Locals carry two young girls to the shores of Lesbos, after they reached the island with their families in an inflatable boat full of refugees and migrants, having crossed the Aegean sea from Turkey.

The Worst Refugee Crisis Since World War Two, Explained

As world leaders gather at the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, you can expect some high diplomatic drama. And speeches from various world leaders–from Barack Obama to Justin Trudeau to Theresa May — are hotly anticipated. But behind all the politics and drama are issues of substance — and arguably the most important substantive issues on the table this year relate to the global refugee crisis.

There will be two high profile summits at the UN related to refugees. The first is organized by the United Nations itself, the “Summit for Refugees and Migrants.” The second is being organized by President Obama, and billed as the “Leaders Summit on Refugees.”

Taken together, these two high level meetings at the UN have the potential to provide an important inflection point in the international community’s attempt to address the largest global displacement crisis since World War Two.

On the line to help me to help put these two summits in a broader context of how countries are confronting a growing refugee crisis is Shannon Scribner, a humanitarian policy adviser for Oxfam. Shannon describes what these two distinct summits hope to accomplish, some of their benefits and weak points, and explains the exceedingly complex challenge of crafting a global strategy to confront this global problem.

This is one of the most pressing issues of our time. And if you have 20 minutes and want a deeper understanding of what the UN and broader international community is trying to do about, have a listen.

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