See refugees as ‘opportunity’, not ‘burden’, panelists urge

AMMAN – Unless refugee host communities perceive the displaced as an “opportunity” rather than a “burden”, forced migration will continue to impose tremendous challenges that no country will be able to tolerate, experts said on Saturday. 

At a session held on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, panelists from the public, private and humanitarian sectors underlined the need to adopt untraditional methods to deal with the complexity of the refugee issue. 

They also called for the private sector to play a key role empowering the refugee community. 

“This is a call for action for the private sector to engage in efforts to integrate and empower the refugees,” said Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury during the session, titled “Protecting Refugees: Our Moral Responsibility”. 

Citing challenges facing Jordan due to the influx of Syrian refugees, whose number today exceed 1.3 million, he noted that the Kingdom has reached a “point of saturation with its current capabilities”, adding that unemployment increased by 25 per cent and poverty by 30 per cent since the start of the Syrian crisis. 

“However, we in Jordan realised that we need to be holistic…we know that donors will look away sooner or later and that we need to turn the refugee challenge into an opportunity because we cannot afford to let refugees become a lost generation,” Fakhoury said. 

Kelly Clements, deputy high commissioner for refugees at the UNHCR, echoed similar sentiments, saying that the only way to overcome damages inflicted by forced displacement is to look at the refugees from an empowerment perspective. 

Moderated by journalist Isabelle Kumar, panelists called for a greater private sector role in supporting governments to accommodate and integrate refugees. 

“For Ericsson, we are very involved in ICT and how mobile technologies can help innovations, especially those that reach millions of displaced people,” said Rafia Ibrahim, president of Ericsson’s Middle East and Africa market area.

She stressed the need for the private sector to form genuine partnerships that offer more than mere philanthropy, saying that mobile phone companies can serve as a bridge between the private and public sectors and refugees.

“Providing learning facilities to refugees inside camps is an example,” Ibrahim noted. 

For Ahmad Hussein, Canada’s minister of immigration, refugees and citizenship, the integration of refugees is a long process that eventually pays off for host communities. 

“In Canada, we think we can absolutely maintain the services and well-being of Canadians while doing our humanitarian role towards the refugees. We do not perceive refugees as a burden,” the minister said, who added that his country received 40,000 Syrian refugees last year.