The Refugee Drama – In No Man’s Land
There was an attack. A mother takes her child’s hand. It takes its last breath, in the arms of the woman who gave it life. Another child separates from his family today with the hope of a better future. With tears in their eyes and without knowing whether they will ever see their family again, they say goodbye. This is the life of refugees.
The refugee drama represents the pain of millions of people. People who have dreams and who long for the same thing as you and me. Children who can no longer laugh because of the suffering that surrounds them.
Who are refugees?
Refugees can be described as forced immigrants because they are persecuted in their country of origin for racist or ideological reasons. Or because their country can no longer guarantee a decent life.
The refugees don’t come to take our jobs away from us. Nor do they come to be taken care of and never tackle anything again. You don’t come off a whim. They are not terrorists.
“You have to understand that nobody puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.
Nobody spends days and nights in the back of a truck unless the kilometers traveled mean more than just a trip.
Nobody crawls under fences, nobody wants to be beaten. “
Revista Fogal
What are the psychological consequences of life as a refugee?
Living as a refugee means living in no man’s land. Refugees are unable to lead a normal life in the place that was their home, and at the same time many countries where they seek asylum do not want to accept them. Then there are the constant bombings at home. This causes a great deal of anxiety, and sometimes even depression. A state of hypervigilance and chronic stress develops, which in the medium term often triggers more serious illnesses such as schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder. And anger and hatred.
It is not surprising that a person in a constant state of social and psychological instability engages in acts that may not be legal or ethical. Perhaps that person also knows actual terrorists who tell them they can provide security and justice to their loved ones. Who wouldn’t look for an ally when everything collapses around them?
But we don’t see that. We quickly see the straw in the other’s eye, but not the bar in our own! Populists and right-wing extremists are gaining power, especially in Europe. Aren’t refugees also people who are allowed to strive for security for their own?
What role do we play in the refugee drama?
If the possibility of overcoming a hell of a trip in a boat, through a desert or years of pilgrimage in the hands of the mafia sounds more tempting than staying in your own country, then there will be no fences, borders, regulations, police, barbed wire or the Mediterranean Sea enough to stop a family looking for a better, more decent life.
Looking the other way won’t solve the problem. Financing the conflict will not help refugees either. Why are we not ready to take in refugees but are in a position to contribute weapons? These double standards are worrying.
Why? The further we throw the boomerang, the faster it comes back. That will also happen if we deny the reality of this mass exodus. Or if we do not deny their existence but do not want to accept them in our countries, as the USA does. Or if we are forced to accept the mass exodus, but then do not want to integrate those who have arrived into our society. We build time bombs.
What would you do if someone destroyed your home, kidnapped your child, or bombed your home? What would we do if we had lost everything and saw no chance for a better life? What would we do if we felt this helpless? What if we felt like everyone knew what was going on around us, but nobody did anything about it? The answer ist quite easy. At the point where our life is no longer meaningful, we start destroying ourselves and looking for revenge or redemption. That is why our commitment is so important.
“Here, in this no man’s land, in the face of this lack of identity and belonging, people feel left alone.”
We are no better or different than refugees, but we often forget that
It seems we don’t remember anymore. 76 years ago, 465,000 Spaniards crossed the French border to escape the civil war. Of them, 220,000 never returned to Spain. As Neruda wrote, “Love is so short and forgetting is so long.”
But what we see is all the more remarkable when we observe ourselves a little. The young people go. You go in search of a better future. The history of immigration could affect any of us!
It is up to us to raise our voices for those whose cries for help are drowned in tears. For the more than 10,000 refugee children who are missing and whose families hope to find them again at some point. And for many other people who sell their bodies in refugee camps for their lives.
According to UNICEF, thousands of serious crimes were committed against minors in 2015, including murder, mutilation and kidnapping. Many of these children have been found dead and others are still missing. A few have found a new home in Europe. Are these children terrorists too?
The easiest way to help is to open our minds and hearts to those around us.
