A growing number of conflicts in countries as diverse as Syria, South Sudan and Myanmar have driven record numbers of children, women and men from their homes worldwide in recent years, forcing millions of them to seek protection across international borders.
A failure to broker peace and bring security to these troubled places - as well as the contentious political responses to migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers - has tested, as never before, the international refugee framework.
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Matthew is EUobserver's Opinion Editor. He joined EUobserver in June 2018. Previously he worked as a reporter for The Guardian in London, and as editor for AFP in Paris and DPA in Berlin.