The Refugee Crisis: Threat to Safety or Seeking Safety from Threat?
SERENE SHIBLY | JAN. 29, 2018 | COLUMN
The first time I visited a refugee camp, I was at a complete loss for words, overwhelmed by anxiety. The Lebanese camp for Syrian refugees was set up carefully; small white tents, in which they made temporary homes, were set up closely next to each other throughout the mud lot. I saw kids running around, playing a game similar to tag, while parents sat outside the tents, sipping tea. Besides just the tents in the camp, there was also a place of worship, and a school for the children nearby, which had been funded by some charitable organizations, like Swasia, as well as private donors. The refugees seemed to have settled quite nicely here, making the most of their terrible situation. One could easily tell they appreciated cleanliness by how neat and tidy the area was, but there were still aspects of the situation that were harder to control, like their inadequate plumbing systems.
I had no idea what to say or how to act around the refugees, so I decided to hide behind my father’s outgoing and caring personality. He was chatting away with the various families, inviting them to his pop-up dental clinic nearby. Standing silently by my father did not work, as the daughter of one of the men my dad was talking to approached me. She asked questions about where I was from and what grade I was in, and soon enough, she decided she liked me. We began to play games like ‘ring around the rosie’ and some new games I’d never heard of before. Other children began to crowd around us, joining our fun, and when it was time for me to leave, I was overcome with sorrow. The group of children who had gradually joined us during our games followed me all the way to the far camp exit. Just as I was getting into the car, the little girl who had approached me, whose name was Nahawand, gave me the tightest hug. She told me about how thankful she was for my visit and to my dad for checking her teeth. As she rambled on about her life at the camp, she said four words I’ll never forget: “The world is beautiful.” I was shocked at how a little girl, whose home and country were destroyed, could have such a positive outlook on the world. I came to the realization that refugees are not just the helpless people the media paints them out to be, but are very similar to us, deserving happiness and new lives; they deserve to be allowed in our country.
Unfortunately, the refugee crisis has only worsened in recent years. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, there are 65.6 million people who have been displaced from their countries, and 22.5 million of them are refugees, half of them being under the age of 18. Syria has continuously being the source of the most refugees. This begs the question for many nations of whether or not they will allow refugees into their country; some have obliged. Turkey hosts the most refugees at 2.9 million, Pakistan in second place with 1.4 million and Lebanon with 1 million. The United States under the Obama administration accepted 18,007 Syrian refugees between October 1, 2011 and December 31, 2016. The state of the refugee policy has been brought into question repeatedly as President Donald Trump makes his distaste towards Syrian refugees abundantly clear. He has described them as a “Trojan horse,” and even tweeted on November 17, 2015, “Refugees from Syria are now pouring into our great country. Who knows who they are – some could be ISIS,” which clearly shows how he feels about Syrian refugees. He has since enacted bans blockading them from the U.S., the one proposed on January 27, 2017, which prevented citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen entry into the nation for 90 days. No one from the seven initially banned countries has killed anyone in the United States in the last 40 years, as reported by the Cato Institute. This ban has been disproved by many federal judges, and even former president Barack Obama criticized the ban a couple days after its announcement. President Trump’s travel ban, which negatively impacted refugees who have been trying to come to America for years despite the harrowing vetting process, was blocked in court. Trump came back with a second attempt. His second travel ban was announced on March 6, 2017, but it was successfully blocked by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ten days later. His third ban is aimed at eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen. Three of those countries are in the list of the top five countries refugees come from: Syria, Chad and Somalia, according to World Vision, a humanitarian aid organization. This ban places limitations on refugees seeking asylum and is currently pending supreme court review. America was built on immigrants, and is a country known to welcome people of all backgrounds so they can start over and find new opportunities. We should preserve this tradition.
My trip to the refugee camps in Lebanon changed my life, as I had witnessed first-hand how refugees maintained positive perspectives on life while living in dreadful conditions. Refugees aren’t much different than us, the only difference is that their homeland has been devastated with war and other horrendous disasters. It is our duty to help out the people who need it most and stand up to injustices against them.