Neo-colonialism and trade exploitation: The unfair trade practices which lead to holding huge resources by foreign countries resulted in poverty of people. Some of the instances are below.

• Cotton and gold are primarily responsible for the refugee crisis in West Africa.
• The subsidies provided by the United States government to its own cotton farmers have destroyed the livelihood of the cotton farmers in West Africa who are now unable to compete in global markets.
• Meanwhile, countries like Mali that are rich in gold are exploited by Western multinationals.

However, there are many other causes for refugee crisis apart from Colonialism and its effects:

• Political Instability: There is great instability in the west Asia. War between the ISIS and Kurdish rebels in Iraq and Syria, attacks by Saudi Arabia on Houthi rebels in Yemen, the civil War in Syria. All of them combined to displace a large number of people from these countries.
• Dictatorship regimes and Islamic fundamentalism: Continuous dictatorship type regimes and Islamic fundamentalism made Middle East most volatile n disturbed place on the planet. Western powers in order to make their oil supply smooth and to be part of Gulf Boom started in early 80’s always took a partial stand on these issues
• Economic Reasons: A large number of refugees from Africa have been forced to leave their countries in search of opportunities abroad, primarily in Europe.
• State Persecution: Rohingyas are a sect of Muslims who claim they are original inhibitors of the Rakhine, a state in Myanmar. However, Myanmar considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has withdrawn citizenship rights from the Rohingyas. This has forced Rohingyas to flee to other countries.
• Democracy movements and civil war: Present refugees crisis didn’t started yesterday but it has been seen a huge surge from Libya conflict. If we go again back refugee problem as a crisis started from US, UK joint war to liberate Iraq.
• Climate Change: Low lying island nations are threatened by rising sea levels and forced to leave their countries. Such refugees are known as Environmental refugee.

Way forward:   

• The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) must be empowered with budgetary resources to tackle the problem at a war footing.
• All states should put in place comprehensive refugee policy to avoid ad-hoc measures in line with the UN convention.
• Moral and diplomatic persuasion to stop persecution and promote reconciliation among stakeholder in various countries such as Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh to avoid migration of people.
• Diplomatic pressure from powerful nations and organisation such as UNHCR as seen in recent cases where Indonesia and Malaysia have accommodated refugees on temporary basis.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, refugee crises end when their root causes are addressed. Ending conflicts and widespread human rights abuses are objectives that states should pursue, but they are difficult to achieve. However, individual states  and  the  international  community  as  a  whole  must  recognize  that  they  can  lessen  the  devastating consequences of the refugee crisis on people. For this, a global approach to the problem is needed