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Magazine Opinions Migrant Crisis Refugee Crisis

How to fix the refugee crisis

Separate safe havens from the migration debate, and the practical answers become clear

By Alexander Betts  
April 11, 2017
May 2017

Refuge should be about simple tasks: First it entails a duty of rescue" ©Irish Defence Forces via Wikimedia Commons

More people are displaced around the world than at any time since the Second World War. Bashar al-Assad’s latest chemical atrocity in Syria provides one more reminder of why that is, and with climate change the numbers will grow. Two thirds relocate within their own countries, but many must cross a border to survive. Meanwhile, the willingness to offer refuge is collapsing. The rise of populist nationalism has made an…

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Alexander Betts

Alexander Betts is professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs at the University of Oxford. He is co-author (with Paul Collier) of “Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System” (Allen Lane), which is out now

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