GLOBAL FORCED MIGRATION the Political Crisis O F Our Time
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GLOBAL FORCED MIGRATION The Political Crisis of Our Time A Democratic Staff Report Prepared for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations United States Senate June 18, 2020 Global Forced Migration The Political Crisis of Our Time Cover photo: An Aerial View of the Za’atri Refugee Camp, U.S. Department of State, July 18, 2013. CONTENTS Letter of Transmittal iii Executive Summary 1 Chapter One—The Scale of Today’s Forced Migration Crisis 11 Chapter Two—Trends in Forced Migration 15 Why More People Are Fleeing: The Changing Nature of Conflict and Violence 15 Climate Change’s Impact on Forced Migration 22 Internally Displaced Persons Under-Recognized 24 New Challenges for Forced Migrants 24 Chapter Three—Human Rights Denied 29 Pervasive Restrictions on Freedom of Movement 29 Obstacles to Accessing Identity Documentation 30 Barriers to Healthcare, Education, and Work 32 Widespread Lack of Livelihood Opportunities and Barriers to Work 34 Gender-Based Violence: An Under-Recognized Risk 37 High Risks of Human Trafficking 39 Chapter Four—Inadequate and Inconsistent International Responses 41 Diplomatic Deficit Resulting in Persistent Conflicts and Impunity 41 Insufficient and Inflexible Humanitarian Funding 42 Aid Effectiveness and Humanitarian Sector Reform 44 Need for Expanded International Legal Protections 46 Shrinking Access to Traditional Solutions 53 Inconsistent Country-level Responses to Forced Migration 55 Chapter Five—The Trump Administration’s Domestic Agenda: Blocking All Pathways to Refuge 61 The Trump Administration’s Decimation of Existing Programs 62 The Impact of Trump Administration Policies at the U.S. Border 70 The Positive Contributions of Refugees and Immigrants in the United States 80 Damage to U.S. Military Interests 83 Chapter Six—The Trump Administration’s Global Retreat from Forced Migration 85 Repeated Attempts to Cut U.S. Humanitarian Assistance Funding 85 Withdrawal from International Fora 88 The International Implications of the Administration’s Retreat 89 Chapter Seven—Current Innovative Efforts 95 New Compacts to Improve International Coordination & Response 96 Innovative Models of Financial Assistance 97 The Compact Model 99 Solutions to Better Serve Forced Migrants 101 Incorporating Technology 104 Increasing Private Sector Participation 107 Findings & Recommendations 111 Findings 111 Recommendations 113 i GLOBAL FORCED MIGRATION | JUNE 2020 ii LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, DC, June 18, 2020. DEAR COLLEAGUES: The United States must revive its global and moral leadership to address the urgent plight of millions of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence, persecution, and severe climate-related events. This global forced migration crisis is one of the most profound and least understood challenges of our time. More than ever before, conflict and violence are driving people from their homes and forcing them to live decades in displacement. Warring parties are consistently ignoring humanitarian laws designed to protect civilians during conflict, leading to civilian casualties, the destruction of critical infrastructure, and mass displacement. Other drivers of forced migration, including generalized violence and severe climate-related events, such as droughts, flooding, extreme weather, and rising sea levels, show no signs of abating. Meanwhile, the global response has not kept pace with the enormity of need. The international community and national authorities have failed to address these causes of displacement. International organizations and host countries are struggling to protect and facilitate solutions for a growing population of forced migrants. More than ever before, U.S. leadership is needed to foster and catalyze a global coalition to address this crisis. Since its founding, the United States has offered freedom and opportunity to people around the world fleeing danger. Our history of welcoming desperate people with open arms—from European Jews following World War II to Indochinese boat people to Kosovar victims of ethnic cleansing—has reinforced our reputation as a place of refuge. Many of those who originally came to the United States seeking protection have gone on to become shining beacons for our nation—artists, innovators, public servants, and even representatives of the U.S. government. The Trump administration, however, has departed sharply from this historical precedent, abdicating U.S. leadership and undermining a global response. Available legal pathways for asylum, refugee resettlement, and protection in the United States have been severed. Refugees from Muslim-majority countries, including those fleeing atrocities in Syria, have been barred. Small children have been forcibly separated from their families and held in detention centers. Migrants fleeing violence and threats to their lives have been returned by the United States to dangerous border encampments in Mexico, waiting for decisions on their applications for months or even years. Given this challenging landscape, I directed my senior Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) staff member for Migration & Human Rights, Charlotte Oldham-Moore, and SFRC Democratic Staff to prepare a comprehensive report on the global forced migration crisis. In conducting research for this report, SFRC Democratic Staff interviewed dozens of migration and humanitarian experts, analyzed key documents and reports, and carried out research trips to Colombia, Tunisia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Mexico, and Ethiopia, meeting with U.S. and national, iii GLOBAL FORCED MIGRATION | JUNE 2020 provincial, and municipal government officials, United Nations and international nongovernmental organization representatives, as well as forced migrants and their host communities. I also want to thank Marisa Lowe, Judith Williams, and the SFRC Democratic Staff for their work on this report. The result of this research is a comprehensive report that lays bare the facts of today’s global forced migration crisis, the drivers of displacement, the trends impacting the situations of forced migrants, the international community’s response, and the Trump administration’s retreat. It describes a global forced migration crisis that is, at its crux, a political crisis requiring political solutions to confront the drivers of forced migration, as well as address the large numbers living in displacement. This report makes the case for urgent and sweeping action on the global forced migration crisis and argues the need for the United States to make a dramatic course correction in leading this global response. The report also makes timely recommendations for Congress, the Executive Branch, the United Nations, and other stakeholders to improve policies on forced migration. Today, there must be a bipartisan sense of urgency for renewed U.S. efforts to reform our domestic policies and international engagement relating to migration. Ignoring the plight of millions of forced migrants worldwide will only ensure that our future—the world’s and the United States’—will be far less secure and far bleaker. As the world grapples with global crisis, we must come together in global solidarity and remember those among us who have experienced the utmost dangers and require protection. Sincerely, ROBERT MENENDEZ, Ranking Member. iv A young Afghan girl waits to receive assistance at her returnee and refugee village on the outskirts of Farah City in western Afghanistan. Lt. j.g. Matthew Stroup, 130209-N-LR347-329, U.S. Navy, Feb. 9, 2013. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY girl born in a refugee camp lives her whole life in a temporary shelter, waiting A to return home to a community she has never known, a community repeatedly ravaged by war. A farmer leaves his village when insurgents arrive, then searches and fails to find shelter, water, and food. He is told to return home and is then displaced again by conflict, cycling back and forth in continuous, destitute movement. A nurse, terrorized by gang violence outside her home and domestic violence inside her home, fears for her and her daughter’s lives and leaves. They are turned away at the border, forced to wait, living in perilous tent encampments on the border, and finally deported back to danger. A fisherman is forced from their coastal community due to rising sea levels—they are no longer able to find sufficient potable water for their family to drink. They move to an urban slum to live amongst thousands of others who have suffered the same plight. A local official is forced to leave her island after tropical storm after tropical storm forces her to come to terms with the fact that her home is no longer inhabitable. She struggles to not only find somewhere for herself and her family, but for her whole island’s population—now forced to flee. No one is willing to provide them safe haven. The rich countries have closed their borders and erected walls that thousands of individuals attempt to circumvent daily. The poorer countries are inundated, less stable, and unable to provide services or safety. Thousands die each year attempting to find some place that will accept them. Millions are subjected to violence and abuse. Millions of children go uneducated. 1 GLOBAL FORCED MIGRATION | JUNE 2020 These are the stories of forced migrants already struggling to address the drivers of forced today. The exponentially increasing number of migration, and to protect and find permanent men, women, and children forced from their solutions for forced migrants. Without a homes due to conflict, persecution,