By
WHO estimates, 68 million people have been forcibly displaced across
borders. Developing countries host 86% of the population of migrants
who have suffered forced displacement and the UN estimates suggest 71
million people worldwide fled war in 2018 alone.
Canada,
a country with a much smaller population, welcomed more
refugees
than the USA in 2018, with 28,100 refugees settled in Canada compared
with 22,900 in the USA. Yet, the USA marked World Refugee Day by the
acting head of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services sending an
email to asylum officers urging them to “stem the crisis and better
secure the homeland”.
In
the USA a government lawyer argued that detained migrant children
were not entitled to soap or toothbrushes under a law requiring them
to be kept in “safe and sanitary” conditions. Children recently
lost
access
to legal aid, classes, and recreational activities for “budgetary
reasons”. There are 50 000 people detained in Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. 24 migrants have died under ICE
custody so far.
Accepting
refugees and allowing them to live freely is itself lifesaving and of
demonstrable economic and social benefit to a country. Forbidding
them is damaging to us all.
Former
German president Christian Wulff said this week, regarding Germany's
resettlement of 900 000 migrants at the height of the crisis in
2015, that “the refugee move will be a stroke of luck in German
history”. Wulff stated that, in a few years, Germany will look back
on this decision with pride. The effect could be as pronounced as
German reunification in the 1990s.
The
health, safety, and wellbeing of vulnerable populations must be
uppermost in the mind of anyone who is a health professional. The
brutal treatment of refugees and migrants in many situations
worldwide should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
No comments:
Post a Comment