Crisis Syria: 4 Million Refugees and Global Apathy
A crisis of diplomacy; where the world has the opportunity to save innocent lives and does not. Only today, hundreds of Syrian refugees are trapped on a railway in Budapest. Germany has denied them entry for weeks, until finally breaking under pressure today and 'allowing' Syrians to enter via railway. Even though they were 'promised' asylum, 25mi down the line, the asylum-seekers were forcibly removed from the train and detained by police before entering Germany. Czech officials have responded to criticism by saying they do not recognize the authority of undocumented migrants to travel through their nation, and have begun numbering refugees with ink pens.
Over and over again, as a byproduct of the wars waged throughout history, we have displaced and resettled peoples en masse. 7 million Afghan refugees, 7 million African, from the DRC, Uganda, Sudan, Angola, Burundi and Mali, 7 million Indian, 2.7 million former-Yugoslavians, half the population of Cyprus, 3 million Palestinian, 5 million Iraqi, 1 million Ukrainian and Hmong, half a million Burmese and Georgian, almost 100,000 Sri Lankans and millions more alive today, know the story well; and now, 4 million Syrians face the same exposure to violence, starvation, and disease with little to no assistance from the "globalized world."
“The US has budgeted over $2.1 billion dollars in aid for this crisis, and a paltry 2,000 permanent resident vacancies for Syrian refugees... Of which it has currently only granted 90.”
While many individual citizens may express the desire to host refugees, governments must facilitate programs, and provide legal and resettlement services. Governments must initiate the process and oversee it, usually with the assistance of the UN. While waiting on governments to decide, organize, and engage, tens of thousands die. Turkey and Jordan have absorbed the highest influxes of people near 1 million each, while among European nations, only Germany and Sweden have been relatively reactive to the crisis housing around 60 thousand refugees each. Sweden is the first of any European nations to offer permanent settlement to the beleaguered Syrians. The US has budgeted over $2.1 billion dollars in aid for this crisis, and a paltry 2,000 permanent resident vacancies for Syrian refugees... Of which it has currently only granted 90.
Human Displacement itself is a huge catalyst for poverty, malnutrition, subsequent disease and war. When we engage in conflict with other nations, we do damage in waves; That includes when we incite conflict by funding or arming insurgencies, as we have done and still are doing around the world. That includes the boots-on-ground/drone/diplomatic engagements which have resulted in millions of innocent civilian deaths. This also includes the subsequent effects of destruction, human loss, and poverty on the surviving.
Women, children and the elderly are left exposed to violence and unstable, unsanitary, and overcrowded living quarters. Adolescents are at their prime for falling in, to get out; being recruited for gangs or militia. Women and children are the most vulnerable to victimization in sex or labor trafficking. Refugee camps are prone to limited medical resources, long spells of drought and malnutrition, and . UN tents or tin-roofed shacks, camps, and shantytowns expose people to the elements, and render little in the way of medical or social services. Many women die in childbirth, many children die before the age of 5, and many others succumb to disease.
The Cycle: War/Conflict->Internal Displaced Persons
->Refugees->Asylum Seekers->Asylees->Permanent Residents
Consider that refugees do not qualify for the refugee standard of living until they are resettled, either permanently or semi-permanently. Some 25 million people world wide are considered Internally Displaced. Internal displacement occurs when civilians have left their homes in their country of origin or citizenship, but have not arrived within a destination country. The plight of Internally Displaced Peoples versus Refugees is that they are within their nation's borders and have not yet reached the status of stateless or refugee, therefore they are not protected by international law. They receive minimal assistance and take major risks to find shelter and food. The goal is always resettlement in the country of origin. But with ruined infrastructure, fledgling government, in some ways, resettlement in the country of origin and voluntary repatriation are banishments to another augmented status of refugee, isn't it?
The Syrian toddler in the video below drowned while attempting to enter and seek asylum in Greece with his family. He was found washed up on the beach in Turkey, where they started off together. Aylan Kurdi was just 3 years old, his 5 year old brother also died in the boat capsizing along with his mother Rehan, and her 3 other children, 12 all together. This is definitely not the first nor anywhere near the highest number of drowned in similar incidences involving Syrian and other refugees seeking asylum. In one Austrian smuggling case, 71 bodies were found piled in a truck after they died being exploited in human trafficking. Almost 3,000 migrants have died this year alone, in boats over the mediterranean to Europe.
Aylan's father is Abdullah. He has a sister in Canada who applied there for the family's asylum and was rejected in June. Abdullah's Canadian sister continued to send money, which Abdullah would have used to get to Greece, where he would have theoretically been able to get to Sweden, where they are offering actual permanent residency. Currently, Abdullah is in Germany with the bodies of his wife and children.
Will the world continue to turn a blind eye? Who will save lives in this crisis, instead of ending them? Did Turkey, Canada, Germany, and the Czech Republic do anything to help these people? How is the United States contributing to a safer world in immediate terms?
Drowned Syrian Boy Symbolizes Refugee Crisis Sweeping Europe"Humanity washed ashore" - #KiyiyaVuranInsanlik - went viral after a drowned Syrian toddler's photo became a symbol of the refugee crisis sweeping Europe.
Posted by AJ+ on Wednesday, September 2, 2015
#Syria #ISIS #USA #Canada #Turkey #KiyiyaVuranIsanlik #refugeecrisis #war #thehomiesasa #UNHCR #News