The world’s refugees must rely on the kindness of strangers, in many cases a tenuous hope. Critics charge that UN relief efforts are poorly managed and staffed by political cronies of member countries’ regimes. For the most part, international agencies such as the UN rely on host countries to provide such services as storage and distribution of food and supplies. Instead of relieving suffering, these commodities often wind up in the hands of corrupt politicians who sell them for profit, or the items are diverted for use as political barter or for the support of military campaigns. Moreover, relief workers themselves often are forced to operate in war zones or other dangerous surroundings.

UN agencies provide the only nourishment some refugees receive: flour and oil. Officials estimated in the summer of 2000 that the average refugee from Kosovo received more than the equivalent of U.S. $1.00 a day from the international community, while the average refugee in Africa received $0.11. Compounding the difficulties, refugee camps sometimes become de facto military bases for one or another of the warring factions from which they fled. Combatants may use them as rest stops or to recruit new fighters.

Even hopes of eventually resettling permanently elsewhere is becoming less of an option as host countries in Europe and elsewhere—including Africa—increasingly are closing their doors to immigrants, including those fleeing persecution. Critics have charged that the governments of Britain and Germany, for example, are responding to pressure from right-wing, anti-immigrant political groups. The governments themselves say they can’t sustain the seemingly endless flood of uprooted humanity.