Shaktheeswari Ravi
The Refugee Crisis: Global Health and Humanitarian Catastrophe- Delineation and Exploratory Review of the Situation Over the Middle East.
Abstract:
Today,Over 60 million people are forcibly displaced for a conflict they have no part in.
Syria holds distinction, for the highest number after their Regime’s uprising had disintegrated into civil war producing victims traumatised by barbarism,war, sexual violence and human trafficking.
This tells us something deeply worrying about the International humanitarian system and world peace failing.
The system is to work in a way, that refugees will be provided safe havens with basic public health infrastructure and social integration.
Today,we see it break down, due to polarised unethical political behavior,drastically underfunded UN appeals, failure to acknowledge the displacement scale and concomitant public health challenges.
Studies interpret that one member of every household in any asylum suffers from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, post traumatic stress disorder, malnutrition, and other hygiene related infections. Additionally, geographic,economic,linguistic and deficiency of humanitarian assistance tragedies the situation.
Our highest ideals must remain in ending the conflicts , as no country is immune to war disintegration and uncoordinated national responses, are not the answer.
We must also broaden the discussion in providing humanitarian relief and treat the asylum seekers as individuals and not as mere commodity that is traded or considered as threat.
An effective implementing pattern has to be pushed forward enhancing public health infrastructure,monitoring immunity and disease control, identifying the vulnerable with education and hygiene promotion.
I believe this is that ‘once in a generation’ moment when nations have to unite. The last time there were this amount of refugees was after World War II,where nations came together to forge the United Nations Charter.
My final remarks would be that, ‘time’ is defined not by the catastrophic crises itself, but by how we define and establish an international community, to create a stable and a safe world,for everyone.
Introduction:
An unprecedented 65.3 million people around the world have been forced from home. Among them are nearly 21.3 million refugees, over half of whom are under the age of 18 as result of persecution or conflict.
There are also 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment and freedom of movement.
Refugees—defined by the UNHCR as individuals who have been forcibly displaced outside their native countries—who come from a history of hardship, including war, famine, and violence.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), reports that Syria holds the distinction for the highest number of refugees after their Regime’s uprising had disintegrated into civil war producing victims traumatized by barbarism, destruction by war, sexual violence and human trafficking.The crisis illustrates our inability to find diplomatic solutions causing mass displacement in exile and statelessness.
The Story of the Conflict: Syria
Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa, after the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall. After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several,the protests took to the streets.
The unrest triggered nationwide protests, demanding President Assad’s resignation. The government’s use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters’ resolve. By July 2011, thousands were taking to the streets across the country.Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were formed, to battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting reached the capital Damascus and second city of Aleppo in 2012.
The conflict is now more than just a battle between those for or against Mr Assad. It has acquired sectarian overtones.Hundreds of people were killed in August 2013 after rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin were fired at several suburbs of Damascus. Western powers said it could only have been carried out by Syria’s government, but the government blamed rebel forces.
The government is indulging in war crimes by blocking access to food,water,electricity and health services through seiges-a method of war,influxing its people to nearby countries
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The picture explains the influx of refugees to other countries,escaping war and barbarism.
The untold journey:
To get a perspective, the journey of escape from Syria, branches to various routes.
The walking journey: Though uncertain and dangerous,families are willing to walk 2235 km fleeing from Aleppo,Syria to Serbia,Hungary.It would take 452 hours — about 50 days — walking eight hours per day,covering an ambitious 25 miles/day while carrying possessions,shepherding young children and stopping to look for food.
While others make the journey by crossing the Mediterranean sea to Greece or Italy,through the Balkans to Austria and furthur north to sweden,paying smugglers charges to get them to safety.
New legislations have been passed by various governments shutting down borders,drowning the asylum seekers on the doorstep of the world’s wealthiest continents.
Situation in 2016:
Syria is now entering its sixth year of conflict with no compromise at sight and access to health care remains severely compromised.
A quarter of the population in Syria lives in besieged and hard-to-reach locations.
Throughout 2016, it is to be noted that WHO continued to advocate for regular access to people in these areas, but only 2 of 18 requests to evacuate critically ill patients from the besieged areas of Madaya, east Aleppo and Foah were authorized.