On Monday, member countries will convene at the United Nations headquarters in New York City for a summit on the global refugee crisis. They will try to agree on a more humane, coordinated response.
The crisis has reached unprecedented proportions. There are upward of 65.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. A third of them are in countries other than their own. Ten million of them were born as refugees and remain stateless, which gives a sense of the intractability of many conflicts.
International institutions have scrambled to provide food, medical treatment, shelter and safety. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees plays a leading role in setting up camps, both for internally and externally displaced people. Countless other organizations, big and small, lead and bolster that push, depending on the location.
New time-lapse satellite imagery of the burgeoning camps from above, shot and compiled by a private company called Planet, provides a remarkable visual of the crisis. The images give a sense of the need for a quick response from the international community as conflict arises so as to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe.
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