On June 20, the United Nations observed yet another ‘World Refugee Day’. In a statement for the day the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, “We are marking this year’s World Refugee Day against a backdrop of a dramatic global crisis. Not only are record numbers of people forced to flee their homes, but the world is grappling with COVID-19, a disease that is still very much affecting us all. What started as a health crisis has expanded, and today many of the most vulnerable – refugees and the displaced amongst them – face a pandemic of poverty. Yet, throughout this challenging time, we have also seen a connectedness that transcends borders. Ordinary people have stepped up to help. Host communities – especially those in low- and middle-income countries where nearly 90 percent of the world’s refugees live – have continued to demonstrate a remarkable welcome”.

Given the grim reality which most of the world (particularly the refugees and other displaced people) faces today, the theme this year 2020 very appropriately was ‘Every Action Counts.’ Grandi’s statement echoing the mandate of the UNHCR went on to state, “On this World Refugee Day, I call for greater global solidarity and action to include and support refugees, internally displaced and stateless people as well as their hosts. Whoever you are. No matter where you come from. Every one of us can make a difference. Every action truly counts. The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent anti-racism protests have shown us how desperately we need to fight for a more inclusive and equal world. A world where no one is left behind. It has never been clearer that all of us have a role to play in order to bring about change. Everyone can make a difference. This is at the heart of UNHCR’s World Refugee Day campaign. This year, we aim to remind the world that everyone, including refugees, can contribute to society, and Every Action Counts in the effort to create a more just, inclusive, and equal world”. 

For India, this theme is particularly significant because in the last few months the spotlight in the country has been on internally displaced and stateless people, besides of course refugees. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which was passed by both Houses of Parliament early in December 2019 is blatantly unconstitutional and patently discriminatory. It has come in for much criticism and plenty of protests from every quarter both from Indian and the world over. 

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations in a statement said, “The amended law would appear to undermine the commitment to equality before the law enshrined in India’s constitution and India’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to which Indian is a State party, which prohibit discrimination based on racial, ethnic or religious grounds. Although India’s broader naturalization laws remain in place, these amendments will have a discriminatory effect on people’s access to nationality.” The UN Human Rights Council also wanted to be party in the petition before the Supreme Court of India. Several leading legal luminaries from all over the world, and even the Un Secretary -General have called for the immediate revocation of the CAA saying that it could render large number of people stateless! 

The pandemic has also brought to focus the plight of the internally displaced people, particularly of the migrant workers. Ever since the lockdown was announced, with just about four hours’ notice on the night of March 24/25, a humanitarian crisis unprecedented in India’s modern history, has severely disrupted the lives of India’s migrant workers. Millions of migrants have found themselves stranded without food, cash, and shelter, trying to get home. They have been subjected to violation of their fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19, and 21 and often to severe police harassment on interstate borders. Many have reportedly died as a result of the lockdown, due to exhaustion en route home, starvation, suicides, police excesses, illnesses, and rail and road accidents. As per reliable sources, as many as 667 non-COVID deaths have occurred across the country. 205 of these have occurred among migrant workers en route on foot, and 114 due to starvation and financial distress. 

Meanwhile, the current response strategy with the provision of shramik trains, has been inadequate at best. Over 2,000 ‘shramik’ trains have reportedly carried over 300,000 migrant workers in the last week of May. This accounts for about 30% of the total population. Further, this does not include those who are en route and on foot, or those who are stranded in shelters or on interstate borders, or elsewhere. As of this moment, the  government of India does not seem to have any estimates on the total number of people stranded and/or en route home across the country nationally as revealed in a recent RTI.Their condition is still pathetic. In an extremely belated manner, the Supreme Court on 28 May finally gave a detailed interim order regarding the transportation of the migrants; (earlier two High Courts also highlighted the pathetic situation of the migrant workers) 

The way India has been treating the tiny group of Rohingyas who have sought refuge in India in the wake of their persecution in Myanmar, is a textbook case of how inhospitable we have become as nation, which over the years has prided itself  of having internalised that Sanskrit phrase from the Maha Upanishad, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ ( “the world is one family”). Today xenophobia, jingoism, false-nationalism and exclusivism seems to have become the order of the day! This is clearly written all over particularly when one looks at the way the minorities, the Adivasis, the Dalits, the poor and the vulnerable like the migrant workers are being treated in the country today. 

In his Angelus message on Sunday June 21, Pope Francis said, “Yesterday the United Nations celebrated World Refugee Day. The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the need to ensure the necessary protection for refugees too, in order to guarantee their dignity and safety. I invite you to join me in praying for a renewed and effective commitment, on the part of us all, to the effective protection of every human being, especially those who have been forced to flee as a result of situations of grave danger to them or their families.”

Earlier, (on May 13) in an advance message for the 106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2020 (which will be observed on 27 September) Pope Francis focuses on ‘Like Jesus Christ, forced to flee: Welcoming, Protecting, Promoting and Integrating Internally Displaced Persons’. He says, “I have decided to devote this Message to the drama of internally displaced persons, an often-unseen tragedy that the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated. In fact, due to its virulence, severity and geographical extent, this crisis has impacted on many other humanitarian emergencies that affect millions of people, which has relegated to the bottom of national political agendas those urgent international efforts essential to saving lives. But “this is not a time for forgetfulness. The crisis we are facing should not make us forget the many other crises that bring suffering to so many people”. He gives us, “six pairs of verbs that deal with very practical actions and are linked together in a relationship of cause and effect”. These are (i) you have to know in order to understand (ii) it is necessary to be close in order to serve (iii) in order to be reconciled, we need to listen (iv) in order to grow, it is necessary to share (v) we need to be involved in order to promote and (vi) it is necessary to cooperate in order to build!

The sixteen verbs given to us by Pope Francis need to be seen as directives and even apps to ensure that every action count for the refugees, the stateless and other internally displaced persons. The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent anti-racism protests have shown us how desperately we need to fight for a more inclusive and equal world: a world where no one is left behind. It has never been clearer that all of us have a role to play in order to bring about change. Everyone can make a difference. This is at the heart of UNHCR’s World Refugee Day campaign  ‘Every Action Counts’ in the effort to create a more just, inclusive, and equal world.  

In his message for ‘World Refugee Day’, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “Nearly 80 million women, children and men around the world have been forced from their homes as refugees or internally displaced people.  Even more shocking:  10 million of these people fled in the past year alone. On World Refugee Day, we pledge to do everything in our power to end the conflict and persecution that drive these appalling numbers. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic poses an additional threat to refugees and displaced people, who are among the most vulnerable.  My recent Policy Brief on COVID-19 and People on the Move called on Governments to ensure that they are included in all response and recovery efforts”. 

So, responding to the plight of the refugees and other displaced, in the midst of the pandemic is certainly a major challenge. Not much will be achieved, if Governments abdicate their role of responding to the cries of this people. Only when we demonstrate that unflinching courage and  transparent political to ensure that these the least of our sisters and brothers , these strangers, are made to feel welcome, protected, promoted and integrated; only when we have truly made every effort to know in order to understand them – only then we can say whole-heartedly that, ‘every action counts!’  In the final analysis, Refugees do matter! 

*(Fr Cedric Prakash SJ is a human rights and peace activist/writer. Contact: cedricprakash@gmail.com)

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Over 22.5 million people have been forced to flee their countries. Last year, less than 200,000 were resettled.

(Photo: UNHCR Photo Unit / Flickr)

It’s a famous story, though perhaps not famous enough.

The 1939 voyage of the MS St. Louis, a German ocean liner, was recounted in a 1974 book and a 1976 film (both titled Voyage of the Damned) as well as a 1994 opera. This history is not forgotten. Yet so many unfortunate people around the world are still doomed to repeat it.

In 1939, the MS St. Louis carried more than 900 Jewish refugees away from Germany. The ship docked in Cuba, but the government there allowed only a handful of passengers to disembark. The others learned to their surprise that Havana didn’t recognize their visas.

So, the ship headed to the United States. But the Roosevelt administration also refused to accept the refugees — and even sent out the Coast Guard to make sure that the ship didn’t try to dock illegally and unload its passengers. Canada, too, refused to get involved.

So, the MS St. Louis returned to Europe where it put in at Antwerp. Some of the passengers made their way to the United Kingdom. The rest were caught up in the turmoil of the subsequent Nazi invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Ultimately, 254 of the original passengers died in the Holocaust.

In 2012, the U.S. State Department officially apologized to the survivors of the incident. Canada plans to follow suit this year.

But those apologies mean little to the people who currently face a similar situation. Today, thousands of refugees face grave harm if they return to their countries of origin. And yet the United States, Turkey, Israel, China, and others blithely return these refugees as part of a worldwide crackdown on “illegal” immigration.

This week, as the international community marks World Refugee Day, 22.5 million people have fled their countries to seek refuge elsewhere. In 2016, a mere 189,000 were resettled. That’s less than 1 percent. It’s as if the entire population of Taiwan were uprooted and forced to find a new country, but only a single neighborhood from the capital city managed to find safe harbor.

Donald Trump is at the forefront of this scandalously cruel approach to refugees. But he’s not alone. Here are four examples from around the world of how governments continue to turn away the modern-day equivalents of the MS St. Louis.

Trump’s Dream
The world is experiencing the greatest refugee crisis since World War II. The Trump administration’s response has been to reduce the annual number of spots available for refugees from around 70,000 to 45,000, the lowest number since 1980. And the administration is doing whatever it can to ensure that even this lower number won’t be reached.

Syria, still convulsed by civil war, has produced the world’s largest group of refugees: over 5.5 million people. In the last year of the Obama administration, the United States accepted about 15,000 Syrian refugees, which paled in comparison to Germany (not to mention Turkey, Jordan, or Lebanon). This year, as of mid-April, the Trump administration has allowed in 11. “The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said this month.

It gets worse. The Justice Department announced last week that asylum-seekers couldn’t claim gang warfare or domestic violence as reasons to stay in the United States. This comes at a time when displacement because of violence is climbing rapidly in Central America, a trend affecting 16 times more people at the end of 2017 than in 2011. Indeed, many of the people desperately trying to get across the U.S. border, including unaccompanied minors, are escaping not just general violence but very specific death threats.

In The New Yorker, Sarah Stillman reported on her project to create a database of all those whom the U.S. government has deported into harm’s way. The stories included Laura S., who pleaded with U.S. border patrol not to return her to Mexico, where her ex-husband, a member of a drug cartel, had threatened to kill her. U.S. agents ignored her entreaties. In Mexico, Laura S. tried to steer clear of her ex-husband. But he was determined, and he eventually succeeded. Her charred skeleton was found in her burned-out car. Thanks to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the de facto indifference of the U.S. government to claims of domestic violence has become de jure.

Another method by which the Trump administration is sending people into harm’s way is by rescinding temporary protected status (TPS). Head of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen has dutifully implemented the president’s directive to kick out as many people from the United States as possible. Reports USA Today:
 

Nielsen has now cut TPS for El Salvador, Honduras, Haiti, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan, which represents 98% of the people covered by the program. That means TPS enrollees from those countries, many of whom have legally lived in the U.S. for nearly 30 years, must return home in the coming months or risk becoming undocumented immigrants.

Imagine FDR not only refusing to accept the MS St. Louis but sending tens of thousands of German Jews, who had been living in the United States for decades, back to Nazi Germany.

Trump’s policy on refugees is only part of his larger assault on immigrants, from the Muslim travel ban and the separation of families at the border to his attempt to deport the 800,000 Dreamers. Even the Republican Party is abandoning Trump on the key elements of his anti-immigrant platform. But Trump wants to make America as white as possible — by all means necessary.

Israeli Cognitive Dissonance
Around 35,000 Eritreans and Sudanese are currently seeking asylum in Israel. They have escaped war and massive human rights violations. Although many have lived in Israel for nearly a decade, speak Hebrew, and send their children to Israeli schools, the government wants to deport them to Rwanda or Uganda. There they faced considerable risks of imprisonment or even forced return to their home countries. Worse, it turned out a couple months ago that the Israeli government didn’t have any agreements with Rwanda and Uganda to protect the deportees.

The government also didn’t count on the public pushback. Writes David Shulman in The New York Review of Books:
 

El Al pilots and flight crews refused to fly the deportees to their deaths. Doctors, academics, lawyers, and many ordinary citizens, including Holocaust survivors and their relatives, spoke out. Some synagogues joined the struggle. Many stressed the unthinkable cognitive dissonance that arises from watching a Jewish state, founded by refugees from lethal oppression, sending tens of thousands of desperate African refugees to an unknown and precarious fate.

In a recent report, Amnesty International blasted the government of Benjamin Netanyahu for its policy. The organization’s head of refugee and migrant rights, Charmain Mohamed, was pointed in her denunciation: “Israel is one of the most prosperous countries in the region but it is going out of its way to shirk its responsibility to provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution and who are already on its territory.”

As in the United States, the courts have proven to be a major obstacle to the assault on immigrants. Despite the High Court’s rejection of the government’s attempt to deport the Eritreans and Sudanese, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting to push the Knesset to override the judicial decision.

As with Trump, Netanyahu is acting on behalf of the besieged majority, in this case Israeli Jews. His appalling immigration policies are of a piece with his apartheid treatment of Palestinians.

Repatriation to Afghanistan
Afghanistan is one of the poorest and most violent countries in the world. It also, after Syria, produces the most refugees in the world. On top of the one million people who have been internally displaced, there are nearly 6 million Afghan refugees, most of them living in either Pakistan or Iran.

Most, but not all.

About 300,000 Afghan refugees live in Europe. Many more have applied for asylum. European governments have been rejecting most of those applications, arguing that Afghanistan no longer poses a sufficient danger to returnees. Yet in 2017, for the fourth year in a row, more than 10,000 Afghan civilians died or were injured in the war. This comes on top of the combat deaths of Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters, which totaled more than 20,000 last year.

Even for those not on Taliban target lists, these refugees are returning to a dangerous and unstable country. Reports Pamela Constable in The Washington Post:
 

Insurgents control or influence nearly 40 percent of Afghan territory and stage frequent attacks in cities. Some of their families have fled rural fighting, weakening their social support networks. The returnees may not face imminent harm, but they see no way to build a future.

Pakistan and Iran have been even more forceful with their deportations. Since January, Iran has sent home 242,000 Afghan refugees; in the last 15 months, Pakistan has expelled 260,000 Afghans. These repatriations are an extraordinary burden on a country ill prepared to provide services to its current population. There are few jobs available for the returnees and little in the way of assistance from international organizations.

A recent ceasefire brought some hope that the Afghan government and the Taliban could work out the terms of a peace agreement. But the Taliban have rejected a proposed extension and vow to continue fighting.

Back to the Gulag
Donald Trump thinks that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “smart” and “very talented.” The U.S. president didn’t raise human rights issues at the recent Singapore summit — and perhaps that’s for the best, given the focus on nuclear issues and Trump’s own distressing lack of interest in human rights.

But the human rights situation inside North Korea remains dire, particularly for the 80,000-130,000 trapped in the complex of labor camps. Tens of thousands of North Koreans have escaped to China and other countries. Even if they left North Korea for economic reasons, they risk imprisonment in the North Korean gulag if they return. Thus, according to international law, North Koreans in China should be considered refugees sur place, since they have acquired a well-founded fear of persecution after leaving their country. Sending such refugees back is a clear human rights violation.

Yet China continues to detain and send North Koreans back across the border. With the threat of repatriation hanging over them, North Korean women are particularly vulnerable and frequently subjected to trafficking and forced prostitution.
There’s not a lot that either the United States or South Korea can do to persuade North Korea to dismantle its gulag or improve the conditions there. Pyongyang is largely resistant to “name and shame” tactics (though human rights organizations should obviously continue the practice).

However, Seoul and Washington can pressure Beijing to observe international aw by not repatriating North Korean refugees. South Korea has a population of 30,000 North Korean refugees who have become South Korean citizens. That hasn’t prevented Seoul from negotiating agreements with Pyongyang or holding two recent inter-Korean summits. At the very least, China should stop rounding up North Korean refugees, even if it doesn’t accord them proper status.

In 1939, the United States, Canada, and Cuba all refused to help a boatload of desperate refugees from Europe. Today, the world faces an ever-growing flotilla of the desperate. And the response is the same: go back to the hell you just escaped.

The world leaders who adopt this policy have no shame. In the case of Donald Trump and those like him, they’re even proud of it. They richly deserve a return ticket — back to the rocks from under which they crawled.

John Feffer is the director of Foreign Policy In Focus and the author of the dystopian novel Splinterlands.

Courtesy: https://fpif.org
 

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Just this past week, two callous deeds have demonstrated the abysmal depths to which humans can sink. The first was the refusal by the Italian and Maltese Governments to allow the rescue ship MV ‘Aquarius’ to dock in their ports. The ship was carrying 630 refugees from 26 different countries (all victims to human smuggling) picked up at sea. Fortunately, the Spanish Government stepped in and the refugees were able to land in Valencia after a horrendous eight-day ordeal at sea. The second is the ‘zero tolerance’ policy of the US Government, which has to date separated more than 2,000 children from their parents who have entered the US illegally. There is an outrage all across the US on this policy but the US administration is unrelenting. These tragedies will forever remain etched in the world’s memory.
 
Mahmoud from Al-Raqqah seems to have seen it all. There were the “good times” he reminiscences. Those were the days when he worked in Saudi Arabia in a multi-national company, which manufactured wires and cables. “We were people from different nationalities (India, Philippines, and Turkey) and even religions. We were like one family. We enjoyed each other’s company and food!” Mahmoud still uses his smattering of English, which he picked up there. However, everything changed for him very dramatically; today he feels that life for him is only about helplessness and hopelessness.
 
Seated in his dilapidated tent, Mahmoud looks much older than his 67years old. His breathing his heavy. He has no sight in one of his eyes- and is partially blind in the other.  Sadly he narrates how he lost his sight, “it was a day of heavy fighting; there were mortar shells falling everywhere. We were fleeing from one secure area to another. Suddenly I tripped and had a bad fall. Something pierced my left eye. My family rushed me to the nearest doctor. The Islamic State was ruling Raqqah at that time- no doctor was willing to treat me since it was a Friday (Friday is only for God, according to them) I was told to come back on Sunday. It was too late then. I lost my eyesight for no reason. I am angry about it!”
 
It is two years now since he and his family fled Al-Raqqah and came to Lebanon. It was an extremely difficult trek for ten days through the mountains. The aerial bombings were on. They had to walk carefully through the tractor ruts because landmines were planted in several areas. They slept under the olive trees. They finally reached the safety of Bar Elias where they are in the midst of others from their own area in this tented area. “Today I feel totally lost – without sight, without work –what do I do?” The only comfort for him is the Jesuit Refugee Service. “The school is just across from our tents and our children can go there. They are accepted and welcomed. It is a joy to know all that they experience. Besides the JRS team come to visit me often – they encourage me a lot. The little hope I now have in life is only because of them!”  There is anguish in his voice when he says, “I don’t want to return to Syria, there is nothing left for me there!”
 
In complete contrast to Mahmoud, is fourteen-year old Roula Zahra “I want to do everything in life,” says Roula coyly but with a sense of determination. The ‘everything’ seems to be the mission statement of the life of this vibrant refugee girl child.She was born in Homs, Syria. She hardly remembers her father. He died due to some illness when she was barely three. Her mother had to struggle and to bring up the six children: two girls and four boys. It was a herculean task, but the family was able to make both ends meet. War broke out in Syria in March 2011.Overcoming many hurdles, Roula came along with her mother and siblings as refugees to Lebanon. A small apartment in the Bourj Hammoud area of Beirut has been their home ever since. Her sister, who is the eldest among the children, is now married, and lives in the same building. Roula is the youngest and in all frankness says that her brothers treat her very well.
 
Roula loves to study. She is one of the fortunate refugee children who is able to go to a Government morning- shift school. She is very focussed and wants to pursue a career as a scientist. “What type of scientist would you like to become?” she is asked. She thinks for a while then shakes her head and says, “I don’t know yet!” When asked if she would like to become a Space Scientist, become an astronaut, and go to the moon or to mars’, she smiles, there is a glint in her eye and boldly she says, “Maybe!” For Roula and for her “everything” the sky is indeed the limit!
 
She is also budding poet and artist. Her drawings speak volumes of her meticulousness and care for detail. However, her poems and jottings personify her passion and zest for life. From her notebook, she reads out a touching poem, which she recently scripted in Arabic. “I wish we could return to those good old days… I hope one day people awake from their deep sleep so they start loving, respecting, giving and the souls return to their old days. I hope that one day we would be able to exchange bread for salt, love for feelings and respect for kind words. Yesterday was a lesson, today is an experience and tomorrow is a new beginning!”
 
Roula is adamant she does not want to return to warn-torn Syria. Instead, she dreams of Australia. Her best friend has now settled down there. Since the past one-year, she has been coming to the JRS Frans Van Der Lugt (FVDL) Centre for the afternoon tuition classes. “I love coming here. I make many new friends. I learn many new things. The teachers help me in my homework. Everyone is very helpful and loving”. She looks at the Principal of the FVDL School Angela Abboche and with an amazing smile says, “Yes, even my Principal! “In her notebook, Roula has a meaningful quote,

“When it is raining look for the rainbow
When it is dark look for the stars”

The “everything” in Roula’s life will have rains and darkness, but she will surely have the courage to see the rainbows and stars in them. It is not every day that one encounters a 14-year Syrian refugee girl who is ready to row out into the deep!
 
Mahmoud and Roula, in many ways, epitomise the suffering and helplessness; the resilience and hope of millions of refugees who have been forced to flee the security and safety of their homes due to conflict and persecution. The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) annual Global Trends Report, which was released on 19 June 2018, states, “We are now witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record. An unprecedented 68.5 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 25.4 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.There are also an estimated 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement. In a world nearly 1 person is forcibly displaced every two seconds as a result of conflict or persecution”
 
On 19 September 2016, at the conclusion of a United Nations Summit on Refugees and Migrants, in New York world leaders produced a significant declaration to deal with the refugee crisis. To implement the lofty ideals encompassed in the Declaration, they committed themselves to drafting and approving, by the end of 2018, two Global Compacts: one regarding refugees and the second, for safe, orderly, regular and responsible migration. Both these compacts are meant to comprehensively protect, promote the rights and integrate migrants and refugees into the mainstream.
 
With less than six months to go, some work has been put in, with draft documents on both the compacts already in place. However, it is not smooth sailing. Already on 3 December 2017, the United States announced that it was withdrawing from the two Global Compacts. India on the other hand has literally shut its doors on the persecuted Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar. Millions continue to be victims of war and persecution; from Yemen to Myanmar, from Venezuela to the Central African Republic. At the same time, in many countries, xenophobia, racism, discrimination and exclusiveness is on the rise as never before.  Right-wing, anti- immigrant ‘populist’ leaders are winning elections in some key western countries.  New and tougher anti-immigration policies; the shrill voices for refugees to return home does not help in easing the crisis. The military-industrial complex is definitely not keen that the wars end; they rake in huge profits from the sale of arms and ammunition to all the warring factions. Key members of the UN Security council thrive on the production and sale of deadly weapons. Multi-nationals and other big business houses and even Governments with lop-sided anti-people projects, do not bat an eye-lid in displacing the poor and the marginalised.
 
Pope Francis has been very vocal, consistent in his stand for the refugees and insisting that we all must do our part to welcome, protect, promote and integrate them. He  reminds world leaders, “Dear brothers and sisters, in light of these processes currently underway, the coming months offer a unique opportunity to advocate and support the concrete actions, which I have described with four verbs.  I invite you, therefore, to use every occasion to share this message with all political and social actors involved (or who seek to be involved) in the process which will lead to the approval of the two Global Compacts”.

Hopefully, World Refugee Day will be an occasion for the global community to demonstrate that Mahmoud, Roula, the Rohingyas, the hapless victims rescued by the ‘Aquarius’, the little children separated from their parents on the US borders and millions of other refugees– are not just numbers, they are humans like us, they  are our sisters and brothers. They must be welcomed, protected, promoted and integrated! We need to journey with them!                                           
                                   
*(Fr. Cedric Prakash sj is a human rights activist.  He is currently based in Lebanon as the Regional Advocacy and Communications Advisor in the Jesuit Refugee Service (MENA) Contact:cedricprakash@gmail.com)

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Photo by BULENT KILIC/AFP via Getty Images

India is one of the few democracies in the world that is not a signatory to both the Refugee Convention and the Protocol. This is very unfortunate and certainly beyond comprehension. India has a track record of hosting millions of refugees from the neighbouring countries and even from some African ones. Thanks to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her Government in May 1971, India provided refuge to more than ten million Bangla Deshis, in the wake of the civil war there. Today, besides the many Bangla Deshis who have continued to stay on, there are thousands of Tibetans, Sri Lankan Tamils, Afghanis, and Rohingyas from Myanmar, Bhutanese from Nepal and even from Sudan, Somalia and other sub- Saharan African countries who have sought refuge in India.

The refugee crisis has gripped the world as never before! Sometime ago, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) pegged the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people around the world as 65.3 million. This means that one in every 113 people on earth has now been driven from their home by war, persecution, human rights violations or climate change (which is erroneously and conveniently referred to as ‘natural disasters’). To put it more graphically each minute about 24 people around the world have to flee their home for no fault of their own. With the escalation of violence in several countries like Yemen, DRC, South Sudan, northeast Nigeria and  that more than 20 million people are affected across Africa because of war, drought and hunger- the actual figures of refugees and the displaced might be much more.
More than half of the refugees (53%) today come from just three countries: Syria (4.9m), Afghanistan (2.7m) and Somalia (1.1m). Strangely enough and contrary to public perception the countries which host the most amount of refugees today are Turkey(2.5m), Pakistan(1.6m),Lebanon(1.1m), Iran(979,400), Ethiopia(736,100) and Jordan(664,100).

Sadly xenophobia, jingoism, exclusiveness, racism, discrimination is also on the rise. This prompted the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to recently condemn “aggressive nationalism” in western democracies and called for greater social cohesion saying that, “It is essential to not just address the humanitarian crises, but to build resilience – of populations, of regions and countries – to create the conditions for those humanitarian crises not to be repeated.” Speaking about refugees he says, “I’ve met so many who have lost so much. But they never lose their dreams for their children or their desire to better our world. They ask for little in return-only our support in their time of greatest need.”

Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are often conveniently forgotten. A recently published report of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (of the Norwegian Refugee Council) states that, “more than 31 million people- one every second- were uprooted in their home country in 2016 because of conflicts and disasters, and numbers will grow unless the underlying causes like climate change and political turmoil are tackled.”. The added woes of the IDPs that unlike refugees who seek asylum in other countries, they are unable to claim any international protection since they remain in their own country.

IDPs in India could easily run into a mind-boggling figure. Communal and caste violence in several parts of the country, the construction of mega-projects by powerful vested interests and even by Government, perennial famines, floods and other ‘natural’ disasters have displaced hundreds of thousands all over the country(the oustees of the Narmada Dam area and those displaced by the Gujarat Carnage of 2002 are recent examples). Most of those affected are the poor and vulnerable like the adivasis, dalits and minorities. The official response to the plight of IDPs is criminally pathetic.

The military- industrial complex profits greatly from wars and conflicts all over. India’s budgetary outlay for arms and ammunition puts into shade the much needed expenditure for the social sector. The global refugee crisis is bound to continue as long as countries like the US continue to produce arms and ammunition and sell them to countries like Saudi Arabia. Recently US and Saudi Arabia signed an arms deal of $110 billion. Saudi Arabia is well known for its human rights violations and for fomenting terrorism (the US conveniently forgets that those mainly behind the 9/11 attacks were the Saudis).Sadly, there is no international outrage condemning such arms deal.

Minority communities are most affected by war and persecution. According to a recent UN report, Myanmar’s forces and the majority Buddhist community have committed mass killings and gang rapes against the Rohingya community. Although they have lived in Myanmar for more than two centuries, this Muslim minority is not among those officially recognised by the authorities there. Stateless, rejected and persecuted, in recent months tens of thousands of them have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they are crammed into shanty settlements and live terrible lives.

World Refugee Day, will once again be observed on June 20th ‘to honour the courage, strength and determination of women, men and children who are forced to flee their homeland under threat of persecution, conflict and violence’. It may continue to be yet another cosmetic observance unless the world wakes up urgently to the endemic causes, which create forcible displacements and ultimately refugees.

Many refugees and displaced are also subject to torture, both in India and in other other countries. Article 3 of the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT)states, ‘No state party shall expel, return (refouler) or extradite a person to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.’ June 26^th is observed as the UN ‘International Day in Support of Victims of Torture’. India has still not ratified the UNCAT.

In June 2016, the UNHCR launched a global campaign #WithRefugees demanding that world leaders and governments work together and do much more for refugees. There is certainly much more to be done! A wake up call for all particularly for India to ratify the Refugee Convention and Protocol and UNCAT! We must stand with the refugees and the displaced now!

 
* (Fr Cedric Prakash sj is a human rights activist and is currently based in Lebanon and engaged with the Jesuit Refugee Service(JRS) in the Middle East on advocacy and   communications.
Contact cedricprakash@gmail.com )             
 
 

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