The world's poor foot the bill for Europe's domestic refugee expenses

Last week marked a historic 1 million refugees fleeing global disorder and war, and landing on Europe's doorstep, this year. As European governments struggle to finance the increasing domestic expenses related to the influx against a backdrop of tight government budgets, many turn to slashing foreign aid budgets.

Slow reforms of the rules governing Official Development Assistance in the OECD means that the use of ODA funds to cover domestic expenses is fully legal and even counts towards the internationally agreement to set a side 0,7% of GNI to ODA.

In a opinion piece in The Huffington Post, Adam Moe Fejerskov (DIIS) and Niels Keijzer (German Development Institute) argue that such financing of domestic refugee expenses in Europe by way of cutting back foreign aid budgets will merely extend the long-term crisis, and calls for a timely response from a currently paralyzed OECD.