The ones that got away

The great migrations in the animal world, such as that of the wildebeest in Serengeti, show some aspects where animals have one up over humans. They walk thousands of miles periodically in a year following rain patterns that predict where fresh grass grows and clean water flows. They are unburdened by territoriality, political systems, and culture. They thrive on a common goal and the experience of survival.

The great human migration from Syria tested what it meant to be human, and to be inhumane. Millions in total but thousands at a time, without constant supply of food, water and with roads as their beds, would consider themselves as part of a big group who wouldn’t separate. The fate of one is the fate of all in that journey. They cross waters and set on foot to walk hundreds of kilometers, children in tow and babies carried, to escape certain death from bombs, or the slow impending death from lack of jobs, because their offices were destroyed, their shelter unsafe, and their food supply unreplenished.

The migration, for many was much more than they bargained for. Hundreds died crossing the waters, even as this father of the drowned adorable three year-old boy, just resigned himself to sitting infinitely by the graves of the rest of his family who likewise drowned. And quite recently, the picture of a bloodied father’s face, still not letting go of his boy at Hungary’s border, and similar shots of a Syrian father protecting his crying baby with a tight hug and kiss are just too much to bear. They are not tributes to the human race.

It is difficult to imagine that before 2011, Syria was considered as one of the safest places to be in. Filipinos who visited the place even say that the locals, once you talk to them are actually quite warm to strangers, with strong sense of family, and peace-loving. Muslims, Christians, and people of different religious persuasions live harmoniously in the same city. How the conflict really started is subject to two lines of stories. Western media calls it a civil war that started with a violent government crackdown on protesters that escalated. Johnny Achi, a prominent Arab American insists it is not a civil war but a terrorist invasion even supported by the West to topple President Assad’s dictatorship regime. Whatever it was, Syrians were the collateral damage.

The 1951 Refugee Convention, and customary international law, set rules on rights of refugees and internally displaced individuals. Immigration laws of each country however, reign supreme. It is the sovereign right of any government to vet immigrants, and governments can reserve the right whether to accept immigrants or not. But this is conventional law that is not fair to use in abnormal situations, where life and limb of multitudes are involved. 

Lebanon, which is not even a signatory to the Refugee Convention, acted on social duty and has reportedly admitted immigrants from Syria equivalent to one quarter of its own total population.

Germany, which is the destination of choice because of its economic promise, was said to have accepted a huge number of immigrants due to its dwindling birthrates, plummeting population, and need for more workers in the future. They are still to be very much commended along with other European nations who helped. Indeed, taking in a major number of immigrants at one time not only presents to the host an economic issue. It presents important governance and cultural issues as well. They will be provided dwellings, places of worships, and special treatment in a way, but in great respect, discrimination is impossible to eradicate.

If Arab nations are being criticized for not living up to the teachings of their faith in denying entry to troubled fellow Muslims, it is also safe to say the US is not expected to open its doors and suddenly relax its policies that successfully warded off security threats after 9/11. The US government is being scored for contributing to the mess in Syria by encouraging terrorist groups to propagate as a by-product of the Iraq War. To me, what makes almost no sense is the resulting death and suffering to a people who were sought to be liberated in the first place.

Closer to home, the country had its own experience in dealing with refugees in the past, and perhaps maybe because of the manageable number then. We performed quite well in the area of human rights and even quality of life. In the ’70s we accepted more than 5,000 Vietnamese and thousands of Cambodian refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge killing fields, and the Vietnamese occupation. The establishment of Viet Ville, a Vietnamese refugee settlement in Palawan, was supported by the Catholic Church. Refugees there were taught livelihood and English as a second language among others. This is a testament of our commitment to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

It is not a holocaust that sought the wiping out of a race, but it is no less alarming the way to preserve life for millions of humans is a great migration done in great urgency, and life is subject to the condition of finding free grassland where they can feed and find shelter. Life suddenly depends not on rights, but on luck and lucky are those who get away and survive.

In what is the worst refugee crisis of our time, which is fast becoming one of the greatest human tragedies in history, we ask, where is the United Nations? Perhaps it is too much to ask for the UN to have a material impact. Perhaps it will remain aspirational for the UN to have greater clout in intra-country wars, prosecution of international criminals, or mandating powers to stop further tragedies from happening such as from the refugee crisis. On these occasions, it is sad to accept the UN is still made up of member countries and each country is a sovereign state. Social obligations can be pronounced, but cannot be compelled under pain of penalty.

The Tower of Babel biblically created the different languages that created the different countries. When men’s laws fail us, how we wish we can always find refuge in men’s faith. But faith itself will be a great pretense, and being human a big disgrace, if people remember their country but forget that we all live in one Earth, and that we are all brothers in one human race.

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Alexander B. Cabrera is the chairman and senior partner of Isla Lipana & Co./PwC Philippines. He also chairs the tax committee of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP). Email your comments and questions to [email protected]. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors.