An attack in Kabul today killed around 90 people. Earlier this week, the migrant death toll in the Mediterranean topped 1,700. 

The two might not seem related, but they are. Conflict continues to drive people around the globe to make perilous journeys into highly uncertain futures. Afghans factor heavily in those numbers: The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, calculates that in 2015, as many as 20 percent of asylum-seekers reaching Europe by boat were Afghan.

The UN says 1 of every 113 people globally is either an asylum-seeker, a refugee, or a displaced person within his or her country. That figure can seem mind-numbing. But battling compassion fatigue is a central goal of the chief spokeswoman for UNHCR, Melissa Fleming, who recently wrote “A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea.” The book tells the powerful story of a young refugee’s journey out of Syria. Ms. Fleming said last week in New York that such stories can build “bridges of empathy.” And, she noted, “all refugees want to go home someday.”