THE UN refugee agency made the disclosure recently as reported by national dailies that a stateless child is born in every 10 minutes raising question where they will get shelter and state support without their own homeland. The report explained how the problem of statelessness has intensified mainly resulting from civil war in Syria sparking global refugee crisis. Europe is swarm by stateless refugees while Lebanon and Jordan are homes to displaced people from Syria and Iraq.
The report has rightly highlighted the long-term consequences of statelessness for children such as being deprived of medical care, education and future access to employment. The problem is particularly going to be severe among migrants from war zones. As per the UN refugee agency, around 20 countries are now hosting the largest stateless populations when at least 70,000 stateless children are born each year. It is not that the world did not handle the stateless people in the past but the number and human sufferings of the stream of refugees this time seems to be beyond imagination as they are drowning in the sea, crossing borders of Eastern European countries on foot in hostile environment and struggling to reach shelter somewhere.
It is unimaginable that babies are born in tents and roadside to families many of whom were rich in their countries to enjoy good maternity facilities. They are not only begging for shelter many of them may be denied of access to basic facilities to suffer from social exclusion at the end. Lacking a decent identity everywhere, they may suffer from limit on freedom of movement. The refugee status is feared to have devastating impact on their physical and mental growth while many children and young people may ultimately fall to human traffickers’ hands. The question is how to save a total growing generation while giving shelter to their parents and the elderly generation ejected from their homes for no fault of their own. They are victims of cruelty of their leaders and global geopolitics where leaders of some other nations want to hold control on their land and resources instead of allowing the people to elect their government and live a decent life.
It is a shame to see such terrible devastation of human dignity when our world leaders claim to have reached the height of modern civilization. Cruelty, killing and making people homeless is the other face of this civilization that people have never dreamt about. Not only Bashar al-Assad in Syria; Palestinian people are being butchered by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when the US and European leaders watch in silence.
But we fear today’s stateless children of Syria and Palestine may become dangerous threat tomorrow if they are not properly saved to settle in dignity. They must have a home of their own to grow.
The report has rightly highlighted the long-term consequences of statelessness for children such as being deprived of medical care, education and future access to employment. The problem is particularly going to be severe among migrants from war zones. As per the UN refugee agency, around 20 countries are now hosting the largest stateless populations when at least 70,000 stateless children are born each year. It is not that the world did not handle the stateless people in the past but the number and human sufferings of the stream of refugees this time seems to be beyond imagination as they are drowning in the sea, crossing borders of Eastern European countries on foot in hostile environment and struggling to reach shelter somewhere.
It is unimaginable that babies are born in tents and roadside to families many of whom were rich in their countries to enjoy good maternity facilities. They are not only begging for shelter many of them may be denied of access to basic facilities to suffer from social exclusion at the end. Lacking a decent identity everywhere, they may suffer from limit on freedom of movement. The refugee status is feared to have devastating impact on their physical and mental growth while many children and young people may ultimately fall to human traffickers’ hands. The question is how to save a total growing generation while giving shelter to their parents and the elderly generation ejected from their homes for no fault of their own. They are victims of cruelty of their leaders and global geopolitics where leaders of some other nations want to hold control on their land and resources instead of allowing the people to elect their government and live a decent life.
It is a shame to see such terrible devastation of human dignity when our world leaders claim to have reached the height of modern civilization. Cruelty, killing and making people homeless is the other face of this civilization that people have never dreamt about. Not only Bashar al-Assad in Syria; Palestinian people are being butchered by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu when the US and European leaders watch in silence.
But we fear today’s stateless children of Syria and Palestine may become dangerous threat tomorrow if they are not properly saved to settle in dignity. They must have a home of their own to grow.
