The life of a refugee is not easy. Making the abrupt decision of leaving your country for another because occurrences such as terrorism, bombing, war, and conflicts is not the kind of experience anyone should ever go through. 

Even though they have managed to flee from dangerous areas plagued with war, the hopelessness doesn’t end there. Being a refugee means having to face a toll of problems such as lack of shelter, food, and clothing, sickness, and financial constraints. However, they don’t have much of a choice but to remain in their current place of refuge, in dire hopes that they’ll be able to protect their own lives, as well as, their family’s. 

In this article, we will look into the points of views of 4 personalities that have shared their voices and expressed their initiatives on how to provide protection and promote the welfare of refugees. 

Antonio Guterres

Antonio Guterres is a native of Portugal. He is a politician and diplomat, who served as the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations. He was also the prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002. His greatest achievement as a Portuguese leader was when he ranked as the best prime minister of Portugal, in a span of 30 years, in a poll that was conducted publicly, in the year 2012 and 2014. 

In addition, his public service and stint as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 2005 to 2015, has made him realize that the welfare of refugees is a concern and is an issue that needs to be addressed. 

According to Guterres, the global refugee crisis can be solved if the countries’ government were to execute initiatives. One he finds very effective is the multilateral turn toward acceptance and respect that can be achieved and attained in countries wherein war is prevalent. 

This multilateral turn would involve the defiance of groups such as the worldly known ISIS’ recruiting machine and active propaganda. 

He also places huge regard on the historical causes that resulted in the current global refugee crisis. He emphasized that it is human’s hunger for power and dominance that led to the current situation. 

In conclusion, Antonio highlighted the European countries mood; wherein they are trying to provide shelter, perform screening processes and place in resettlements, the hundreds and thousands of desperate families that seek refuge. 

Attorney Stephen W. Manning

Atty. Manning is a native of Bradford, Pennsylvania, USA. He is known as the founder and director of the Innovation Law Lab, as well as the founding partner of Immigrant Law Group PC. 

The Innovation Law Lab is known worldwide as a non-profit laboratory and organization that combines litigation and technology dually,that will serve as a concrete mass barrier of protection against mass incarceration of immigrants and refugees. 

By profession, he is an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark Law School. He is also a multi-awarded professional and individual, as he gained recognition from the 2015 Founders Award and the 2010 Jack Wasserman Memorial Award for Excellence.  

According to Atty. Manning, the global refugee crisis can be addressed through an initiative of crowdsourcing a refugee rights strategy. He firmly believes that the most effective refugee rights strategy is to create an immigration policy that will litigate the protection of refugees. 

In conclusion, the immigration policy will lead countries and its government, to treat refugees with the respect, tolerance, understanding, as well as with the needs that they deserve. 

Professor Jane McAdam

Professor Jane McAdam is a native of Sydney, Australia. She is currently a Scientia Professor of Law and Director of the Andrew and Renata Kaldor Center for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales in Australia (UNSW). 

Her deep background of the International Refugee Law, serves as her motivation, inspiration and driving force, to advocate for the rights and protection of refugees around the world. 

According to McAdam, refugees have their own set of human rights, as much as ordinary individuals do. She firmly believes that these rights should be equal and fair in treatment from the refugees’ perspective and should not be trampled down upon. 

She expresses her take, in the point of view of the Australian Government. The Australian government has taken international legal obligations, actions and initiatives that promote the welfare of the refugees, through the separation of myths and facts that involved the refugees, as well as an emphasis on the underlying truth that this global refugee crisis, remains to be prevalent nowadays. 

In conclusion, Professor McAdam believes that migrants, refugees and individuals living in the country, should be treated in an equally plain field, and should not be given undue sarcasm and discrimination, since they are never at fault, in terms of the concurrent situation that they are in at present. 

Amal Azzudin

Amal Azzudin, who is a refugee herself, shares her life story, perspective, take and point of view on the global refugee crisis, from her own experience and with the work that she does. 

Azzudin is a native of Egypt, who eventually moved to Scotland, with her mother in the year 2000. She earned her BA in Community Development, as well as her MSc in Human Rights & International Politics from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

According to Amal Azzudin, she firmly believes that, in order to end the global refugee crisis, an outline of differences must be set as a demarcation between the asylum seekers, refugees and migrants. 

She takes into great application, her argument that being a refugee herself and as a refugee in perspective, is not a personally-made choice and that the world has no right to blame and punish any refugee concerned because we are all equally humans as a whole. 

In conclusion, Amal’s advocacies and campaigns take on the tenet and premise of development and delivery of new and innovative projects that promote the betterment and welfare of refugees and asylum seekers as she works tirelessly and devotedly as a campaigner and advocate for the human rights and social justice in Scotland and for the Mental Health Foundation alongside with it.  

These four points of view, if joint and combined in a collective manner, points out to a conclusion that any world crisis, like the global refugee crisis, can be ended if a collective effort is exerted not just only from one individual, group or organization, but also with the other individuals, groups and organizations.