AT LEAST 1200 migrants from Central America, mostly Honduras, headed on foot to the US border. Honduras in recent times has been riddled with political unrest and gang wars. However, President Trump, in line with his extreme disgust for immigrants, on last Tuesday said that the military will be sent to guard the US – Mexico border. By dispatching the military to the border Trump may prevent entry of the vulnerable refugees but this is not a solution. This is not the way the people of many South American small nations expect America to behave.
Rather we were impressed that Mexico, despite a binge of domestic ordeals opened its borders to embrace Honduras refugees.
Trump and his people along with the US Administration must come to acknowledge that – people as refugees do not flee their countries out of enjoyment – they flee because to save their lives, seek protection and security. Additionally, it would be wrong to assume that all migration takes place because of immigrants seeking jobs, citizenship and other facilities.
It’s time that the US directly or indirectly gets involved into the growing deteriorating political and security situations inside its neighbouring South American nations. The US also needs to identify the reasons why many from those countries are being forced to immigrate, and most importantly it should positively intervene to jointly address their internal predicaments. It is expected that the US policy makers would jointly address corruption, political and economic instability to have gripped countries like Honduras – if the US can help in changing their situation the spree of illegal entries to the US would automatically end.
Not that the US hasn’t interceded to solve problems among the South-American countries before but in recent times the US policy towards Latin America is a clear attempt to exclude extraterritorial rivals from the hemisphere as a way to ‘defend the United States’. This line of thinking is absolutely wrong. We do not expect it to be possible for America or any other country to allow them to come in from the countries unsafe for living, but what should certainly be possible for America and others not to tolerate brutal regimes creating immigration problems for other countries.
We must have an international order not to bear with human rights violation anywhere. This is the obligation created by the UN Charter and the Declaration Of Human Rights.
