It is only September and already the year
2015 has been marked by severe humanitarian
crisis and devastation. This time embodied
in the waves of refugees fleeing to Europe
from countries destroyed by imperialist wars,
occupations and foreign intervention. Tens
of thousands of people are moving from the
poverty, violence and danger of bombed and
ruined countries, through the Mediterranean
crossing to Europe putting their lives at risk
in search of a life and a somewhere to be safe.
The numbers of women, men and children
forced from their homes and livelihoods in
Africa and the Middle East are staggering.
According to the International Organization
for Migration (IOM) 350,000 refugees have
crossed into Europe in 2015, increased
dramatically from 280,000 estimated to have
crossed in 2014.
However, even these numbers are far from
the total number of refugees from Africa and
the Middle East. On top of this unbelievable
forced movement of people, in fact, only a
fraction of refugees make the perilous journey
to Europe. A far greater number of people
remain in refugee camps in the region. Take
for example the nearly 8 million internally
displaced people in Syria, 2.5 million people
displaced in Darfur, Sudan or the 1.5 million
people that fled Afghanistan and now live in
Pakistan. There are now 60 million refugees in
the world, people fleeing wars and persecution
(United Nations).
In no calculation can the exodus of this many
people be considered a normal or regular
process, or one that represents the search of
migrants for a better life when faced with
poverty and the lack of a future. This is a
refugee crisis resulting from the new era of war
and occupation, the over 14 years of escalating
imperialist wars, occupation, sanctions and
foreign intervention in the Middle East and
Africa.
Life destroyed by Western intervention, war
and occupation
"You have to understand that no one puts
their children in a boat unless water is safer
than land"
- Somali poet Warsan Shire
This quote sums up the situation facing tens
of thousands of desperate refugees. Simply
put, they have no other option for life then
to move no matter the perils that they face on
the way. The new era of war and occupation
that began with the US-led invasion of
Afghanistan in 2001 has created millions of
displaced people with no option but to look
for somewhere safe to be.
According to an article in the BBC, 27%
of refugees entering Europe through the
Mediterranean crossings come from two
countries, Syria and Afghanistan. It is no
coincidence that these countries are also
two of the countries completely destroyed
by imperialist powers over the last 14 years.
However, this is not the end of this horrific
story. The new era of war and occupation has
also left Iraq and Libya in ruins, and through
more bombings, sanctions and covert and
overt intervention has also especially targeted
the people of Yemen, Mali, Somalia, Sudan,
threatening to tear open the entire social
fabric of Africa and the Middle East.
The crisis for refugees does not begin in
Europe
Long before we see the frightened yet
determined faces of refugees rescued at sea
off the coast of Italy or walking along railroad
tracks in Macedonia, their journey has begun
face to face with chaos, death and destruction
at their front door. In order to better
understand the reasons why people are forced
to flee, we have to go beyond the shores of
Italy, Spain or Greece, even thousands of
kilometres away, to the countries from which
the refugees are leaving.
It would be impossible to include a list
of all the devastating effects of continued
imperialist interventions in Africa and the
Middle East in this short article, but in order
to better understand the conditions that
have led to the refugee crisis in Europe, it is
important to better understand just how the
new era of war and occupation has formed its
deadly web.
Afghanistan
In the words of an Afghan refugee and
mother, "All of my children grew up with this
war. They are somehow used to the fighting
and the bombing. Of course they are afraid,
but they know that they need to stay inside
and never go out of their room in case a bullet
or a rocket hits them. They know what to do
when the fighting is here."
Afghanistan is a country torn open by 14
years of imperialist war and occupation. The
2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan was
promoted as an invasion and occupation
meant to liberate Afghanistan from the evil
clutches of the Taliban, and
invasion to bring the people of
Afghanistan to a new age of
democracy and women's rights.
Instead the war and the US/
NATO/Canada occupation has
brought nothing but destruction
to the people of Afghanistan.
Now the unemployment rate
in Afghanistan is 35-40% and
36% percent of the population
do not have access to food,
shelter, clothing or clean water.
Reconstruction projects billed as
the good results of an imperialist
occupation are quickly falling
apart, as most were built with a photo-op, not
a human life, in mind.
Today, one out of every 42 women of child-
bearing age dies from complications related
to pregnancy or child birth. In urban areas,
only 20% of the women in Afghanistan age
15-24 are literate; the literacy
rate for women living in rural
Afghanistan is three times lower.
In 2014 the aid organization
Doctors Without Borders
painted a picture of the complete
lack of infrastructure and access
to health care that the people of
Afghanistan face. They reported
that 66% of people in Afghanistan
said that they lived on around $1
US dollar a day.
Syria
According to UNHCR (United
Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees) 40% of the population
of Syria has been displaced over
the last four year. Nearly 8 million
people are internally displaced
and four million have crossed the Syrian
border mainly to live in refugee camps in
Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey (New York
Times). Syria now has the largest number of
displaced people of any country in the world.
And what has caused this
humanitarian crisis for the people
of Syria? - imperialist intervention
in the form of devastating civil
war. This war, which has killed
from 210,000 - 300,000 people
by varying estimations, started
in 2011 as a movement of so-
called rebels against the Syrian
government of Bashar Al-Assad.
The US and other imperialist
countries quickly intervened and
began funding and supporting
these "rebel" groups, like the Free
Syrian Army, adopting a policy
of facilitating regime change in
Syria. Imperialist intervention
has continued to fuel the fire
in the civil war, which has now
left the country fragmented and
destroyed. In January, 2015 the World Health
Organization reported that 1 million people
have been injured in this devastation.
The crisis in Syria escalated to another level in
2014 when the extremist organization ISIS/
ISIL emerged from the rubble of the civil war.
The so-called "moderate" rebels supported by
the US and other imperialist governments
were no longer so moderate. ISIS/ISIL now
violently controls a part of Syria and the US
has begun a bombing campaign in Syria
which they say is in the name of stopping the
spread of ISIS/ISIL, but in reality it has been
widely reported that US bombs
have been killing Syrian civilians
instead.
Iraq
Travel to the East of Syria and
there is yet another country
destroyed by imperialist wars
and occupation, Iraq. Iraq was
invaded by the US in March
of 2003. On May 1, 2003 US
President George W. Bush
stood in front of a banner stating
"Mission Accomplished" and
declared the war on Iraq over.
What ensued was over 12 years
of a brutal US occupation that perpetrated
some of the most horrific injustices and war
crimes upon the people of Iraq. With all basic
infrastructure destroyed, today, the United
Nations estimates that 8 million people in
Iraq are in need of basic necessities like food
and water.
Depleted uranium is the legacy
of US and imperialist war and
occupation in Iraq. In Fallujah,
a town targeted by the US
military during the occupation,
Iraqi babies are miscarried or
born with birth defects at a rate
many times higher than those
seen in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
following the US nuclear
bombing, a rate 33 times higher
than in Europe.
In Iraq, 3.6 million people are
internally displaced. In fact, in
the past year Iraq has experienced
the highest growth in the number
of internally displaced people of
any country. This increase in
refugees coincided with the new
US war on Iraq that began with the first
Western bombings of ISIS/ISIL.
Yemen
The most recent savage wing of imperialist
intervention in the Middle East has come
in the form of the brutal US-
backed Saudi-Arabian bombing
of Yemen. After over five months
of bombing, the UN World
Food Program has warned that a
famine in Yemen is developing,
not a surprise given that Saudi
Arabia has also imposed an air,
land and sea blockade. Now,
80% of the people of Yemen
are in need of some form of
humanitarian assistance.
Refugees fleeing Yemen travel by
boat to the Horn of Africa, where
they continue their dangerous
travel north to the Mediterranean
crossings into Europe.
Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia
"Yes, it's dangerous. I know I can die. If I get
a chance to live, OK, better. But if I die, that's
also OK. I cannot go anywhere else to change
my life. I can't change it in my country and
that is why I want to leave." - Judie, an
Eritrean refugee and widow, smuggled into
Libya.
On top of the recent influx of refugees into
the Horn of Africa from Yemen, this region
of Africa is already reeling under the effects
of colonization and imperialist intervention.
The U.S. and imperialist forces escalated
their intervention in the Horn of Africa
starting in 2007. In this year, the US backed
an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia through
training, arms and logistical support given to
the Ethiopian army. This invasion resulted in
the overthrow
of the
government of
Somalia. From
that time on
the entire
region has
faced extreme
destabilization.
Today, the
UNHCR
estimates that
5,000 people
leave Eritrea
every month,
many ending
up on the
Libyan coast.
Additionally,
Ethiopia is the
African country
with the most refugees, many of which are
running from continued violence in South
Sudan.
Mali
Going towards Western Africa, there is once
again another country bombed by imperialist
governments in the last 14 years. The people
of Mali were bombed in 2013, in a campaign
led by France that included the support of
the US and Canada. This bombing was in the
name of fighting terrorism in Mali, but like
a tragic number of similar stories, the result
was devastation and instability for the people
of Mali that continues to this day.
Libya
The tragic story of the refugee crisis would
not be complete without a closer look at the
country where many of the refugees reaching
the shores of Europe risk their lives to cross
the "Sea of Death" (Mediterranean Sea).
The Western bombing of Libya began
in March of 2011. For the next seven
months a US/UK/France/Canada/NATO
coalition continuously bombed Libya,
flying over 26,000 bombing sorties and
eventually assassinating the President of
Libya, Muammar Ghaddafi. The Western
intervention was justified in the name of
supporting a movement of so-called Libyan
rebels fighting in Libya for human rights and
democracy. However, over four years after the
bombing, Libya, once the wealthiest country
in Africa, is a fractured and devastated land.
The World Health Organization reported
this year that Libya has just 1,500 medical
clinics and hospitals to serve 6.5million
people. The UNHCR estimates that there
are 2.5million people in Libya in need of
humanitarian assistance, among them, the
400,000 internally displaced people that fled
their homes in search of safety just in the last
year alone.
In the sheer destruction and chaos that
Western intervention brought to Libya, a
space opened up for smugglers to operate
without fear or consequence. From the
shores of Libya, people depart for Europe
on overcrowded boats and rafts, frequently
without life jackets and almost always with
not enough fuel to make it to the European
shores. It is also in Libya that they are held at
the mercy of human smugglers for months at
a time, kept in cruel and inhuman conditions
inside of Libyan detention centers, awaiting
a boat or raft to take them to the Greece or
Italy.
Depths of the refugee crisis
From the grim figures above, it is clear that
the result of the last 14 years of the new era
of war and occupation has been death and
destruction. An entire region, from Africa
to the Middle East has been destabilized to
the point of being unliveable. The basic social
and economic fabric in these countries has
become unbound, and through the rips and
threads, people have been forced to leave
behind what is left of their lives.
It is clear that
life for millions of people in Africa and the
Middle East has become simply unliveable. It
is either die in the country they are from, or
take a risk for life and a future for your family.
And so the refugee crisis in Europe has
now become the most visible wound of the
imperialist wars and occupation devastating
Africa and the Middle East. Since January
of 2015, more than 300,000 refugees have
sought to cross the Mediterranean Sea and at
least 2,636 people have drowned in its waters.
The depths of this human tragedy once again
became the focus on international media on
August 27, 2015. On this day as many as 550
people were killed when two boats capsized
on route from Libya to Italy. Then the world
turned in horror with the news that 71 people,
including
four
children
had been
found dead
in the back
of a semi-
truck in
Austria.
Refugees
take this
risk because
they see
no other
option and
no end of
the war,
occupation
and
devastation
in sight.
Europe must open its borders
So far the response of the government of
Europe to the human crisis of refugees has
been disgraceful; people and families moved
and pushed along, shot with rubber bullets
and tear gas, turned back and told to pass
through newly built fences. At a time when
the border should be opened to facilitate
the mass movement of people to places
where they can live as humans and be safe,
instead the borders of Europe are tightening.
In fact, the Hungarian government has just
completed a barbed-wire fence to restrict the
movement of refugees through its 109 mile
long border with Serbia.
Face-saving manoeuvres meant to cover-up
the minimal and callous response of European
governments to the refugee crisis have also
continued in the last few months of escalating
humanitarian crisis. What has been the latest
move? A camp in Calais, France where
refugees go in order to attempt a dangerous
crossing from France into the UK, has just
received funding in order to be turned into a
proper refugee camp with conditions fit for
humans. What's the problem with this? - the
camp has only been given enough fundin
to house 1,500 refugees, when it is currently
holding at least 4,000.
On September 14 the European Union is
having an emergency meeting which will
bring together the interior ministers of 28
different countries to discuss the refugee
crisis. In the two weeks that will pass until that
time around 15,000 more refugees will arrive
in Europe. Whatever solution is developed, it
will certainly be a case of too little, too late for
tens of thousands of refugees.
The only short term solution to the crisis is
for Europe to open the borders to all refugees
and grant them legal status.
Canada's hands are not clean
Although this article has mostly focused on
the responsibility of European governments
to solve the refugee crisis, in no way are other
imperialist governments like the US and
Canada clean of their own responsibilities.
From here in Canada it may be easy to look
at the photos of refugees risking their lives
in over-crowded boats, passing newborns
beneath barbed wire fences, or jumping onto
the sides of moving buses and trains headed
into Europe, but Canada's role cannot be
ignored. Canada is one of the imperialist
countries responsible for creating the
disastrous situation in the Middle East and
Africa.
Since 2001, Canada has provided directly
military support or logistical and intelligence
support for every major imperialist
intervention in Africa and the Middle East
from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and
Mali.
Most recently, Canada has committed itself
to the US-led coalition fight against ISIS/
ISIL in Iraq and Syria. So far Canada has
provided over 600 armed forces personnel, six
CF-188 aircraft, one mid-air refuelling plane
and two surveillance aircrafts. Let's not forget
that Canada was also part of the coalition that
participated
in bombing
Libya for
seven months
resulting in
hundreds
of civilian
death.
It is time
that the
government
of Canada
take
responsibility
for its acts
against the
people of the
Middle East
and Africa.
In light of
the severe
human crisis
for refugees in Europe, Canada should
immediately offer to accept in 50,000 refugees
and legalize them immediately with full legal
and human rights.
Capitalism and imperialism is the cause of
the refugee crisis
Whittled down to its very core the new era
of war and occupation is about the global
war for resources and hegemony. As the US
and their imperialist allies continue to face
economic crisis, they will also continue their
drive for more and more resources and more
and more profit to keep their system afloat.
The refugee crisis that is so visible today is a
devastating symptom of the imperialist and
capitalist disease, a disease that has forced
millions of people to flee their home. People
would not risk their lives if they didn't have
to, if imperialist countries had not destroyed
their lives in the name of expanding profits
and exploitation of resources. No matter how
many fences are erected, or how dangerous
the crossing becomes, humanity will always
find a way to take a risk for life in the face of
a certain death.
Europe and imperialist governments around
the world like the US and Canada must take
responsibility for the human tragedy they
have created, whether it is walking though
the Sahara desert or yelling out in the night
hoping to be rescued by a passing fishing
boat.
The only immediate solution to the refugee
crisis is to open the borders, the long term
solution is to end imperialist wars and
occupation.
Imperialist Hands Off the Middle East and
Africa!
Open the doors to all refugees now!
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