What Is the Solution?
THE refugee situation is not one of total gloom. Throughout the world, humanitarian organizations strive to help those displaced by war and other problems. A major way they help is by assisting refugees to return to their native countries.
Refugees abandon home, community, and country because they fear they will be murdered, tortured, raped, imprisoned, enslaved, robbed, or starved. So before refugees can safely return home, the problems that caused them to flee must be solved. Even when armed conflict finally ends, an absence of law and order often discourages people from going home. Said Agnes, a Rwandan refugee and mother of six: “Taking us [back] to Rwanda would be like taking us to our graves.”
Nevertheless, since 1989, more than nine million refugees have returned to their homes. About 3.6 million of these returned from Iran and Pakistan to Afghanistan. Another 1.6 million refugees in six countries returned to Mozambique, a nation shattered by 16 years of civil war.
Returning is not easy. Often the countries to which the refugees return are in ruins—with villages reduced to rubble, bridges destroyed, and roads and fields sown with mines. Thus, the returning refugees must rebuild from scratch not only their lives but also their homes, schools, health clinics, and everything else.
Yet, even when the flames of conflict die out in one place, allowing refugees to return, they ignite somewhere else, creating new flows of refugees. Solving the refugee crisis, therefore, means solving the related problems of war, repression, hatred, persecution, and other factors that send people running for their lives.
The State of the World’s Refugees 1995 admits: “The hard truth . . . is that solutions [to the refugee crisis] are ultimately dependent on political, military and economic factors which lie beyond the control of any humanitarian organization.” According to the Bible, the solutions are likewise beyond the reach of any earthly organization, humanitarian or otherwise.
A World Without Refugees
There is a solution, however. The Bible shows that Jehovah God cares about those who have been torn from their homes and families. Unlike the governments of the earth, he has the power and the wisdom to solve all the complex problems facing humankind. He will do so by means of his Kingdom—the heavenly government that will soon take control of earth’s affairs.
God’s Kingdom will replace all human governments. Instead of having many governments on earth, as we do now, there will be only one government, which will rule over the entire planet. The Bible foretells: “The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.”—Daniel 2:44.
You may be familiar with the model prayer found in the Bible at Matthew 6:9-13. Part of that prayer says: “Let your kingdom come. Let your will take place, as in heaven, also upon earth.” In harmony with that prayer, God’s Kingdom will soon “come” to carry out God’s purpose for the earth.
Under the loving rulership of God’s Kingdom, there will be universal peace and security. No longer will there be hatred and fighting between the peoples and nations of the earth. (Psalm 46:9) Never again will there be millions of refugees fleeing for their lives or languishing in camps.
God’s Word promises that the King of God’s Kingdom, Christ Jesus, “will deliver the poor one crying for help, also the afflicted one and whoever has no helper. He will feel sorry for the lowly one and the poor one, and the souls of the poor ones he will save. From oppression and from violence he will redeem their soul, and their blood will be precious in his eyes.”—Psalm 72:12-14.
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Soon all will treat one another as true brothers and sisters