EDITORIAL
By www.banadir.com
Somalis in general are certainly worried sick about their loved ones back home and in hostile countries after more than a decade of crisscrossing the continents, face to face with illegal racketeers, people smugglers, stony-faced immigration officials, bigoted landlords, bullying security guards, racial and religious- profiling, not to mention the harsh winter, and culture shock.
Since the outbreak of Somalia's civil war in 1991, each new cycle of turmoil has generated a fresh flow of refugees to neighbouring countries. Somali refugee crisis reached the worst mark after the country slided into anarchy again when the TFG with the help of Ethiopian troops and the Islamist started shelling each other inside civilian areas. The flow of Somali refugees reached countries like Yemen and Egypt where there were in the past tens of thousands of refugees stranded already. Worthy mentioning here that the TFG is currently based in Baidoa city, South of Mogadishu, due to the unending armed struggle between Ethiopian troops and the Islamist.
Some of those making the crossings are driven by economic reasons, but others are escaping conflict and persecution, people of concern to UNHCR. Although The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in these countries try to help the refugees with their living conditions, health care and resettlement issues, yet the plight of these people are underestimated by UNHCR, host countries and the developed countries as well.
A case in point is a young refugee who ended up in Egypt, one of the countries who are reluctant to welcome Somali refugees because of the overwhelming Arab Refugees from Palestine, Iraq and Sudan. However, young man breathed unexpected sigh of relief when his long lost half-sister, currently living in Toronto, Canada, contacted with the stranded boy through a Somali-Canadian visitor in Cairo give him the contact address of his long separated sister due to the an un-ending bloody civil war in their native country of Somalia.
Another case is a young mother of two in Dadaab Refugee Camp in neighboring Kenya who lost her family in the early years of the Somali Conflict but was unable to locate them. She desperately searched with the local UNHCR office and the Red Cross without results. But finally, she received a good news last year from Somali Diaspora man who lives in Nairobi that her elder sister lives in Minneapolis, US, and made her first contact with her sister after 16 years of separation. Also there are internally displaced persons, mostly the non-armed tribes, otherwise known as the Somali Bantus who were caught in clan feuds during the civil/clan wars. The warring functions expropriated their farms, destroy their homes, and gang raped their women during a running bloody battle and as a result people start moving to neighbouring countries. It is a man-made disaster in the making.
As if that is not enough, the world closed its eyes, covered its ears and shut its mouth, even when it is evident that the streets in Somalia still flows with blood, the seas are full of boat people and the neighboring countries are overwhelmed with young and vulnerable refugees, including women, children and the elderly.
The Middle-Eastern governments should respect its international obligations and continue to keep theirs doors open for the defenceless Somali refugees, who might fear persecution, or run from the civil war. Also UNHCR should keep its pledge to help internally displaced persons (IDPs) and external refugees.
Also the developed countries should recognize the plight of the Somalis which the United Nations Human Rights call the worst disaster in Africa and should know that there is nothing wrong with being a refugee or immigrant. After all it was the refugees and immigrants who built the "New World" with their sweat and blood.
Even Albert Einstein was a penniless refugee.
EDITORIAL
By www.banadir.com
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