LET’S PUSH FORWARD.....!
-Fr.
Cedric Prakash sj*
Today June 20th ‘World Refugee Day’ is a grim reminder to
us to remember the plight of refugees all over the world and to do something
about their situation which is growing from bad to worse. According to the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are more than 50 million refugees
around the world - half of which are women and children.
On June 15th Amnesty
International released a hard-hitting report on the refugee crisis; ‘The Global Refugee Crisis: A Conspiracy of Neglect’. Salil Shetty the Secretary General of Amnesty
International says “the refugee crisis is
one of the defining challenges of the 21st century but the response
of the international community has been a shameful failure. We need a radical
overhaul of policy and practice to create a coherent and comprehensive global
strategy”.
It is simply unbelievable the way people
are dishoused and dispossessed all across the globe. A place which they once
called home, where they lived in peace, harmony and security is snatched away
from them because of ‘man’s inhumanity to man’. In the last few months, we have
seen millions of people displaced all over: over 3.7 million Syrian refugees
have fled to neighbouring countries; an estimated 11 million people have been
displaced within their own countries in the Middle East; more than 4.5 million
were internally displaced in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2014. Tens and thousands of
Muslim Rohingyas have fled Myanmar in the last year and many of them in most
dehumanised conditions. The list of
IDP’s in India due to mega-projects and communal violence is ever increasing.
A little after his elections, Pope Francis
in July 2013 visited Italy’s migrant island of Lampedusa where he attacked the ‘globalisation of indifference’ saying “we have become used to the suffering of
others. It doesn’t affect us. It doesn’t interest us. It is not our business.”
The care and concern of the refugees has been a hallmark of his papacy. Even in his latest encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ (On care for our common
home) he says, “there has been a tragic
rise in the number of migrants seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused
by environmental degradation. They are not recognised by international
conventions as refugees; they bear the loss of the lives they have left behind,
without enjoying any legal protection whatsoever. Sadly, there is a widespread
indifference to such suffering, which is even now taking place throughout our
world. Our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and
sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men
and women upon which all civil society is founded”. (# 25)
The Jesuit
Refugee Service (JRS) which was founded in November 1980, thanks to the
vision of the then Superior General of the Society of Jesus Fr. Pedro Arrupe is
today involved in responding to the cries of the refugees in several parts of
the world. In a statement on ‘World
Refugee Day’ JRS says “let’s not push
back; let’s push forward – push ourselves, our neighbours and our communities to open our doors. Then together, we
can unlock potential. Together we can welcome. Together we can advocate.
Together we can”.
Today, the UNHCR appeals to the people
of the world. “Millions of families have fled their homes to escape war or human
rights abuses. Millions of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers – who are also
students, musicians, cooks and so much more. This World Refugee Day, please get
to know these remarkable individuals and introduce them to your friends”. However, let’s not merely get to know them,
let’s do something concrete about the plight of refugees TODAY!
20th
June, 2015
(* Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is
the Director of PRASHANT, the
Ahmedabad-based Jesuit Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace.)
Address: ‘PRASHANT’,
Hill Nagar, Near Saffron Hotel, Drive-in Road, Ahmedabad - 380052
Phone:
(079) 27455913, 66522333 Fax: (079) 27489018 Email: sjprashant@gmail.com www.humanrightsindia.in
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