Vulnerable visitors: Test of a nation’s conscience

A world made in the image of boundless greed has no room for the vulnerable

The recent arrival of a boat full of Rohingyas in the country, raises some associated questions. What is the responsibility of the Government of Sri Lanka towards such vulnerable visitors and what was the fate of at least two similar groups who sought refuge in the Island of compassion, not too long ago?

The stateless

The Rohingya are an ethnic community from Myanmar who have been denied their right to nationality. This has subjected them to the worst atrocities and crimes of persecution, apartheid and genocide. They along with others comprise the approximately 15 million stateless people in today’s world, deprived of the rights that the rest of us take for granted.

The sovereign UN member state

All UN member states, including Sri Lanka are aware of the crime of statelessness. They are also privy to the confusion caused by immigration officials the world over, when stateless refugees, and refugees who are not stateless, are treated alike.

Member states, also know that refugees should not be ‘refouled’ or sent back to the country they have fled. When the refugee is also stateless, it is unlikely that any other country, including their own, will accept them.

Consequently, UN member states cannot deal arbitrarily with the stateless. They are to adhere to UN expectations and act in collaboration with the UNHCR to protect and treat the stateless with dignity and rights.

On the ground these realities and distinctions impose at least three broad measures. All UN member states are to; advocate for citizenship rights, responsibilities and privileges for every baby born into this world; refuse to connive with the ad-hoc policies of offending states irrespective of historic, cultural, commercial, or political factors; and provide for the rights, well-being, dignity and security of the stateless on their soil, pending a lasting solution.

Essentially democratic states, should go further. They should also educate their citizens on the predicament of the stateless and UN member state obligations.

The suspicion syndrome

On a previous instance when a group of Rohingyas arrived in the country we got it somewhat right; at the beginning. Through a State-UNHCR partnership, these vulnerable humans were received and treated with a degree of dignity, pending the next statutory step. They were housed in a residential area and their children were enrolled in nearby schools.

Suddenly, things turned nasty. An angry mob, instigated by religious representatives, stormed their residence. As it was then and has been for too long; the state apparatus typically looked away when Muslims were labelled terrorists. To our shame, extremism won the day and this hapless community, including several little children, was moved to a prison, ‘for their own protection’.

The silence that followed, coupled with an intelligent guess, suggests that a covert transaction moved our humiliated visitors from a closed prison to a nearby ‘friendly’ country.

The stakes

The Rohingya have neither political power nor diplomatic prowess. Wherever they seek human kindness, haughty decision makers and sensational news makers, close ranks on them. Their cry for justice and accountability is often dismissed by highlighting another international crime; human trafficking. But the two are connected. Statelessness and persecution are exploited by human traffickers; the Rohingya in such situations being ultimately victims of statelessness, persecution and trafficking. It is consequently necessary and possible to respond to crimes of trafficking without further penalising its victims, particularly when they happen to be stateless refugees.

The main power the Rohingya have is the power of the vulnerable; to hold a mirror to our conscience. Today’s timing is far from co-incidental. These are days when our own vulnerable matter less and less.

Caught up in the aftermath of a long drawn corruption crisis, and forced into submission under the neo-liberal gods of endless privatisation and measureless profits, the lie that our own vulnerable must fend for themselves is fast gaining ground. A world made in the image of boundless greed has no room for the vulnerable.

However, acknowledgement of the vulnerable, whether Rohingya or Lankan, has potential to bring us to our senses. It paves the way to humane recovery; economic stability through personal contentment and the reasonable redistribution of wealth.

The vision of such a just social order is endorsed by our religions. It has also been passionately advocated over several decades by the current regime, now entrusted to give it flesh by a majority of citizens, comprising a high percentage of the vulnerable.

The Government therefore cannot speak a different language at the debt negotiating tables or hide its identity and mandate, for later on. If it does not assert the essence of its character and the cry of the people it represents from the outset, chances are that those who moderate the agenda will manipulate it to suit the expectations of powerful forces, never satisfied till they have it all.

It is when such a stance is sustained that the Rohingya on our soil will be perceived differently. As repeatedly taught by the sages through the ages, the affirmation of the value of the vulnerable in one location, awakens a dormant solidarity with the vulnerable in other locations. Those who have been through the fire, accompany those in the fire.

With peace and blessings to all.