Children wrapped in emergency blankets stand on a beach after crossing the Aegean Sea from Turkey. Long lines of refugees wait to enter a camp in Macedonia. Trains packed with hundreds of refugees arrive at the Munich railway station. Such images of desperate Syrians fleeing their war-torn country were seared into many people's minds in 2015.
More than 4.3 million Syrians have left their home country on a journey for survival and, including uprooted people inside Syria, more than half of the 22 million Syrian population have been displaced and need humanitarian assistance, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Though major powers involved and the U.N. are working on a peace process for Syria, including a cease-fire between the Syrian government and opposition, experts believe the refugee crisis is likely to continue in 2016 with no guarantee of ending the conflict. What can the international community, including Japan, do to solve the crisis and alleviate the plight of refugees?