June 20th, 2020 – World Refugee Day

As we mark World Refugee Day, please take a few moments to listen to the following poem below written by Cassidy Stagg, a student in Ballenas Secondary School, Parksville, BC.

 

What is staying with you as you reflect on the poem?

Every minute twenty people from various countries throughout the world leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. What can be more heart-breaking than to flee your home, your country, not knowing what the future may hold?

To highlight the experiences, the courage and determination of millions of people throughout the world who have to flee from their homes, the United Nations has nominated June 20th as World Refugee Day. For 2020 the theme is ‘Every Action Counts – Everyone Can Make a Difference’ a theme that reminds us that everyone can contribute to creating a more just, inclusive and equal society. Each one of us can be an agent of change in our world. Celebrating World Refugee Day raises our awareness and can help us to understand what refugees around the world endure. It also highlights the richness of cultural diversity and the contribution that many refugees are making in their ‘new homelands’.

So who is a refugee? The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as “someone, regardless of age, who is forced to flee their country and seeks protection in another country owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”.  Many also become refugees due to war, hunger and climate change. According to UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) at least 70.8 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes.  Among them are nearly 23.9 million refugees, over half of whom are under 18 years.

For refugees, fleeing their homes can be just the beginning of a very traumatic journey to a land of ‘new hope and promise’.  They risk all in the hope and expectation of finding a better and safer life. However, after the initial euphoria, life can get more complicated and difficult; for many feelings of loneliness and isolation set in.  Some find it difficult to make friends.  Take the case of Nahla (name changed), who was granted refugee status in Ireland a number of years ago.   Not having either family or peer support, she now experiences chronic loneliness, depression and disappointment as she struggles with college life.   As she does not conform to the rigid stereotypes around clothing and other norms, she feels that she is being judged by her own community. For Nahla life under COVID-19 has exacerbated her problems. Having to isolate, not having college lectures and trying to do assignments and end of year exams with poor quality internet are some of the added strains that she is experiencing. Pre-COVID, she went to a café to study so that she could be among people; this is no longer possible.

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has shown how desperately we need to advocate for a more inclusive and equal world, a world where no one is left behind. With even the world’s best-equipped health systems struggling to contain the spread of the virus, refugees and other displaced persons are living in very precarious conditions.  Many are living in overcrowded and unhygienic situations; access to water, sanitation and health care facilities is very limited. Social distancing and regular handwashing almost impossible.  In the Irish context our government is presently looking at taking on a new international protection accommodation policy which offers some glimmer of hope.

Another area of deep concern is that many refugees are becoming extremely vulnerable to exploitation. Human trafficking and smuggling of refugees and migrants are crimes with serious human rights implications that are further accentuated in crisis times.

First celebrated in 2001, World Refugee Day is held every year on June 20th.  It is a time to recognise and applaud the contribution of refugees throughout the world. It is also a time to honour the resilience of so many who have had to move from their homeland.  I invite you to return to what is staying with you from your reflection on the opening poem. You may wish to listen to it again.  From your reflection, to what one action can you commit which might help to   create a more just, inclusive and equal world for refugees?

The following is a prayer from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: (World Refugee Day 2020 Toolkit).  Perhaps praying this reflection may be your one action that will make a difference.

A Moment of Grace –  A Prayer for Refugees

 

God of our Wandering Ancestors,
Long have we known
That your heart is with the refugee:
That you were born into time
In a family of refugees
Fleeing violence in their homeland,
Who then gathered up their hungry child
And fled into alien country.

Their cry, your cry,
 resounds through the ages:    
“Will you let me in?”
Give us hearts that break open
When our brothers and sisters turn
to us with that same cry.

Then surely all these things will follow:    
Ears will no longer turn deaf to their voices.     
Eyes will see a moment for grace instead of a threat.      
Tongues will not be silenced but will instead advocate.
And hands will reach out –        
working for peace in their homeland,        
working for justice in the lands where they seek safe haven.

Lord, protect all refugees in their travels.
May they find a friend in me
And so make me worthy
Of the refuge I have found in you.

AMEN

 

Patricia O’Donovan rsm