A Young Conservative View: Why Britain has a duty to help refugees.

Author - Jake Enea

When you think of refugees, who comes to mind? You most likely do not envision a European. If you asked your grandparents what a refugee was as a child during World War II, they would most likely have described someone from Europe.

 The war displaced more than 40 million Europeans. For them, the United Nations Refugee Agency was established. We tend to forget this. Some of today's leaders who use the harshest rhetoric against refugees can trace their roots back to countries that experienced tragic refugee situations and were assisted by the international community.

Throughout history, the phrase refugee has been related with the term refuge, which refers to a secure haven where a person seeks sanctuary. A refugee is now defined as a person who has been compelled to flee his or her native country because of conflict, violence, or fear of persecution as a result of specific views and beliefs, race, religion, sectarianism, nationality, or political opinion.

I discovered this with a simple search on the internet However, What the internet fails to emphasise is that a refugee is a person who struggles every day to find food, a safe place to stay, to protect their family, to be respected, and, most importantly, to have the room to grow into the person they could be. Someone like you and me is a refugee. A refugee is a person with hopes and aspirations, a person who aspires to reunite with their family and live a peaceful life, a life that is their birth right.

Imagine living in a country where you are even deprived of the dignity that God gave you ... Imagine living in a country where you are not sure you can do it the next day ... Imagine waking up your loved ones every day to death all around (due to the war) ... Imagine that in all the violence, oppression and ongoing war in your country / region, you feel that there is no better option than to escape to a strange foreign country. Imagine a day when you wake up and realize that you have to flee your country due to factors that you can never choose or control. Imagine having to leave everything behind; your family, your friends, your valuables, your dreams and your memories, in the hope of living a more secure life. Well, this is just a small part of every refugee's experience.

As we all know, the 21st century marks the worst refugee crisis since World War II. For 2021, it was reported that 80 million people were forced to leave their homes. Of these, 3.5 million asylum seekers, 41.3 million internally displaced persons (while running to other parts of the country) and 25.9 million refugees. Among the refugees, the majority came from three countries, Syria (6.7 million), followed by Afghanistan (2.7 million) and South Sudan (2.3 million). Other refugees come from countries such as Myanmar, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eritrea. 

 Today, most of the world's refugees are hosted by developing countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Libya and Bangladesh. While some are organized by European countries. But that must change because the refugee problem is not the responsibility of these countries alone, but the problem of all countries. Therefore, every world leader must be called upon to commit to working together to tackle the refugee problem. 

All countries are required to open their doors to these refugees so that no one is killed trying to cross the border. It is time to stop blaming refugees for social and economic problems as this will only increase xenophobia, which leads to more hatred and discrimination. While many countries view refugees as a burden, it is important to remember that no one decides to leave their country by the riskiest routes and risk their life and that of their family unless they know the roads to risk are safer than their own country. No one chooses to be humiliated and discriminated against unless what they have to experience in their own country is the worst. Accepting refugees is also a win for the UK and the communities that host them. By providing them with the right to work, to health, and to education, refugees can start productive lives in their host countries. The faster they can integrate into the labor force, the faster they can become productive members of society.

It is also important to address issues of post-refugee life and the psychological state of the refugee to ensure their integration into the new society. Not only that, but each country has the responsibility to ensure the provision of material assistance, security, health care, education, and to provide refugees with all the social services necessary to help protect their products and their price.

To end the refugee crisis, every country must take a stand to end this problem and prioritize not only the rescue of refugees, but also human lives. Every country and every capable person must work together to protect refugees and build their capacity so that millions of refugees and migrants are not deprived of basic human rights and that the world is not deprived of their rights. depriving refugees of potential benefits. 

Why should we care about the global refugee crisis? Because refugees never chose to be born in war-affected countries and like us, they too deserve a better, happier life. As humans, we should do our part to make sure they get this, what is life if it's not lived helping others? 

Today we all need to recognise what happened to these refugees and all the humiliation and pain they suffered. Today, instead of arguing who to blame for the crises in the Middle East, as nations and communities we must argue over who solves the problems of innocent souls.