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In response to UNHCR’s new report that the number of people forced from their homes has increased by about 300,000 to 65.6 million, Sarnata Reynolds, Oxfam’s Policy Advisor for Global Displacement & Migration, said: “The sheer scale of the global refugee crisis is shocking. These new figures prove that more people need support than ever before. While the pace of displacement has slowed in the last year, suggesting that countries are tightening the screws which may be making it more difficult for people to flee across borders and seek refuge, there certainly hasn’t been notable improvement in those countries that are suffering from conflict and deprivation. The war in Syria continues into its 7th year, tens of millions are caught in an unprecedented human-made hunger crisis, and other deadly violence and natural disasters continue to force innocent people from their homes around the globe.

“This massive number of displaced people – the worst since the UN started keeping its numbers – is made up of individual people who are caught in unthinkable circumstances and who have been forced to make the impossible decision to leave their homes behind to seek safety for themselves and their loved ones.

“These new numbers underscore that the global community must immediately offer stronger lifelines to these vulnerable people as they flee for their lives, and also work together to tackle the root causes of the problem.

“While the number of refugees who desperately need our help remains unacceptably high, the international community’s ability and will to support them is just as poor, if not worse, than ever. There is a lot to learn from the communities in crisis themselves, who open their doors and share what little they have with others, and from countries like Uganda which has welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees.

“Oxfam has worked to help more than 6.7 million people in conflict affected countries in the past year. In our work with refugees and migrants, we have seen families torn apart and vulnerable men, women and children subjected to cynical politics designed to deny them their right to refuge. Over the next year the world will negotiate a new UN deal on refugees and migrants and to succeed, it must commit nations to share equal responsibility for the protection of all those forced from home.”

The international community continues to turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of international law and the abuse of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Oxfam said today.

As development and human rights organisations prepare to mark fifty years of occupation, donors, the UN and international agencies have spent billions of dollars in humanitarian and development aid that will have little sustainable, long-term impact while the occupation remains in place.

Oxfam Country Director Chris Eijkemans said the inaction of international governments sends the wrong signal: that international law can be violated with impunity. This lack of accountability keeps Palestinians poor and prevents them from accessing their rights.

“There are few examples of poverty or injustice in the OPT that do not stem from the occupation. If it weren’t for the occupation, most aid agencies would not need to be here. The issues facing Palestinians are enormous and complex, but on each count, despite the billions of dollars invested, the lives of Palestinians cannot meaningfully improve as long as the occupation persists,” said Eijkemans.

Aid has brought neither peace nor significant sustainable development to the OPT. Despite the Occupied Palestinian Territory being one of the highest per capita recipients of aid in the world in recent decades, the economy, security and many development indicators of the OPT have declined. This is due to a fundamental failure to ensure that aid commitments are underpinned by diplomatic and political pressure to end violations and allow Palestinians to claim their rights.

These Band-Aid humanitarian solutions will fail to bring long-term sustainable change, but will continue to be needed, unless the root cause of these injustices – the occupation – ends.

Oxfam warned that Palestinians cannot endure another fifty years of occupation, and the international community bears significant responsibility to hold Israel to account so a just and peaceful solution to the conflict can be found.

“The international community shoulders a large portion of the blame for the ongoing situation faced by 4.5 million Palestinians living in the OPT and must take clear and urgent action. Toothless condemnation of the litany of abuses is not enough. Settlement expansion, disproportionate use of violence, forcible transfer, restriction of movement, confiscation of land, destruction of homes and collective punishment are illegal acts. Governments have a choice: they can either challenge or entrench these ongoing violations,” said Eijkemans.

Peace and prosperity for Palestinians can only be achieved if Israel is held to account for its systematic violations of international law and the occupation is brought to an end.

While the occupation is in place, the true potential of the OPT and Palestinians cannot be realized.

“Israel has no incentive to end the occupation while it bears no tangible cost for its violations. We must do more to find a solution that brings justice and peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. These fifty years have seen thousands of lives and opportunities lost. Families have been separated; people have been denied their most basic rights. We must not let another fifty years pass before a just and peaceful solution is found,” said Eijkemans.

Notes to editors

Download Oxfam’s media brief “No end in sight. 50 years of impunity and inaction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)” 

The G7 Summit was held in Taormina, Sicily, Italy last week. Oxfam says the world’s leaders have failed to address the key challenges facing the worlds poorest people:

Roberto Barbieri, Executive Director of Oxfam Italy, said: “The G7 leaders have been absent without leave on some of the biggest issues of our age. Their focus on security is understandable in light of recent cruel attacks, but this should not be at the expense of tackling famine or the challenges of migration. President Trump, more than anyone else, has assumed the role of spoiler-in-chief – blocking agreement on many of these key concerns that affect millions of the world’s poorest people. The summit merely provided a full stop at the end of his foreign tour, begging the question of whether this rich leaders’ club is still relevant today.

“The one ray of hope was on climate: despite President Trump’s signaling that the United States does not stand with the rest of the world on the Paris Agreement, it is courageous that six of the G7 countries stood up to him and reaffirmed their commitment to deliver on the climate deal made in 2015. Oxfam urges the other countries to continue the dialogue with the United States to get them to accept the reality of climate change and to stay in the Paris Agreement.

“The leaders have not done nearly enough for the 30 million people facing the prospect of famine across four countries and it is a calamity that the Taormina initiative on food security proposed by the Italian government did not gain sufficient support from the other leaders. That none of the G7 countries has provided its fair share of aid to all these crises is a sad indictment of their collective failure to provide leadership. Despite much talk of security, the summit saw no mention of measures to end the brutal conflicts that are driving this global hunger crisis.

“On migration: Even though this summit took place in Sicily, a stone’s throw from where so many migrants have died, it produced no concrete steps to protect vulnerable migrants or to address the root causes of displacement and migration. The hoped for G7 vision on Human Mobility could have gone some way to meet this objectives, but President Trump and other leaders worked to block any agreement – for which millions of displaced families will pay the price. As the leaders fly home from Taormina they will look down on the waters that have claimed thousands of lives on the G7’s watch.

“Oxfam welcomes the G7’s recognition that inequality represents a huge problem in the world – but concrete measures to address inequality have failed to materialize at this summit, either on the domestic or the international level. How can the G7 hope to help the poorest people without a sound and inclusive action plan and without recognizing their own role in promoting the many races to the bottom that both fuel inequality worldwide and shatter the foundation of public trust in their leaders?”

Steven Joyce’s first budget is a chance for him to show that he embodies the great New Zealand qualities of fairness and justice, Oxfam said today.

A fair and just budget would address three key issues, according to the global anti-poverty organisation.

[Read more…] about Joyce’s First Budget Chance to Be Fair and Just: Oxfam