Amidst the stream of refugees entering Western Europe defying national borders and internal security system, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that Germany would receive 800,000 refugees to help end the crisis.
Her action earned her the place of the saviour of humanity at this trying moment when most other European nations are still watching how far they can do to shelter the homeless people trying to find a breathing place beneath the sun.
Many believe that it is not the time of selfishness when people are dying in sea and land, in addition to facing destruction in civil wars in their home country. Europe must come out to stand by the suffering humanity for which they can’t avoid their responsibility either.
Global human crisis of migration has been created by global powers being reckless about the consequences of their war on terrorism. Most of the migrants are not economic migrants. Some of the displaced ones from Syria, Iraq and Libya were richer than the average rich people of Europe.
The emergency meeting of 28-nation European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers on Saturday agreed in principle to shelter the refugees while also agreeing to work on an emergency plan to stop the outflow at the source.
Meanwhile, as news reports said over 400,000 refugees have already entered Europe from January this year and the number are surging in recent week. Over 53,000 entered Hungary in August alone using the Balkan route and the refugee stand off in Bucharest railway station; which made acrimonious global headlines over the last week-end showed the world the desperation of the homeless people to find safety.
As Hungary stopped running European Express train to Austria and Germany and held people away from railway station, desperate people started walking on feet towards Austria on Saturday about 600 km from Bucharest.
Austria and Germany on Sunday announced their border opened to refugees and over 10,000 entered Austria, some agency report said as police have removed the border barriers to arriving refugees.
It appears to be the worst refugee crisis since the second World War rendering Europe’s asylum system virtually ineffective. Over 100 refugees are entering Germany every hour as some news agency on Friday said when most European governments were still watching the development. Migrants are entering Western Europe crossing the Mediterranean to Italy and Greece.
The drowning of the three-year Syrian toddler in the Turkish coast during the desperate move of his father on Wednesday to enter Greece by sea in a fiber boat and his recovery in shining clothes and graceful face in the beach caught the global community in utter shame of doing nothing to save the drowning people.
But the permanent solution is not to parcel out the displaced man, women and children from various countries as neglected commodities. Global arrangement has to be assured for the displaced ones not to remain uprooted. Their own countries have to be made safe and livable. Each government should be allowed to do their duties to their people.
The Western countries, especially, including Russia on the sideline for its role to keep Assad in power in Syria as its ally, have done brutal things by carelessly pursuing military operations without caring the cost to the civilians. Armed civilian extremists should have been dealt with firmly but at the same time concerns should have been shown about destroying the living conditions within the countries affected.
There are no doubt many economic migrants for bad governance not affected by war against terrorism. They were desperate to escape poverty and oppression. The importance of democratic good governance was neglected, and rampant corruption ignored.
This present human crisis should make the rich countries aware that they cannot enjoy their rich lives undisturbed in this age of global connectivity ignoring what is happening in other parts of the world.
We must learn to live well together.
