Aylan
This week we saw humanity at its weakest again. The picture of the dead boy Aylan Kurdi was burnt for ever in our collective memory. A family of 4 tried to flee a country in fire to build a better future elsewhere. Only the father survived.
What does that heartbreaking story to us? We shed a tear. We are outraged. We are appalled. But what do we do? We stumble on with our lives. It’s not our problem. We have to get on too.
And why is this picture so important, There were hundreds, thousands before Aylan. Aylan has put a face and a story to a problem. We are touched by the story. We have seen Aylan’s father ruthlessly filmed while grieving. We think of our own children and imagine it’s one of them lying there on the beach.
The real problem
The migration crisis is not new. It’s been going on for years. Europe cannot solve the problem at its root. There a growing number of asylum seekers heading towards the promised land. The attractiveness of the old continent seems so great that people are willing to risk their lives in small boats, sealed containers, …
According to the UNHCR there are over 4 million Syrian refugees. They fled their houses due to the bloody civil (?) war in their country that has caused many deaths. The government army, rebel armies and IS are fighting each other. So how could anyone want to stay?
This exodus will not stop.
An administrative answer to a human crisis
My country Belgium is also confronted with a massive inflow of asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, Somalia and also from Afghanistan,… The minister has limited the number of registration to 250. This administrative measure is in contrast with the growing numbers that are waiting to get their stamp on their paper. It’s tragic that one administrative act makes the difference.
Some people argue about whether or not these refugees are asylum seekers fleeing the violence in their country or merely economic refugees looking for a better life. The first should stay in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan. The latter should be prohibited to enter the country. It’s a conceptual debate that does not help us further.
The Belgian government has taken additional measures to tackle the crisis. In total 10,000 places are made available. But if all we do is to host them we will not make it. I am afraid that we will make mistakes that will create tomorrow’s problems. If you read the report of the government meeting of september 4th you hear the ministers talking with electoral intentions in the back of their heads. We haven’t handled immigration well in the past decades and have laid the foundations for internal problems. So forget the electoral interest, and take a universal humanistic approach. This problem goes beyond the popular vote.
European Shame
Looking at how Europe is dealing with the crisis, I feel a growing shame. The Hungarian prime minister says it’s not his problem, but that it’s a problem of Germany. And in Germany you have neonazi scum protesting. Countries are shoving the hot potato towards other countries. We are now willing to accept a very small number of immigrants in Europe, in contrast to Lebanon, Turkey who are hosting over a million. We should be ashamed.
Let them work
Europe is not doing well in tackling this crisis. There was an interesting article in the Economist that suggested that we should welcome these asylum seekers by letting them earn their living. And I guess that’s a good idea. The moral reasons to be more hospitable ar one, but we even need immigrants to maintain our society as our population is ageing. So we can benefit from the inflow of people. They will come anyway and if we do not organise it, they will keep on coming through all the holes in our frontiers. Putting up walls, barbed wire, or why not minefields to protect our way of living against these refugees influx is not a sustainable solution.
The worst is yet to come
The worst is yet to come. As the planet is changing in political and ecological terms we can expect more migration streams. So we’d better be prepared and plan it instead of stumbling on. And before you go on about jihadists and costs, look at the facts of the crisis. We will need to do better and think of how not whether we will welcome refugees to our continent. It’s both a humane and a wise thing to do.
David Ducheyne
I’m not sure why I have written this post. Normally I write about other things. But if my pen can help to make people aware, it helps.`
Original Post
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/europe-stop-stumbling-david-ducheyne/
