Yohannes Woldemariam argues that European leaders could learn from Uganda’s compassionate policy towards refugees

Woldemariam, Yohannes

LSE Research Online

11/09/2017 Africa at LSE – Desperately Poor Countries Host Refugees While the Affluent World Abandons Themhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/08/30/desperately-poor-countries-host-refugees-while-the-affluent-world-abandons-them/ 1/5Desperately Poor Countries Host Refugees While the Affluent WorldAbandons ThemYohannes Woldemariam argues that European leaders could learn from Uganda’s compassionatepolicy towards refugees.The distinguished scholar and humanitarian activist Noam Chomsky places Western attitudestowards refugees “among the signs of the severe moral-cultural crisis… that is mislabelled a‘refugee crisis.’” According to the latest report of Amnesty International:Measures implemented by EU leaders to strengthen search and rescue capacity in the centralMediterranean in April 2015 dramatically decreased deaths at sea. But this priority, which sawseveral countries provide more rescue boats closer to Libyan territorial waters, was short-lived.Instead, EU governments have shifted their focus to disrupting smugglers and preventingdepartures of boats from Libya: a failing strategy that has led to ever more dangerous crossingsand a threefold increase in the death-rate from 0.89 per cent in the second half of 2015 to 2.7 percent in 2017.This “failing strategy” confirms Chomsky’s observation that what is occurring along the centralMediterranean is actually more of a Western moral crisis than a refugee crisis and that racism isthe underlying cause. Can you imagine this being the case if the ones needing to survive wereEuropeans? Libya, Egypt and Sudan are places where refugees are subjected to degradingtreatment, extortion, extreme abuse and slavery as they are tortured, raped and murdered. InEgypt, organ harvesting from kidnapped refugees involving doctors and medical professionals is athriving business. In Libya, ISIS has beheaded Christian refugees from Eritrea and Ethiopia. Theyet-to-be-told story is that of refugees victimised and enslaved out of sight in the deserts of Libyaand in Sinai Egypt. The prevailing strategy of the EU in dealing with these countries to deterrefugees manifests a deep underlying cynicism. To depend on the support of the “Libyan CoastGuard” operating in lawless Libya, controlled by numerous autonomous warlords is tantamount tocomplicity with criminal gangs. According to a UNHCR study:[T]he… instability in the country [has] contributed to… an environment where human smugglingand criminal networks flourish. At the same time, the collapse of the justice system and reigningimpunity have led many armed groups, criminal gangs and individuals to participate in theexploitation and abuse of refugees and migrants.When a reporter asked Mahatma Gandhi what he thought of Western civilisation, he famouslyreplied: “I think it would be a good idea”. President Donald Trump has been talking about thedefense of western civilisation these days, but where is the evidence for any degree of civilisedaction in his policies? Precisely because they are the most vulnerable, attacking refugees and thepoor has been the distinguishing hallmarks of his presidency thus far. The United States isincreasingly a stingy and heartless bystander when it comes to refugees and other vulnerablepopulations. The United States and Britain are the leading merchants of weapons spearheadingmilitary interventions, yet they are hesitant to deal with the clean-up of the mess created by thecurrent refugee exodus from war-torn countries awash with those very weapons. Ben Norton ofSalon.com writes:The five wealthiest countries [the U.S., China, Japan, the U.K. and Germany]— which make uphalf the global economy — are hosting less than 5 per cent of the world’s refugees, while 86 percent of refugees are in poorer developing countries that are often struggling to meet the needs oftheir own people.11/09/2017 Africa at LSE – Desperately Poor Countries Host Refugees While the Affluent World Abandons Themhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/08/30/desperately-poor-countries-host-refugees-while-the-affluent-world-abandons-them/ 2/5The Ugandan ExceptionUganda, on the other hand, through its compassionate policy towards refugees, exemplifies themoral high ground abandoned by the United States under President Trump and earlier even byPresident Obama. There have been many remarkable testimonies on Uganda’s exceptionalreception of refugees. Julian Hattem, writing for the Washington Post, states:Instead of being locked in crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire, the 1.2 million refugees inUganda are given large plots of land in sprawling settlements to build homes or, if they like, smallfarms. If agrarian life isn’t for them, they can move freely around the country, traveling to towns orto the bustling capital of Kampala, which 95,000 refugees call their home.A refugee settlement in Nyumanzi, Uganda Photo Credit: Geno Teofilo/Oxfam via Flickr (http://bit.ly/2jnCfBa) CC BY-NC-ND 2.0Uganda has been hailed by many, including the IMF and the United Nations, for its enlightenedrefugee policy. But critics say that President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is a dictator and is usingrefugees to enhance his stature and to cover up his excesses regionally and domestically. I do notdispute this criticism, but I say not all dictators are cut from the same cloth. For example, Ethiopiasuffers under a dictatorship, flouts international law with impunity, but lets in refugees (includinghighly qualified college graduates) only to warehouse them in camps, while benefiting from thegenerosity of international institutions and governments by appearing magnanimous towardsrefugees. Neighbouring Kenya warehouses refugees, while at times threatening to close theDadaab camp and evicting its Somali refugees under the pretext of security concerns. Therefore,the policy must be understood comparatively within the context of regional and internationalrealities.We live in a world that is very far from perfect. For example, Fidel Castro was a dictator, but healso built the best medical system in Latin America. In contrast, there is no apparent redeemingquality for the dictator in Equatorial Guinea. We can continue to talk about ethnographic studiesand durable solutions and I appreciate the value of these studies when they are done right, butthis refugee “crisis” calls for a different conversation. People in the ivory tower may choose to tell adrowning human being about swimming lessons when the very immediate need and task isliterally survival. As Foucault writes (in Maladie Mentale et Psychologie, p.45), we must leap “intothe interior of morbid consciousness, [trying] to see the pathological world with the eyes of thepatient himself.”  In the context of the refugee “crisis,” it is necessary to cultivate the quality ofempathy that engenders such a strategic intuition.11/09/2017 Africa at LSE – Desperately Poor Countries Host Refugees While the Affluent World Abandons Themhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/08/30/desperately-poor-countries-host-refugees-while-the-affluent-world-abandons-them/ 3/5One needs to realise that the relatively generous policy of Uganda comes at a price, as Bidi Bidi,the largest refugee camp in the world has reached critical mass. Nevertheless, Uganda’s proactiverefugee policy remains among the best, if not the best, approach to host refugees. Some refugeesin Uganda have found a way to become thriving entrepreneurs and employers. Unfortunately, asmuch as Uganda’s treatment of refugees has provided a model for how a “civilised” country dealswith refugees, many countries in Africa remain a hellish nightmare for African refugees.Sudan, Libya, Egypt and South Africa are among the most horrific places to be a refugee.Refugees have been burned alive by South African mobs. In the words of a German diplomat inNiger, “the Libyan camps where traffickers hold would-be migrants resemble concentration camps”but with German elections about a month away, Angela Merkel is now advocating support for theactivities of the “Libyan Coast Guard.”For Europe, to try to enter a deal with Libya for outsourcing or containing refugees, as it did withTurkey, is tantamount to complicity in crime, conditions in Libya are comparable to those inSomalia, with violent actors and more lawlessness. There are few liveable options for mostrefugees in Africa in general and very limited opportunities for resettlement: of the 16.1 millionrefugees of concern to the UNHCR around the world at the end of 2015, less than one per centwere resettled that year.Europe and other wealthy countries, in dramatic contrast to Uganda, are increasingly shunningrefugees. Europe may pride itself for its respect of universal individual rights but  African refugeesdrowning in the central Mediterranean, off the coast of Libya, has become the new normal. Todiscourage crossing the Mediterranean, European countries replaced the stronger Italian rescueoperation, the Nora Nostrum, with Triton. The Triton operation was expected to complement theNora Nostrum; instead it replaced it with no clear mission and a stated function of “bordermanagement” within 30 nautical miles from the European border. The worry was that the NoraNostrum was a “pull factor” for refugees from Africa.The securitisation of border control has gone a step further with NATO launching naval patrols inthe eastern Mediterranean. In 2017, Europeans have delegated the Libyan “Coast Guard” toapprehend refugees in boats at sea, forcing them to disembark back in Libya, abandoning them togangs purporting to belong to the “Libyan Coast Guard”. These gangs have shot at refugeesresulting in refugees panicking and drowning.  This situation is a logical extension of the “fortressEurope” mentality. There is also little effort to try to integrate earlier arrivals with asylum in Italyand Europe in general. Often, refugees are treated with little dignity as we witnessed in August2017 in the blatant abuse in Rome, while evicting refugees from a building  they had inhabited foras long as five years. Some of the victims were the elderly, pregnant women, children and thedisabled. One woman who was physically manhandled by police was fresh out of the hospital afteran operation for breast cancer.European Good Samaritans and their ChallengesIn contrast, European citizen humanitarianism in the forms of the ever-exemplary NGO MédecinsSans Frontières (MSF) and Save the Children, and private initiatives by individuals such as theMoroccan-Sicilian, Nawal Soufi, using their mobile phones as a lifeline for refugees in boatsbraving the Mediterranean. The humanity of ordinary people from the island of Lampedusa isdepicted in the film Fire at Sea by Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, which won the Golden Bearprize at the Berlin film festival. It tells the story of the migrant crisis through the eyes of locals.Ordinary fishermen and other humanitarians have responded humanely during incidents whereofficial ships have left refugees to die to avoid any responsibility. “According to Frontex, the EUborder and coastal protection agency, around 40 percent of all rescue operations are carried outby volunteers”. Survivors of one of the worst shipwrecks in recent European history, in which 366people died on October 3 2013 off the Italian island of Lampedusa, reported that boats nearby didnot help.  Ironically, NGOs are now under attack falsely accused of enabling smugglers andencouraging refugees to make the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean. MSF and the11/09/2017 Africa at LSE – Desperately Poor Countries Host Refugees While the Affluent World Abandons Themhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/08/30/desperately-poor-countries-host-refugees-while-the-affluent-world-abandons-them/ 4/5German NGO Sea Eye’ have suspended their life-saving activities due to conditions put on themby the Libyan Coast Guard and the Italian government requiring compromise on their coreprinciples.In Europe, attitudes towards refugees are only hardening. Legal as well as physical barriers likerazor wire lead to the demonisation of refugees as swarms, infiltrators, criminals, vermin, terroristsand threats to security while refugee desperation only grows. Yet, even the most severedehumanisation fails to curb irregular migration and only serves to increase the death toll. Humanbeings continue to do what they need to do to try to survive.A Europe-wide agreement could humanely define asylum seekers and standardise their legalrights as they seek asylum, but the future is more likely to be additional fences and restrictions asgovernments face more and more extreme challenges from right-wing political parties. Thesechallenges tend to be acrimonious with blame oscillating between the front-line states (Greece,Malta, Spain and Italy) and non-front-line countries like Austria and France that border Italy, wheremost refugees first disembark. France neither allows entry for irregular migrants camped out inVentimiglia, nor are “French vessels carrying migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea [allowed]to dock in its ports. The boats dock in Italian ones instead”.  Out of frustration, Italy is threateningto “invoke wartime law to let 200,000 migrants head for UK, Germany and France”. In retaliation,the non-front-line countries are threatening to exclude the front-line states from the privileges ofSchengen.At the July 2017 EU meeting in Estonia, responses to the refugee crisis centered on restricting theactivities of life-saving work by NGOs and on collaborating with African dictators and the so-calledLibyan Coast Guard in order to return refugees into the conditions from which they fled. The focusof the Paris Summit in August 2017 was more of the same with few details. It demands thatmigrants apply for asylum before reaching Europe.  The idea of hotspots in lawless Libya underpresent conditions is a non-starter. “About half of the more than 90 million euros ($103 million)allotted for the refugee crisis on the Mediterranean route is to be spent on providing the Libyancoast guard with more weapons and training.” Blaming NGOs is in reality a diversion from theinaction and impotence of the European Union. According to a study done by the ForensicOceanography branch at the University of London:As long as migrants are forced to resort to smugglers for lack of legal pathways, proactive Searchand Rescue at sea will be a humanitarian necessity – whether it is operated by states or NGOs.Only a fundamental re-orientation of the EU’s migration policies to grant legal and safe passagemay bring the smuggling business, the daily reality of thousands of migrants in distress and theneed to rescue them to an end.The Way ForwardUganda with all its flaws points the way forward. Uganda is a wonderful model for compassionatehospitality towards refugees, but the country is reaching breaking point due to increasing demandsfor civilised accommodation of the large numbers of refugees. Tragically, promised assistance forUganda from donors during last year’s high-level summit in New York has not been forthcoming.Supporting viable resettlement programs and working towards durable solutions is the only way tohelp resolve the “crisis.” The use of economic and political leverage to promote human rights andgood governance in refugee-producing countries is essential for contributing towards a durablesolution.  Proactively engaging to settle political conflicts, such as the dangerous proxy warbetween Eritrea and Ethiopia may be daunting but is badly needed for dealing with root causes.Meanwhile, creating a safe and legal route for refugees gives the option of having claimsprocessed in countries of first arrival and helps to put the human smugglers out of business.Coupled with this, sponsoring massive educational and media campaigns in refugee camps aboutthe hazards of journeys across the deserts of Libya, Sinai, Sudan, Yemen and other routes takenby refugees is essential. At present, increasing life-saving rescue operations in the Mediterranean11/09/2017 Africa at LSE – Desperately Poor Countries Host Refugees While the Affluent World Abandons Themhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/08/30/desperately-poor-countries-host-refugees-while-the-affluent-world-abandons-them/ 5/5August 30th, 2017 | African Perspectives on Migration, Featured, Migration | 2 Commentsis the right thing to do. Wheeling and dealing with the dictators, who are the very reason for theseflights is cruel – and uncivilised.Dr Yohannes Woldemariam is a former refugee who has been writing on refugee issues.  He canbe reached at: ywoldem@gmu.edu. The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of theAfrica at LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Desperately poor countries host refugees while the affluent world abandons them

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online