At 70, the global convention on refugees is needed more than ever
But rich countries need to do more to make it work
WHEN THE Turkish coastguard found them in the Aegean in the dead of night, they had been adrift for three hours. The air was hissing out of their rubber dinghy. The motor would not start. Anas and the eight other Somali men shielded their eyes from the glare of the searchlights. His wife, Faduma, the only woman, panted from stress and exhaustion. They had paid $2,000 apiece to a smuggler to reach Greece. Faduma, six months pregnant, was the first to climb onto the Turkish boat.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Well-founded fears”
From the August 7th 2021 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the edition
America’s self-isolating president
No, Donald Trump’s Putin-wooing is not like Nixon going to China

Can Europe confront Vladimir Putin’s Russia on its own?
An independent army, air force and nuclear bomb would come at a high price

Australia prepares for a lonelier, harsher world
The country has long relied on America for security and China for its prosperity. Those two pillars are wobbling
Will it be Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow?
How Donald Trump’s about-turn in Europe will affect Asia
Donald Trump is junking the transatlantic alliance
Europe has been left scrambling after an attack on the partnership that kept the peace for nearly 80 years
China’s stunning new campaign to turn the world against Taiwan
Seventy countries have recently backed “all Chinese efforts” to take the island