Mindfully Greenie
Today, June 20, is World Refugees Day. It is the time to reflect on the pains, struggles and trials that refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP) seeking shelter and safety from their home country and within all over the world undergo. It is also meant to be a celebration of their courage and resilience amid all the challenges and risks they face.
The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol protect the refugees, who are one of the most vulnerable peoples in the world. A refugee is defined by the Convention as “a person who is outside his or her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail him or herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.”
The UN Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, has declared that “we are now witnessing the highest displacement on record. An unprecedented 59.5 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 20 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18.” (https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html)
“There are also 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement . . . and 42,500 people are forcibly displaced every day as a result of conflict or persecution.”
It is mind blowing that “one in every 122 humans is now either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum.” The UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres notes that “It is terrifying that on the one hand there is more and more impunity for those starting conflicts, and on the other there is seeming utter inability of the international community to work together to stop wars and build and preserve peace.”
(https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2015/6/558193896/worldwide-displacement-hits-all-time-high-war-persecution-increase.html)
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative in the Philippines Bernard Kerblat shared last year that there had been “nine waves of refugees the Philippines took in from 1923 to 2000.” Unfortunately, he discovered that everywhere, “from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi,” very, very few Filipinos were aware of their ancestors’ “incredible, exceptional deeds (and) humanitarian gestures.”
The first wave was in 1923, after the Russian Revolution when those opposed to the Socialist revolution fled to escape the Red Army. The subsequent contingents happened from 1934 with around 1,200 European Jews traveling from Europe to the Philippines to avoid persecution by the Nazi. In between and up to 2000 came the Spanish Republicans in 1939, Chinese refugees in 1940, White Russians in 1947, Vietnamese refugees in 1975 to 1992, Iranian refugees in 1979, Indo-Chinese refugees from 1980 to 1994 and in the last batch was the 640 priests, nuns, students, and pro-independence activists from East Timor who went to the Philippines to escape from the violence in their country from April to September 1999.
In his 35 years working with refugees, Kerblat said that he had never encountered a country with “such a liberal, visionary set of texts to protect and save refugees.” (https://www.interaksyon.com/lifestyle/pinoy-pride-9-times-the-philippines-welcomed-refugees-from-1923-2000)
I agree with High Commissioner Kerblat that this part of our history should be taught to all students. It is noteworthy that even before the Convention was drafted, then president Manuel Quezon signed into law the 1940 Philippine Immigration Act. It authorizes the president to issue a humanitarian visa for people fleeing persecution, “a notion that Filipinos adopted 11 years before the rest of the world did in the form of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees,” according to him.
While there are no “refugees” in our country, as the term is defined, we have to look at long-term and rights-based solutions to a growing problem of IDPs whose displacement is due to natural disasters which are now more frequent as a result of climate change.
There are also human-induced displacements, with indigenous peoples and fisherfolk and their families losing their homes, livelihoods and way of life to so called “developmental” projects and also to conflicts in 2013 “between a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and government security forces which resulted in approximately 120,000 displaced persons.”
As we are welcoming to refugees, let us extend such compassion to our own people.
Let us reflect on the statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, Chaloka Beyani.
He said “Displacement, whether due to conflict or development, not only destroys the homes and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, but has an incalculable impact on their cultures and ways of life that are part of the rich and diverse heritage of the Philippines that must be protected or otherwise lost, perhaps forever. Indigenous peoples are poorly equipped to survive away from their ancestral lands and are therefore deeply affected by displacement. The needs of these vulnerable people must be assessed, with their full participation, so as to provide essential assistance for them, including durable solutions which are culturally sensitive and appropriate, when displacement has taken place. The displacement of such communities whose very lives and cultures are intimately entwined with their ancestral lands and environments must only be a matter of last resort.” (https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID= 16280&LangID=E#sthash.WYEwQgsI.dpuf)
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