* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
A few weeks ago I asked a number of experts what I thought were relatively simple questions about refugees. How much does it cost to take care of one Syrian refugee per day? What’s the daily operating cost of a refugee camp? I got some vague answers but no ‘one-size-fits-all’ answer.
No one recognized it, but when 263 Syrians crossed into Turkey in April 2011 the Middle East refugee crisis started. It hit full stride shortly after. By the end of 2013, Turkey had spent more than $2.5 billion on Syrian refugees. Today, Turkey is ‘home’ to more than 1.5 million out of the four million Syrian refugees many of whom are in Lebanon and Jordan. Turkey spends about $2.2 million per month running 22 refugee camps. The daily numbers of people displaced by the conflict is staggering. In 2010 it was 11,000; last year 42,000. No one is able to meet the need for shelter, water, sanitation, food, medical assistance, and education. The global annual humanitarian budget is between $20bn and $30bn—less than what it cost to bail out a mid-sized bank. The head of UNHCR, said not spending on humanitarian aid is “a bad strategy, not to say a suicidal one”.
It is suicidal in more ways than you can imagine. Many children in the camps haven’t been vaccinated, 40% are not in school, and all lack a secure, stable home, and a somewhat predictable future. Young adults are either delaying or not considering marriage due the uncertain future they face. Young men and boys who are culturally responsible for feeding their families can’t, creating a desperate situation that makes them prime targets for ISIS recruitment. The psychological trauma and general inertia of not having anything meaningful to do, a future to plan for, or a community to belong to takes a heavy toll. A whole generation isn’t getting the education and socialization they need to become future parents, workers, and leaders.
The Middle East refugee crisis is about to become what UNHCR calls a Protracted Refugee Situation where refugees live in a camp for more than five years and the governments ‘housing’ them become more and more unable to handle the situation. Some experts say the crisis will last another 25 years. So the ‘problem’ isn’t going to go away very soon. That means we need to take a fresh look at how and where we take care of refugees and employment may just be the answer.
Turkey has taken the lead. Initially, the government called Syrian refugees ‘guests’. Last week they took a big step forward, providing some of the refugees with work permits. There are still issues and concerns about Syrian refugees taking jobs away from Turks.
Turkey, nevertheless, should be commended. It has handled its refugee problem pretty much on its own. It has designed and built safe and protected refugee camps that one EU diplomat called “5 star’. The camps offer pretty much what every person living in a community could want. With this new initiative, Turkey has started to create some economic space and taken a big step in making the refugees feel useful, have worth, and earn a living.
Turkey’s leap of faith has for better, not worse, empowered (and challenged) the private sector. Some Turkish businesses have responded setting up operations near refugee camps. Now it is time for the private sector to take the initiative and actively invest in and around the refugee camps. Give people work, worth, and a chance to make something of their lives. A job improves resilience, empathy, satisfaction from doing something, recognition of what is achieved, social relationships, and future opportunities.
Turkey and, hopefully, Jordan and Lebanon need to take a page out of what other countries have done to boost their economies—create special economic zones or special administrative regions that have rule of law and security. They already have a ready pool of labor.
So is investing in and employing refugees the answer? If you were to take just 10% of what the US spends on combatting ISIS per day—some $14 million—that would add up to $42 million per month a sum far greater than what the humanitarian community gets annually. Divert this and create a fund that gives certainty to the private sector so it can create an economy by attracting the talent that has found its ways into the shadow work and informal settlements where most refugees have drifted.
No real number has been placed on the lives lost and the costs of caring and re-settling refugees that are migrating to Europe but it is enormous in social and hard costs. Creating jobs is a solution that will help stem people movement in the short term, and in the long term it will go a long way creating an inclusive society where peace and prosperity are core.
