A Life Worth Living

It's World Refugee Day tomorrow.

It has been reported that "the number of refugees around the world rose by 1 million last year, to 11.5 million."

That is a heck of a lot of folks with nowhere to call their home. Folks whose fate is at the mercy of the government of the country they happen to be seeking asylum in. Folks who, if they happen to be in Australia, are automatically placed under a mandatory detention regime (the only western country with this policy). These folks may never taste the sweet smell of freedom ever again because of the Australian government's ability to hold refugees in detention centres indefinitely.

This means that there could potentially be an entire generation of children born, raised and possibly dying in a detention centre, never having known what it is like to live like you and me - as citizens of a country. And seriously, living in a detention centre is not quite the same as setting up home in a holiday resort.

Children caught in long-term detention are often traumatised. As Graham Thom, Amnesty International Australia's Advocacy Coordinator observes, "We have been in contact with a number of detainees who have spent years in detention and witnessed their mental state slowly disintegrate...reading their medical reports that highlight the number of suicide attempts they have made and the way they have self-harmed themselves - for instance, cutting the word 'freedom' into their skin - brings home the damage long-term detention does to children."

Fair enough to say that there could be serious political and economical implications if a country were to accept refugees as easily as they were to accept tourists into their country. But mandatory detention, tearing families apart, encouraging additional trauma in folks already persecuted horribly in their home country is simply not the humane way to do things.

Refugees exist because they are forced to leave their country of residence through no fault of their own. The main reason why there has been such a phenomenal increase in refugees last year is not because being a refugee is the latest fad, but because of the genocide happening in Darfur and people fleeing Iraq (now whose fault is that?) into Syria.

If countries honestly and truly do not want the problems refugees create in their country - political, economical, social, or being hounded by pro-refugee advocates - maybe they should do something about the crisis these folks are facing back in their home countries?

The Rwandan Genocide created an uproar because nations stood by and did nothing while Hutus murdered their Tutsi neighbours in cold blood. Apologies were offered after, but if these nations were truly sorry, maybe they should start intervening in the countries creating refugees right now? (or stop intervening in other countries, for that matter.)

The United Nations was created for a reason and I don't think it was because some random person thought an army with blue helmets looked cool. If countries really did not want refugees, maybe they should help make the world become a place where people don't need to be refugees in the first place.

Governments need to do something about humanitarian crisis happening in other countries, instead of throwing lavishly grand parties to Princess Mary with taxpayers' money.

But in the meantime, while another grand party is thrown for a visiting dignitary, they will simply have to endure the demonstrations, the letters and the calls to free the refugees in detention centres.

To read more about refugees and immigration centres, and take further action visit:
Amnesty International