Refugees are Humans.
by Iman Safi / July 29th, 2013
The issue of refugees continues to plague the world with a
reality that it prefers to ignore. But the world will either have to
face it or opt to continue ignoring it at the risk of having to deal
with graver consequences sooner or later.
The number of registered refugees has risen significantly over the
last few years, and the nations that are would-be recipients of refugees
are confronted with policies they need to have in place, with growing
concerns amongst their voters regarding numbers of refugees hitting
their home turf. Whilst many of the would-be refugee recipient countries
are signatories to the UN Refugee Convention, the out-dated criteria
and definitions of that 1951 Convention do not deal with the current
problems.
The Australian government has recently signed a deal with the
government of Papua New Guinea (PNG). According to this arrangement,
simply put, all refugees on boats journeying to Australia will never be
allowed to settle in Australia.
With the current number of world refugees standing at 41 million,
such a measure may deter refugees from seeking refuge in Australia. But
what will happen when the world refugee figures is increased to 100
million, 500 million? Is this far-fetched? Not really.
It is easy for the Australian Greens and other humanitarians, as well
as some NGO’s, to criticise governments or major political parties. In
fact, the position of the Australian Greens about the PNG deal had the
hallmarks of political gain rather than proper criticism. A cynic can
clearly see that the PNG deal gave the Greens a field day, but at the
end of the day, they not only failed to address what makes refugees
refugees – they offered no alternative policies.
The Greens appear to want to be humanitarian and benevolent. If they
had it their way, one should ask them, how many of the world’s 41
million refugees do they think Australia should take? If they open up
the doors for the boats, and this seems to be their only vague policy,
how will they deal with the consequences of the precedent they will be
setting for the refugees – and their smugglers?
The current PNG option has not yet been tested, and it may or may not
work. If it does, it may work for as long as the number of boats is
manageable. But PNG may not turn out to be a bad enough alternative to
deter refugees anyway. This will all depend on what refugees are running
away from and what they view as preferable alternatives.
Thus far, each of the receiving countries has been trying to
single-handedly deal with the problem in a manner that serves their own
short-term interests and appease their own voters. What they are totally
ignoring are three main points:
1. Addressing the reasons that create refugees
2. Adopting a global approach to solving the problem
3. Having policies that will be able to deal with much higher numbers.
At the present time, the fact that wealthy nations, most of whom are
would be refugee recipients, are contributing greatly to creating global
inequity. They are conducting needless wars, exploiting resources,
imposing sanctions, using the underdeveloped world as a venue for slave
labour and more, thus hugely contributing to creating the refugee
“problem.”
These conditions have created many refugees from countries such as
Palestine, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, to name very few.
This basic aspect is currently totally ignored by the culprits, who,
instead of addressing it and accepting their responsibility and role,
adopt very shy refugee intake policies. With this prevailing attitude,
it would not be unrealistic to assume that for every refugee they take
in, they turn away ten, and maybe create one hundred.
What is also often overlooked is that by far, the highest numbers of
refugees settle in neighbouring countries that are not in a position to
take refugees. Jordan, a country of limited resources and very little
water to supply the needs of its 6.5 million citizens, had to accept one
million Iraqi refugees and most of them are still unable to return home
10 years on.
Jordan, a decade later, was again inundated by another wave of
refugees, another million, this time from Syria. This figure is not
officially confirmed, but the figures available show it to be about
accurate. This amounts to one third of the country’s own population.
This is equivalent to Australia being inundated by 7 million refugees,
or the USA inundated by 100 million refugees.
A global approach needs to be based on understanding the underlying
facts behind the problem. Thus, nations that have been bigger
contributors to the problem should bear the bigger responsibility in
resolving it by way of accepting more refugees, that they have, in
reality, created.
The way the world is currently, makes it unlikely to expect that the
above is foreseeable. But as problems generally get worse when not
addressed at the right time and in the right manner, the refugee problem
could escalate to an extent that in the absence of a realistic global
moratorium, individual nations, may move further and further to the
right and their constituencies become more radicalized.
In Australia, the Australian Labour Party (ALP) and the Liberals are
already competing in their draconian approaches. The ALP changed course
in light of over 20,000 refugees arriving annually “illegally” by boats.
The Greens are not offering any real policies other than criticizing
the major parties.
Being an island nation, Australia is in a fortunate position that
under any situation, provided that its surveillance is up to scratch, it
will be able to detect refugees, spotting them long before they arrive.
Other would-be refugee recipient nations often have no such facilities.
Spotting them is one thing, dealing with them is another. In the
absence of a proper global approach, what will nations like Australia do
if or when the numbers rise ten folds or more?
If the rich world (aka the “Free World”) continues to exploit poorer
nations, to ravage their homelands with needless wars, exploit their
resources, pollute their land and water, build factories that are best
described as slave labour camps, it cannot continue to wipe its hands
of, and pretend to be a part of the solution when, in fact, it is the
main cause, instigator and major contributor to the problem.
If this neo-colonialist “contribution” can be stopped, the world can
then turn to face dealing with “real refugees”, environmental refugees,
drought, earthquake and other natural disasters refugees. Aid
organizations can then be better able to focus on nation-building
programs rather than refugee-camp building programs. Thus, the intake of
refugee migrants can then be dealt with realistically and effectively.
Depending on how quickly the problem escalates, how high the refugee
numbers grow and how many manage to dodge border security measures of
the receiving nations, depending on how to the right world policies
shift and what moves the sentiments of voters at the time, slogans such
as “stop the boats” may be rewritten to say “bomb the boats”, and they
may become the clincher to put a PM in Australia’s Lodge or even a
President in USA’s White House.
If the world continues to sweep this tragedy underneath the carpet
and continues to create more refugees, we may one day witness air-force
planes and drones programmed to bomb boats of specific shapes sizes and
colours.
We may see naval ships bombing refugee boats at sea without prior
warning, and trade ships banned from picking up victims at the pain of
getting bombed themselves.
Is this scenario too far-fetched? It is for now, but if countries
like Australia start receiving 1000 boats a day (and the USA receive
ten-fold), then desperate calls will attract desperate measures – this
applying to both the refugees and the nations they are seeking refuge
in.
The situation of refugees could become so dire, they will be prepared
to take ever higher risks – risks that those who have not lived through
the terror of war will never, ever, understand.