Our refugee system is failing. Here's how we can fix it

There are times when I feel

really quite ashamed

to be a European.

In the last year,

more than a million people
arrived in Europe in need of our help,

and our response, frankly,
has been pathetic.

There are just so many contradictions.

We mourn the tragic death

of two-year old Alan Kurdi,

and yet since then, more than 200 children

have subsequently drowned
in the Mediterranean.

We have international treaties
that recognize that refugees

are a shared responsibility,

and yet we accept that tiny Lebanon

hosts more Syrians
than the whole of Europe combined.

We lament the existence
of human smugglers,

and yet we make that the only viable route

to seek asylum in Europe.

We have labor shortages,
and yet we exclude people who fit

our economic and demographic needs

from coming to Europe.

We proclaim our liberal values
in opposition to fundamentalist Islam,

and yet we have repressive policies

that detain child asylum seekers,

that separate children
from their families,

and that seize property from refugees.

What are we doing?

How has the situation come to this,

that we've adopted such an inhumane
response to a humanitarian crisis?

I don't believe it's because
people don't care,

or at least I don't want to believe
it's because people don't care.

I believe it's because
our politicians lack a vision,

a vision for how to adapt
an international refugee system

created over 50 years ago

for a changing and globalized world.

And so what I want to do
is take a step back

and ask two really fundamental questions,

the two questions we all need to ask.

First, why is the current system
not working?

And second, what can we do to fix it?

So the modern refugee regime

was created in the aftermath
of the Second World War by these guys.

Its basic aim is to ensure

that when a state fails,
or worse, turns against its own people,

people have somewhere to go,

to live in safety and dignity
until they can go home.

It was created precisely for situations
like the situation we see in Syria today.

Through an international convention
signed by 147 governments,

the 1951 Convention
on the Status of Refugees,

and an international organization, UNHCR,

states committed to reciprocally
admit people onto their territory

who flee conflict and persecution.

But today, that system is failing.

In theory, refugees have a right
to seek asylum.

In practice, our immigration policies
block the path to safety.

In theory, refugees have a right
to a pathway to integration,

or return to the country
they've come from.

But in practice, they get stuck
in almost indefinite limbo.

In theory, refugees
are a shared global responsibility.

In practice, geography means
that countries proximate the conflict

take the overwhelming majority
of the world's refugees.

The system isn't broken
because the rules are wrong.

It's that we're not applying them
adequately to a changing world,

and that's what we need to reconsider.

So I want to explain to you a little bit
about how the current system works.

How does the refugee regime actually work?

But not from a top-down
institutional perspective,

rather from the perspective of a refugee.