This post was written by Hatchet reporter Justine Coleman.
As part of the International Monetary Fund spring meeting, a panel of experts gathered on Wednesday afternoon in Lisner Auditorium to discuss the global implications of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Specialists from Jordan, Europe and the U.S. spoke about the economic and political issues regarding the massive migration of refugees. Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde sat on the panel. Ali Velshi, previously the host of “Ali Velshi On Target,” moderated the panel.
Here’s what these experts recommended to help refugees:
1. Approach problems in new ways
Lagarde said the critical situation calls for a combined effort and a “bigger, bolder and broader approach.”
“I think that the volume of financing and support has to be bigger than what we hear or what people think of at the moment,” Lagarde said. “It has to be broader because it needs to approach the problem in a multi-dimensional way and it has to be bolder because we need to invent new ways of dealing with these issues.”
2. Accept the global scale of the crisis
The panelists said the impending issue with Syrian migration was not recognized worldwide until it reached Europe.
Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commission’s vice president for budget and human resources, said the “good news” was that the Syrian arrival in Europe allowed European countries to recognize the problem did not only impact Syria and its bordering countries.
“Bad news: How did we learn it? When a slow-moving tsunami came and hit us,” she said.
3. Help countries that are taking the burden
Jordan’s Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury said even though the world has only recently called attention to it, Jordan has been dealing with Syrian refugees for almost six years.
“These past five years they are like a tsunami that has been slowly chipping into Jordan,” he said. “Hundreds of thousands of refugees started to cross the borders at the same time in a country that has done incredible work over the many decades in absorbing refugees from Arab countries.”
4. Remember that refugees are people
Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang said an important aspect to consider while analyzing the crisis is that the displaced refugees are human beings.
“These people on the move not because they wanted to but because they had to for their safety and lives that they are human beings,” Kang said. “The primary beginning point has to be their dignity and rights.”