At Boston University Summit, Ambassador Haidari Warns Global Displacement Crisis Is Deepening Across Conflicts
By Staff Writer
At the Boston University International Affairs Summit on March 22, 2026, Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, founder and president of Displaced International, argued that forced displacement has become one of the clearest measures of a fractured international order. Joining former Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed under the summit’s theme, “Navigating the Future of a Fractured World,” Haidari urged policymakers and students alike to view displacement not as a border issue alone, but as the cumulative result of war, repression, climate stress, poverty, and failed governance.
Speaking as both a former refugee and diplomat, Haidari said forced displacement now sits at the intersection of the world’s most urgent political, moral, and security challenges. Echoing themes he has advanced elsewhere, including in a recent address at Wabash College, he argued that today’s migration pressures are being driven by overlapping crises that no longer fit neatly into traditional policy categories.
A Crisis Bigger Than Borders
“The displacement crisis cannot be understood through border politics alone” was the essence of Haidari’s message. In his telling, migration is increasingly shaped by the combined effects of armed conflict, state fragility, political exclusion, climate vulnerability, and poverty. Forced migration, he argued, is not only a consequence of crisis, but also a visible sign of how badly peacebuilding, governance, and international cooperation are failing.
The scale of the crisis supports that argument. By the end of June 2025, the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide had reached 117.3 million, underscoring the breadth of instability now affecting multiple regions at once.
Haidari pointed to Sudan as one of the starkest current examples. Since the outbreak of war in April 2023, roughly 13 million people have been displaced within Sudan and across its borders, making it one of the world’s gravest displacement crises. He also cited Ukraine, where about 10.6 million people remain displaced more than three years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, and Syria, where around 7.4 million people remain internally displaced, and about 4.5 million refugees are still hosted in neighboring countries.
He also drew attention to newer shocks widening that landscape. In Iran, he noted, recent conflict has temporarily displaced up to 3.2 million people inside the country. In Lebanon, renewed hostilities have driven more than one million people from their homes in a matter of weeks. Haidari said these crises should not be treated as disconnected headlines, but as interrelated consequences of overlapping conflicts whose costs fall overwhelmingly on civilians.
Afghanistan and the Lasting Costs of Conflict
Within that wider frame, Afghanistan featured prominently in Haidari’s remarks as a long-running example of the human costs of geopolitical conflict. He said the country’s displacement crisis reflects the convergence of war, repression, poverty, climate vulnerability, and regional rivalries over decades. Current figures indicate that about 3.2 million Afghans remain internally displaced, while roughly 5.2 million more live abroad as refugees or in refugee-like conditions. For Haidari, those figures show how unresolved conflict generates layered displacement that persists across generations and across borders.
He also stressed that Afghanistan’s crisis cannot be separated from the condition of women and girls under Taliban rule. Their exclusion from education, employment, and public life, he said, not only violates fundamental rights but also erodes the social and economic resilience of communities already under severe strain. That reinforced one of his broader themes: displacement is inseparable from questions of justice, inclusion, and political order.
At the same time, Haidari rejected narratives that reduce displaced people to helplessness. He said refugees and other displaced communities should be recognized as agents, contributors, and participants in shaping the policies that affect them. That message, central to the work of Displaced International, framed displacement not only as a story of suffering, but also as a test of whether the international system is willing to recognize the dignity, leadership, and potential of those it too often marginalizes.
A Call for Prevention Over Reaction
In his interaction with Boston University students, Haidari called on the next generation of policymakers to challenge the status quo and support long-term policies rooted in peace diplomacy, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and sustainable development assistance. He warned that unless the structural drivers of forced displacement are addressed early, they harden into prolonged human suffering. He also cautioned that global priorities are dangerously out of balance: world military spending rose to a record $2.718 trillion in 2024, even as humanitarian agencies entered 2026 facing severe funding shortfalls amid rising need.
Haidari argued that this widening gap between investment in war and investment in human survival is undermining efforts to prevent displacement at its source. He added that the imbalance is being worsened by the energy shock linked to the Iran conflict. Disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about one-fifth of global oil and LNG flows, have heightened fears of slower growth and higher inflation, concerns also reflected in Reuters’ reporting on IMF warnings. He said such shocks hit the least developed and conflict-affected countries the hardest, worsening inflation, food insecurity, humanitarian distress, and migration pressures.
Haidari closed by reminding students that the United States itself has been shaped by successive generations of immigrants and displaced communities. Many who came to the country, he noted, were driven by persecution, deprivation, insecurity, or the search for dignity and opportunity. That history, he suggested, should shape how newer immigrants and refugees are treated today: not with rejection or demonization, but with humanity and policies grounded in justice and long-term vision.
