U2's frontman Bono recently returned from a humanitarian trip in the Middle East and East Africa, where he visited several refugee camps, or "car parks of humanity," as the singer called it.
What he learned during that trip is that even though many people would like to think that the mass exodus from countries such as Syria is a "Middle Eastern or African problem," in truth, everybody is affected by it.
"When people are driven out of their homes by violence, poverty and instability, they take themselves and their despair elsewhere. And 'elsewhere' can be anywhere," he writes in an op-ed piece for The New York Times.
Bono believes that it is time for Western nations to "re-imagine reality" and change the way they treat people and countries consumed by conflict. "That needs to start, as it has for me, by parting with a couple of wrong ideas about the refugee crisis," he says.
One thing that Bono discovered was that the Syrian refugees aren't concentrated in camps. These encampments "are so huge that it's hard to fathom that only a small percentage of those refugees actually live in one; in many places, a majority live in the communities of their host countries. In Jordan and Lebanon, for example, most refugees are in urban centers rather than in camps. This is a problem that knows no perimeter," he says.
Another misconception Bono debunked is that the crisis is temporary. He says he met several families who have spent two generations as refugees.
"They have been exiled by their home countries only to face a second exile in the countries that have accepted their presence but not their right to move or to work," he says.
Bono stresses the need for the United States and other developed nations to "act smarter" to address the crisis and prevent the next one, and he has three suggestions for them.
"First, the refugees, and the countries where they're living, need more humanitarian support. You see this most vividly in a place like the Dadaab complex in Kenya, near the border of Somalia, a place patched together (or not) with sticks and plastic sheets," he says. "The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is doing noble and exceedingly hard work. But it can't do everything it needs to do when it is chronically underfunded by the very governments that expect it to handle this global problem."
The next solution is a matter of perspective. Bono says that refugees need to be treated as a benefit and not a burden, since they can provide work and boost the labour market. The only thing they need is development, and when they are given that, they will be empowered to stand on their own two feet.
Lastly, Bono says the world needs to provide developmental assistance to countries racked by conflict and corruption. "These countries may yet spiral into anarchy," he warns. "It is less expensive to invest in stability than to confront instability. Transparency, respect for rule of law, and a free and independent media are also crucial to the survival of countries on the periphery of chaos. Because chaos, as we know all too well, is contagious."
