fleeing the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during the 1980s, surging from 55,000 the year before. /AFP Photo

The underlying factors driving these migrations are many and varied, he told CGTN, referring to what he said ‘power struggle, the hubris, the short-sightedness and muddling of western powers' during the conflicts in Afghanistan and the Middle East.

Standing at the crossroads again

Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims are back in the headlines as the conflict in the country’s Rakhine state has triggered another migration crisis. An estimated 380,000 people have sought refuge across the border in neighboring Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar gathering around a truck delivering clothes in Ukhia on September 15, 2017. /AFP Photo‍

The anger is growing over the treatment of Rohingyas, and the situation has unnerved the United Nations.

Myanmar is facing pressure amid criticism that it is persecuting the minority Muslim community, a claim the Buddhist-majority state strenuously denies, saying the army and police are fighting "terrorists".

The UN Security Council this week expressed concern over the violence, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying the military campaign amounted to the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

European refugee crisis

It has been a hot topic around the world since the crisis started in 2015. The scale of the crisis has not been seen since decades.

Migrants wait to be rescued from a sinking dingey off the Libyan coastal town of Zawiyah, east of the capital, on March 20, 2017, as they attempted to cross from the Mediterranean to Europe. /AFP Photo

Political upheaval, poverty, and war in Africa and the Middle East forced thousands to flee, risking lives in a bid to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

At that time, 1.26 million people filed for asylum in EU member countries, a majority of them headed to Germany, according to the figures published on the website of the European Parliament.

Roughly 120,000 migrants reached Europe by sea so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

They made the dangerous journey in overcrowded dinghies run by human smugglers. More than 2,400 have drowned on the way.

An estimated 5,022 lives were lost in the Mediterranean in 2016 and 3,771 in 2015, according to the European Parliament.

After three years, the EU nations are still wrangling over the crisis as tackling mass migration has proved to be an almost constant concern.

Economic migrants

The EU considers some of the people crossing into Europe as economic migrants. The European parliament figures show that 388,000 such people were denied entry at the EU’s external borders.

German policemen escort a 15 year-old girl from Somalia, found under a tralier at the train station in the southern German city of Raubling on August 24, 2017 during a search for illegal migrants on the German-Austrian border. /AFP Photo

Critics say that economic migrants weaken the case of refugees. Many doubted that terrorists posing as migrants might already have slipped unchecked into Europe among thousands who have entered the continent.

"The world is becoming vulnerable because of migration crisis. Refugees are prone to join militant organizations," said Dr. Butt.

"It is one of the biggest cause that played a significant role to promote terrorism in the world," he said, adding if the world powers do not resolve the crisis, the terror threat will get even bigger.

The gravity of the situation suggests that a resolution of the crisis is more important than ever before.