More and more people, particularly women and children are being forcefully displaced from their traditional homelands by war, conflict, natural occurrences, or even crippling economic conditions. In a world so blessed, it is highly unsettling that some are still being regularly unseated from their homelands by circumstances not at all of their own making, and that no permanent solution seems in sight. The fact that interventions are geared more to settle them in temporary accommodations rather than towards solving the problems that throw up these living casualties merits some more concern. The life of a refugee cannot be imagined. Picture a population suddenly roused from sleep in the middle of the night,able to gather only those of their life belongings that they can carry on their heads, trekking to nowhere in particular.
Families are separated as they run for safety, often being pursued by their well armed antagonists who then plunder their homes and belongings left behind. In this situation many are forced to sell their most prized possessions for transport or feeding, many have to survive on pickings from the streets; there is no shelter, no real refuge from the quirks of nature. The lucky ones get settled in neighbouring countries but then have to contend with a suspicious local population. They are first physically, then psychologically traumatised, having to accept lower wages for the tedious jobs they need to survive, and then being the butt of much resentment from the unemployed "locals". Since they have no roots in their host communities, they often find themselves unjustly blamed for every negative event.
Naturally, the women and children bear the worst brunt. Twice traumatised, they quickly become victims of rape, slavery, and other abuse. Understandably, the sheer depth of the refugee problem may not be apparent to those of us who are far removed from the crises zones. After all, the nearest that many of us would come to the refugee problem are the dirty lights kinned children who assall us in traffic begging for "chop-money" while their parents (especially the "fathers") leisurely sip tea in the shades; or the growing army of young men claiming to be "Labierian refugees stranded in Nageeriah" who accost us for money to transport themselves back to Liberia (or Sierra Leone), years after the formal end of that countrys conflict. Not much to worry about. Yet, going by the estimates of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) there are over 10million refugees as at 2006 and the figure keeps growing.
The flashpoints which threw up these unfortunate people are still in turmoil - with no apparent end in Sight. Quoting the UNHCR figures, the highest refugee populations for 2006 were contributed by Afghanistan (2.1 million), Iraq (1.5 million), Sudan (686,000), Somalia (460,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi (about 400,000 each). By the time we factor in the internally displaced persons in Pakistan (thanks to the floods), and economic migrants in places like Zimbabwe (where there seems to be a total failure of government with inflation rates reaching over 200% per day) and Uganda, we might begin to appreciate the enormity of the problem.
These figures do not even include the "permanent refugees" - the people of Palestine. Amnesty International calls them "the worlds largest and longest standing refugee community " who " continue to be denied a durable solution to their plight nearly 60 years following their flight to host countries in the Middle East". These are the people "whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, (and) who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict". There were just about 711,000 in 1950, but now they number over four million officially. The international community seems to have completely forsaken these ones.
Otherwise, how can anyone justify the fact that it has taken over sixty years to find a "durable solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem? Meanwhile, you might have noted (and be troubled by) the fact that most of these victims are from traditional Muslim lands. It does trouble us that many of them are forced by the circumstances of their flight to take to vile means to survive their temporary situation. Begging, prostituting, drug-dealing and so on. It should trouble us that the collective will of Muslims the world over just does not seem to be able to -"(:ontend with and defeat the problems that daily worsen the refugee situation.
Would we ever find the will to deal with the issues in Palestine, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan (to name the obvious ones)? One of the fundamental teachings of our faith which put us above all others is the fact that our way of life teaches compassion. We are encouraged to feel the pain and force a solution when any of us anywhere no matter how far removed is distressed. But millions are distressed and even if we cannot solve the underlying problems, could'nt we at least offer them some succour? Surely, there must be something we can do about this problem.
This article was culled from the publications of Deen Communication Limited