It’s time, now more than ever, to open hearts and doors to refugees

Opening hearts and doors to refugees will be a step taken in the right direction to ease suffering and save the lives of fellow human beings

By Dishani Senaratne

What do you do when your home is no longer a safe place?  Leaving home and one’s family for safety is bound to evoke bittersweet feelings of both happiness and grief. However, leaving everything behind under trying circumstances, perhaps taking one small bag containing the most valued or needed possessions, is a difficult choice to make. 

Sadly, more and more people across the globe are confronted with harsh realities such as fearing for their lives in their own countries forcing them to leave their homes. In other words, a refugee is someone who has been forced to flee her or his home country because of persecution, war or violence. An asylum seeker is someone who has applied for refugee status, but whose claim for refugee status is yet to be determined or assessed.

The 1951 Convention on the State of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol are two of the most detailed and most widely accepted documents that provide for the protection of refugees. Endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 17 December 2018, the Global Compact on Refugees provides a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing, recognising that a sustainable solution to refugee situations cannot be achieved without international cooperation. Most importantly, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, considers, inter alia, refugees and asylum seekers as Persons of Concern (PoC) as they come under the UNHCR mandate. 

In modern times, the world wars precipitated a refugee crisis across Europe. Nearly a decade ago, the 2011 uprising in Syria provided the initial spark to ignite a civil war, creating one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time. Close to home, a mass exodus of the Rohingya community, an ethnic minority group in Myanmar, rose to an unprecedented level, in 2017, mostly to escape communal violence or alleged military abuse. 

More recently, the chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the ensuing Taliban comeback witnessed a fresh wave of refugees. Similarly, thousands of people were stranded at the Belarus-Poland border for almost two weeks recently, provoking the latest refugee crisis in Europe. Evidently, refugees are becoming a ubiquitous sight across the world, reiterating calls for concerted global action. 

Turning towards Sri Lanka, the Tamil community fled the country in droves following the escalation of violence between the security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Whilst acknowledging the state and national governments of India for providing protection, assistance and hospitality for decades to approximately 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu, the number of refugees that have returned through the UNHCR facilitated voluntary repatriation process has not been significant. This is despite it being 12 years since the 2009 military defeat of the LTTE. 

The Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were excluded from the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), much to the dismay of those who wish to plan on living in India permanently. While the case for Indian citizenship is no doubt a complex one, living in a state of protracted social and legal limbo has deprived the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees from gaining access to long-term prospects.

In what way has Sri Lanka opened its door to refugees and asylum seekers from other countries? Despite not being party to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, the Sri Lankan Government under the Presidency of the Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, mandated the UNHCR to determine ‘refugee status’ of those who apply for such an assessment, having come to Sri Lanka from other countries. 

Regrettably, with rising waves of anti-Muslim sentiments and violence in post-conflict afterlife, a cohort of Rohingya refugees who were in their residence were attacked, in 2017, by a group, including some who were clad in Buddhist monk robes. 

Two years later, a group of refugees and asylum seekers belonging to religious minorities hailing from countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, were evicted from their houses in Negombo for being perceived as “Muslims,” in a retaliatory move subsequent to the 2019 Easter attacks.  In response, the Negombo Citizens’ Collective, a collective of local civil society groups and religious leaders, together with a large number of local people, voluntarily assisted and hosted asylum seekers and refugees in their own houses, including in Jaffna. 

During this difficult and challenging time, asylum seekers and refugees did receive support through the operational structures of the Government of Sri Lanka with temporary relocations, escort support and physical protection. In addition, the Collective carried out a series of community sensitisation programmes not only to ensure the safety of both the refugees and the local Muslim community but also mitigate the eruption of youth violence.

While the UNHCR provides a living allowance for refugees, such an allowance is not sufficient to address the fundamental rights for housing, food, education or a dignified life. This results in asylum seekers being compelled to fend for themselves. Neither refugees nor asylum seekers are allowed to legally work in Sri Lanka, making them vulnerable to take up 4-D jobs (Dirty, Dangerous, Demeaning and Difficult) not only for survival but also to support their families back home.

The UNHCR, through its Program Implementing Partners, as well as a number of civil society and non-governmental organisations are engaged in rendering support to refugees and asylum seekers, ranging from distribution of essential dry rations, offering rental assistance, conducting English, ICT and vocational training courses to providing psycho-social support.

On a positive note, refugees have access to free healthcare services at government hospitals. In addition, the costs of refugee children’s primary education are borne by the UNHCR, as these children have no access to benefit from Sri Lanka’s ‘free education’ policy. The educational support for refugee children does not extend to cover any secondary education. However, children of asylum seeker families awaiting assessment, have no access to any form of education. It is heartening to note that certain international schools encourage children from refugee families to engage in extra-curricular activities free-of-charge.

The onset of the pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to refugees across the world. Manifesting COVID-induced xenophobia in the Sri Lankan context, foreign nationals and tourists were initially blamed for being the source of the virus. Later, when small COVID outbreaks occurred in neighbouring areas, the Muslim community was heaped all blame, especially on social networks, for supposedly acting as “vectors” in spreading the virus. Given that refugees are often perceived as a “homogeneous group of Muslims from overseas,” there was an increase in hostility and mistrust towards refugees during the initial stages of the pandemic. 

With the daily rise in new infections across all districts alongside the increasing death toll, such waves of hostility gradually waned. At present, most refugees and asylum seekers have been vaccinated, according to the organisations working with refugees. As is the case with many Sri Lankans, refugees engaged in casual work have suffered job losses, in addition to the decline in receipt of foreign remittances. To exacerbate matters further, most donors and individual philanthropists are struggling to financially contribute to the welfare of refugees due to income loss during intermittent lockdowns.

While the UNHCR strives to protect and assist refugees, resettlement is not considered a right and there is no obligation on States to accept refugees or Stateless Persons for resettlement. Based on the type of the application, the processing time is likely to vary. The experience of being compelled to wait for a long period of time to know the outcome of the application, as well as the wait for resettlement after applications are approved, further adds to the mental burden borne by refugees and asylum seekers. 

“Anyone can become a refugee, it’s something that happens to you,” Attorney-at-Law Lakshan Dias who has worked closely with refugees both in Sri Lanka and abroad for more than a decade emphasised. Pointing out how, during the decades-long civil war, countries like India and Canada, among many others, accepted Sri Lankan refugees who fled the country in search of safety and a better life, Dias urged Sri Lankans to be more empathetic towards refugees.  

More recently, commenting on the recent developments in Afghanistan, Pope Francis encouraged the global community to welcome Afghan refugees who are seeking a new life. Perhaps taking a cue from Pope Francis who has continuously been a voice for the voiceless, local religious leaders have a bigger role to play for raising awareness about the less-discussed global refugee crisis, ideally based on faith-based interventions. 

The international community, on the other hand, should go beyond making mere statements and take tangible action to mitigate the ever-rising refugee crisis. Admittedly, signing the 1951 Convention on the State of Refugees by all countries is woefully inadequate to address the issues confronting the refugees. Unarguably, concerted global effort coupled with strong political commitment is of paramount importance to address the root causes of the current refugee challenge. 

More importantly, opening hearts and doors to refugees will be a step taken in the right direction to ease suffering and save the lives of fellow human beings.