New Report from World Refugee Council Calls for Overhaul of Global Refugee System
A group of political leaders, experts and human-rights activists, headed by former Canadian foreign affairs minister Lloyd Axworthy, is calling for an overhaul of the global refugee system in order to address the worst displacement crisis since the Second World War.
In a new report Thursday, the World Refugee Council warns that the challenges facing the world’s 68.5 million forcibly displaced people cannot be resolved by the current approach, which sees developing countries bearing the brunt of the crisis. Mr. Axworthy predicts the number of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) will grow by the millions each year if the system isn’t revamped soon.
“The basic point of our work as a council was to develop action-based measures that could be implemented and draw on political support that will directly affect and improve the situation for refugees and also build a system for the future,” he said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
The independent council, formed in May, 2017, operates out of the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont., and is supported financially by other foundations and the Canadian government.
The council’s 126-page report calls for the creation of the Global Action Network for the Forcibly Displaced, a group of stakeholders – governments, civil society organizations, the private sector and refugees – that would implement the report’s 55 recommendations.