THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S REFUGEES: The...
THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S REFUGEES: The Challenge of Protection issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (Penguin: $14; 191 pp., illustrated, paperback original). The U.N. High Commission for Refugees had a projected existence of three years when it was established in 1951 to settle people displaced by World War II. Three decades later, there are an estimated 18.2 million refugees in the world and an additional 24 million displaced people within their own borders. A deadly combination of increasing violence and persecution, environmental degradation, overstrained relief agencies and a stagnant world economy continues to exacerbate an already disastrous situation: As the authors note, “There is no daylight between crises; crisis has become the norm.” The unhappy plight of so many people is a subject for sober reflection during a holiday season that celebrates over-abundance.
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