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Quote by Alexander Betts

“One way of grounding how we should identify refugees in a changing world is through the concept of force majeure - the absence of a reasonable choice but to leave. More specifically, the threshold for refuge would be: fear of serious physical harm. And the test would be: when would a reasonable person not see her- or himself as having a choice but to flee? In other words, if you were in the same situation, what would you do?”

Quote by Alexander Betts

Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
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Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System

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Alexander Betts

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“On city harp strings ‘neath cotton ball clouds, Pigeon to pigeon their stories they sing, Wafting flocks gather in soft, cooing crowds; Amid rush traffic, a prelude to spring, One with their nature, harmony within, Above street clatter, perched, resting their bones, Primed for the vernal bounty to begin, Soothing the clamor with light, dulcet tones; Whiffs of smog-filled drafts like bellows pulse through, Unfazed are they by our mad world of haste, The calm bevy awaits winter’s adieu, Unconsumed by thoughts of no time to waste, Nature presides with unshakable pride, The seasons shall turn with a feather’s glide.”

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“Since the Syrian refugee situation was just one of many, the approach was completely unfeasible. Financially, the only reason it did not break down earlier was itself a devastating critique: refugees overwhelmingly bypassed the camps. Since the Syrian refugee situation was just one of many, the approach was completely unfeasible. Financially, the only reason it did not break down earlier was itself a devastating critique: refugees overwhelmingly bypassed the camps.”

RefugeRefugeeRefugeesRefugee CrisisRefugee Camps
Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
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“The inability of refugees to earn a living within the standard UNHCR approach was not only psychologically diminishing for the refugees, but also highlighted the lack of viability of the financing model. Paying for 4 million refugees to live without work for ten years was manifestly unsustainable. Even at a cost of only $1,000 per refugee per year, which would have implied a drastic reduction in lifestyle relative to Syrian pre-refugee conditions, the bill would have amounted to $40bn.”

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Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
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“Europe, he says, is frightened that an influx of foreigners will erode European values. But what values will there to be uphold if we abandon our duty to protect those less fortunate than ourselves? Wat incentive do we give to refugees to maintain the fabric of our society if that fabric is so ragged in the first place? "If Europe is not able to show a better way of life to them, then they will think that their morality is better than ours." "They need to face some higher standards of morality, " he says. "If not, they will set their own." [Quoting Serbian priest Tibor Varga]”

RefugeesMigrantsRefugee CrisisSerbia
Book:The New Odyssey: The Story of Europe's Refugee Crisis
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“We think of agents, traffickers and facilitators as the worst abusers of refugees, but when they set out to extort from their clients, when they cheat them or dispatch them to their deaths, they are only enacting an entrepreneurial version of the disdain which refugees suffer at the hands of far more powerful enemies – those who terrorise them and those who are determined to keep them at arm’s length. Human traffickers are simply vectors of the contempt which exists at the two poles of the asylum seeker’s journey; they take their cue from the attitudes of warlords and dictators, on the one hand, and, on the other, of wealthy states whose citizens have learned to think of generosity as a vice. [from the London Review of Books Vol. 22 No. 3 · 3 February 2000]”

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Author:Jeremy Harding
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