Ten Million Refugees—Who Wants Them?
TRAN used to teach mathematics. Now he—and 1,900 others—struggle to survive in a crowded Thailand refugee camp. “Inadequate food and sanitation are our biggest problems,” the 27-year-old former teacher says.
Alan was a refugee of another kind. A crumbling economy and a harsh government sent him fleeing his Caribbean island home. The 700-mile (1,126-km) journey to the United States was a treacherous ordeal that terminated in a detention camp.
Since World War II well over 40 million people have suffered the fate of the refugee. They have trudged across burning deserts, hacked through jungles and been tossed about by angry seas in their tiny, rickety boats. Thousands have died before reaching their destination. Thousands more have suffered the indignity of being packed into settlements frighteningly akin to World War II concentration camps. Authorities estimate that by 1982 there were well over ten million refugees worldwide!
The world’s response to this grim reality has so far been less than overwhelming. Meager funds and political realities seriously hamstring relief efforts. And while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives individuals the right to ‘seek and enjoy asylum,’ there is little guarantee that the country to which they flee will actually grant it.
Further, not all are considered legitimate refugees. This term is generally limited to persons who have fled their native land because of political, racial or religious persecution. By this definition, however, those escaping economic deprivation or natural disaster may receive, not refugee status, but the disdained designation of “illegal alien.”
Who, then, wants the world’s homeless? Not many. Integrating them into a foreign land with a different language and culture can be traumatic for all concerned. Refugees, too, often do not have the skills necessary to find jobs. Those that do are often resented for siphoning off jobs from local residents. Hence, many prefer simply to ignore the plight of the refugee as a problem for government bureaucrats. But, as you will see, it is not an issue to be ignored.