2016 should be a better year for immigrants

By Simon J. Mone Immigrants
Posted 


Tuesday, December 29  

2015 at 

02:00

The year 2015 will go into history books as one to forget. A record one million migrants have pitch camped at the European Union (EU). This year’s displacement crises have cast immigration at every corner of the world into perspective.

On a daily basis, thousands of people are being internally and externally displaced around the globe. One thing stood out from all of these population displacements. How desperate people can become. Setting out on very dangerous journeys to unknown destinations and opting to live serious humanitarian conditions.

Against the odds, they have continuously fled their homes without certainty of ever being able to return. Conflict, violence and disasters, name it, are to blame. Such barriers, resulting from greed, corruption, scarcity and rights abuses continue to split sentiments of communities, forcing them to re-locate. So they flee in order to find better life. They take off, hoping to land in safe haven.

Since the turn of 2015, many have reached. But some couldn’t get there. The rough seas swallowed a good number of refugees. About 5,000 women, men and children, unfortunately lost their lives in the process. Tens of thousands more were exploited, trafficked and abused. So against this background, the numbers say that 2015 has been a year dominated by human suffering and migrant tragedies almost every week.

Nothing has been worse than human unsettlement this year. Root causes of such displacements continue lingering in the spotlight, and will forever persist should we become complacent with short-term solutions.

Not just the EU, the world must urgently weigh in, with things other than just migrant quotas or even delegating stop-gap responsibilities to other countries, asking them to accommodate stranded migrants. Answers to these important questions lie in the EU boardroom.

One is to quickly endorse the International Convention to protect the rights of migrants. It starts by bringing heads together to work collectively. Analyse the underlying causes of these displacements. Come out with plausible recommendations.

One such commendation is for migrants to be able to enter any country of their choice. Settle and provide non-professional labour in order to get education and be useful.

In fact, the EU can use their re-location money to educate refugees. This will enable refugees to get relevant skills. The skills will help in many ways. For example, it will make them become a part of the solution to their troubles back home. But more importantly, the skills will help give a livelihood, unlike unsustainable aid from NGOs.
So a platform to support migrants is necessary. Its implementation will make refugees turn their disadvantages into advantages. This is the best way to be respectful to humanity. It offers more responsible and sustainable solutions to refugees’ needs. Leaving NGOs to do it alone is less sustainable. So, stuffing migrants in trucks, mistreating and re-locating them to less desirable destinations were among the lowest point of 2015.

We can be generous with our solutions. This means we don’t have to look at humanitarian organisations only to provide answers. It requires; nice policies, a will, good hearts and the budget. Then implementation will be easy.

Upon putting the framework in place, the world will be ready to solve migration questions. Therefore, as we await good solutions, we can drop the mistakes of 2015. And ensure 2016 is a better year for immigrants. As things are, 2015 was terrible.

Displacements continue to spiral out of hand. They say, ‘it takes statistics to act’. This statistics is at one million displacements now. Shall we act in 2016? Emergencies will erupt and we must to provide solutions. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Mr Mone is a civil engineer, smone@mail.com