As millions of refugees spill from the world’s conflict zones, 70 percent of refugees flee to neighboring nations that are often impoverished and struggling. Despite the huge pressures that these refugee populations put on their host communities, countries such as Uganda continue to welcome refugees.

Interviewed in a feature article for the International Bar Association, Evan Easton-Calabria describes Ugandans’ longstanding refugee response, while acknowledging the shortfalls of a system that does not recognize urban refugees living in cities and towns outside Kampala.

Easton-Calabria also addresses the need for policies that enable refugees’ freedom of movement and access to the labor market, and reiterates the 1951 Refugee Convention as the definitive blueprint for refugee responses around the world.

Read the full feature in the International Bar Association.