Liputan6.com, Jakarta - As the world is becoming globalized, focus has equally been shifted to what is important to what is being prioritized in personal preference. People now can freely choose what to pay attention to and put aside the subjects which interest attracts them least.
An example can be taken from the rampant escalating number of refugee crisis in many parts of the world that left a record of millions of people displaced from their homes. Such calamity has successfully pushed asylum systems to their maximum limits, making it the worst since the end of the Second World War.
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Surprisingly, not many are profoundly aware of their existence, worst yet their actual condition. So, while these refugees desperately fleeing death, catastrophic and abysmal living conditions in conflicting countries, a large number of the rest of worldwide population is either unexposed to their undesirable condition or refuse to take part in the addressing issue process as problem viewed as beyond difficult to overcome.
The issue has left scores of world leaders struggling over a solution to fix it once and for all. Many things have to be considered first when it comes to refugees crisis; the reason to their escape which mostly due to fear of prosecution or war in their countries of origin.
Sometimes, it could just be as absurd as failure to be accepted due to minority status in terms of their religion or race. Apart from that, other aspect such as the countries they seek sanctuary to and how that country responds to such cry for help and the other sub aspects including economic, politics and societal that ought to be rearranged to be able to adjust better with presence of newcomers.
Some countries have signaled distress over alarming number of migrants seeking better economic opportunities.
BBC depicted the rampant influx of million migrants and refugees into Europe this year through a graph on 21 December 2015 which the International Organization for Migration (IOM) claimed as reaching a total of 1,006,000 for both land and sea.
This already suggests that conflicts in their countries of origins have intensified, fear has also intensified within them leaving them desperate for consolation and worry also grows in nations faced with such dilemma of whether to accept or not to accept their request for help.
Common misinterpretation
While people are well introduced with the word ‘refugee’ which often pops on news headline, the legal distinction differentiating it from ‘asylum seeker’ and ‘illegal migrations’ seems to lose prominence, causing all three to be interpreted as the same to one another.
Years of political debate over its definition have resulted in disparate meanings for each. Legally, an asylum seeker is a person who has applied for lawful process into the country and is currently waiting for his or her status as to whether or not he or she is granted acceptance.
A refugee on the other hand, is someone who has earned such asylum claim. As for illegal migrants, they are neither asylum seekers nor refugees as they are not identified as individuals who have voluntarily applied for sanctuary in a country and not recorded as accepted ones.
Due to unfavorable conditions in their countries of origin, these subjugated victims of war crimes and other types of domestic upheavals, have difficulty applying and waiting for their asylum claim in their home country. Many of them resort to pushing to their luck and march their way into the destination country. Their unlawful entry, which often portrayed through an image of despair and desperation and a slight of rage, makes them labeled as illegal migrants.
However, there are always two sides to every story. Interferences back in their home countries may have prevented them to submit asylum request lawfully and thus forced them into committing such unlawful act, but destination countries worry over another label that frequently gets invoked in the current debate, economic migrant. Illegal migrants have been viewed as potentially economic migrants as their intentions most likely lean heavily on the advancement of their economic and professional prospects in the new country they expect to reside in.
Recent issue of the Telegraph suggests that the UK is experiencing a major shift in Government policy following decision to ‘impose prison sentences on illegal immigrants’. The decision was bolstered by David Cameron’s initiative in the weeks after general election which ought to make UK “less attractive place to come and work”.
Policy would become harsher in the UK as decision leads to allowing the police to seize wages from foreign workers if they were found guilty for working in the country illegally.
Breeding grounds
Syria
A report published by the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection from the EU, an estimated 7.6 millions civilians have been reportedly displaced within the country and another four million have sought refuge abroad following a series of devastating civil war which began in 2011 between country’s leader Bashar Al-Assad and the Arab Spring. The exacerbation of warfare continues as a group consisting Jihadist Islamic State Militants or commonly referred to as ISIL/ISIS began to take advantage of the unstable nation and entered the country in a bid to create a totalitarian state under Islamic Caliphate. According to the data released by UNICEF, the prolonging conflict has caused for 2 million Syrian children to be out of school as the facilities have all been destroyed, including hospitals.
Afghanistan
Citing from the U.N Refugee Agency website, enduring conflict within Afghanistan region has caused for it to host the longest displacement condition in recorded history. More than 2.6 million Afghan refugees have fled out of the country and seek sanctuary to many nations including neighboring ones such as Iran and Pakistan. The UNHCR estimates around 14% of refugees arriving in Europe are the impacts of intensified conflict within Afghanistan borders. Fighting against the Taliban force has caused the lives of the locals and has ruined the nation to its core.
Iraq
Internal Displacement Monitoring Center’s website suggests that rampant widespread of violence throughout the country was largely inevitable following ISIS succession in reigning over the region of Mosul 2014. Such widespread automatically caused for a staggering four million civilians to be internally displaced.
UNHCR figures presents statistical presentation depicting rising Iraqi civilians seeking refuge in other countries as humanitarian aid could not even each them inside the conflict zone to extend their helping hand.
Yemen
The conflict in Yemen has been dubbed as a proxy war between Shiite powerhouse Iran, backing Houthi revels and Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia, as cited in DailyNews.The conflict which sparked earlier in 2015 was translated into land, air and maritime restrictions which consequently reduced imports like food, clothing and other basic needs. Similar to Iraq, humanitarian aid cannot access themselves into region where people need them the most.
South Sudan
According to U.N Refugee Agency website on South Sudan, the South Sudanese conflict began in December 2013, and the civilian population of the world’s youngest country are still enduring the consequences of it with more than 1.5 million people displaced as of this month.
The brutal conflict pits President Salva Kiir's army against those loyal to rebel leader Riek Machar, a former deputy president, contributes very largely to the nation’s political instability. Due to displacement and the dry climate millions cannot grow or harvest crops making the prospect of famine a real possibility in the country. Coexistence between refugees and settled communities has been an issue in some regions due to scarce resources in communities already suffering from malnutrition, possibly precipitating a famine.
Libya
In June, reports from UNHCR Libya showed that the figures of Libyans fleeing conflict had doubled to more than 434,000 compared to September 2014. Many displaced people arriving to Italy by sea are coming from Libya facilitated by human traffickers, who exploit migrants and refugees by charging them thousands of dollars for their help and subject them to violence and abuse.
Facilitators
The United States
The US has been the top receiving country for asylum seekers in the past five years. Applicants have to apply for asylum within one year of arriving in the United States under the "Affirmative Asylum Process", as cited in NBCnews.com. They can also apply for "Defensive Asylum Processing" against being removed from the US. Once the application form is received by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), asylum seekers will receive and receipt and be asked to visit their nearest Application Service Centre for fingerprinting.
An interview notice is then sent to the asylum seeker within 21 days after the application is received by the USCIS. According to the USCIS, applicants are "rarely detained" by the immigration service, but are mostly not allowed to work. If the application is not approved by the USCIS, the asylum seeker starts undergoing removal proceedings as the case is referred to an immigration judge for review. If the application is rejected after the review, the final consequence would be the applicant’s removal from the U.S.
The United Kingdom
According to the U.K government website, Asylum seekers who submit an application are assigned a "case owner". Their application is expected to be completed within six months, by which time the asylum seeker will be allowed to stay in the UK or returned home voluntarily or forcibly. Moreover, Asylum seekers who are denied refugee status may be detained at centers prior to their removal. However, failed asylum seekers can appeal to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.
Worry over the prevailing number of economic migrants continues to populate the minds of many of the people in the U.K but the U.K Parliament website has one page dedicated to glorify petition supporting migrants’ presence in the U.K and to accept more of asylum seekers in the future to come.
Additionally, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills of the U.K government stated in its business report that “Migrants have brought culturally unique and complementary skills and knowledge of processes and ideas to the workplace. In other instances they have upskilled colleagues, leading to improvements in process and innovation and securing new work for their employers. These changes have led to both improved productivity and company expansion.”
European countries such as Germany, Italy, Sweden, France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway and dozen others are also included as nations providing safe haven for asylum seekers and refugees.
Link to terrorism
In early September this year, France voluntarily joined Germany’s venture in pledging to allow influx of thousands of refugees fleeing war to enter the country following reports of deteriorating and evidently spiraling out of control humanitarian crisis.
France’s decision to participate was becoming more apparent following the convincing declaration made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in August which suggests that ‘Europe had failed those who were trying to escape the violence’, as cited in Abcnews.
While it is inherently humane to salvage thousands of subjugated refugees who went on a desperate journey through the Balkans and across the Mediterranean to the countries within the jurisdiction of the European Union in trying to leave behind conflict areas such as Syria, Iraq and others, it cannot be denied that such compassionate gesture will inevitably carry with it some repercussions that likely to hinder the nation’s political, economic and security agenda.
It does not lessen the possibility of extremists coming into the region with very few barriers interfering their way in due to the recent ‘compassionate’ policy.
The European Union has been advised to revise its policy regarding such matter to anticipate any unwanted individual with harmful pursuance within the European region.
Inspiring People
For a woman who spent most of her childhood years fleeing the country from the undesirable images of violence and hostility, Noor Sabah Nael Travik knows very well the struggle of an asylum seeker. Seven years, the approximate length of time she has to bear running from one location to another together with her family.
She was only 6 then, when her family woke her up from her deep sleep and shocked her with the news that they all have to depart from Afghanistan due to uncertainty over their overall safety during that period of volatile times.She knew that something major has caused for her family’s decision to flee, but she knew only very little at that time of the long risky journey that had to be taken in trying to find actual solace.
Fleeing from her country or origin, Noor Sabah and her family travelled through hills under the subjugating ray of sun in the absence of food and water and firstly embarked on Kandahar. The burden was becoming real for her as she had to carry her baby brother along the mountainous route with whatever strength she had left.
“Even now I don’t like to go out or travel during nighttime because it reminds me of the night where we had to travel a long road,” Noor shared to Liputan6.com during special interview held for ‘Inspiring People’.The journey for her and her family does not end there.
They had to make furtherance of their walks and stays up to 7 years with countries ranging from Iran to Pakistan were among countries they have to settle in to seek refuge. Fortunately, after years of finding consolation, they were able to find a place they can finally call home in Norway.In Norway, she did not close her eyes to the past which continues to haunt her hitherto.
She unwaveringly decided to become an activist and later married the man who now assumes role as Norwegian Ambassador to Indonesia, Stig Travik.Now that she is in the archipelago state accompanying her husband, her humanitarian side continues to define her remarkable ambition of preventing children from reliving the past akin to hers.
In 2014, she held an event called ‘Voice of Children’ where focus was placed primarily on giving aids to children in conflict zones. Her ambition is continually being translated as the second ‘Voice of Children’ theming ‘Listen, with love’ successfully carried out this year and supported by front-liners of Indonesian celebrities.
According to her, the suffering is not only felt by the children who are or who have been put in a conflict zone, but also those who have to travel here and there in trying to find happiness and comfort. These children have been given the life challenges too early and to complex that even many adults would find it difficult to accept mentally and therefore Noor claims to have been moved by her own experience to do something that could help these children from trauma that they have to face from such undesirable experience.
“Sharing about the past is like a healing process for me,” she said.
Listen to more of her remarkable story through Liputan6.com ‘Inspiring People’ sharing session below: