War On Refugees
There is a war being raged, against some of the most vulnerable people on this planet, and we, as citizens, are squarely to blame. Whether through open support of xenophobic, anti-refugee, policies, or by our desire to not get involved in fighting for the rights of refugees, we are the reason for this mistreatment.
I grew up in a United Nations family. My father still does work for the ILO (a subagency of the UN), and I still reflect on what he taught me about being a decent human being.
He taught me to treat people how I would wish to be treated, to fight for the rights of the maligned, the mistreated, the outcasts of society. He also taught me that the human rights are the most important rights of all, and the most important human right is to live without fear of persecution.
These ideas seem to have disappeared from public discourse over the past 50 or so years, with politicians capitalising on racism, fear, and false concern for refugees attempting to reach safe countries by boat. My own government has been at the forefront of these breaches of human rights, and not just one side of politics either. To blame Tony Abbott for the current refugee-hate would be ignorant at best. Sure, he is the most vocal of all world leaders in demanding refugee rights be discarded in favour of ‘turning back the boats’, but he is not alone in creating a hate fuelled anti-refugee environment.
Unfortunately the Tony disease is spreading across the world, with countries opting for ‘turn backs’ which go against the refugee convention. This is just the tip of the xenophobic iceberg, with Australia demonstrating exactly how far these inhumane policies can go.
Concentration camps filled to the brim with refugee families being abused, raped, and even murdered. The secrecy involved in such programs harks back to a time before the Refugee Convention existed, when the world was gripped by fascism.
These refugees would not even exist if it were not for wars started by George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and John Howard. They would not exist if murderous regimes were not funded, aided, and traded with by the same nations. These are not refugees that came from conflicts out of our control, but refugees that we have created.
To refuse them safe haven in our countries, to lock them up to be tortured by their captors, to be proud of turning back boats, is a sign that our leaders are part of the real ‘axis of evil’ that they fought so hard to topple. It was never a ‘war on terror’, it was a war on the vulnerable, a war on the poor, but mostly, a war on human rights.
Our leaders have created the largest refugee crisis the world has ever seen, yet they are now throwing up their hands and saying “it’s not our problem”.
There is no excuse for the actions of our leaders, there is no excuse for leaving thousands of refugees to die at sea, to die in concentration camps, or to die in their country of origin at the hands of despots and tyrants that we created.
It may be time for a worldwide revolution, against the tyranny of racism, xenophobia, and apathy toward refugees. It’s time to say “no, not in my name”.
