Our Future Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All!
Defend the Rights of Refugees! No Human Being Is Illegal
Migrant caravan leaves Tapachula on Guatemala-Mexico border heading to U.S. border,
December 24, 2023.
Around the world, peoples everywhere are fighting for the rights of refugees and demanding an end to the brutal repression they face, including mass unjust and illegal deportations and detentions. U.S. wars and interference have given rise to one of the largest ever increases in the numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons in just the past year. According to the UN Refugee Agency, by the middle of 2023, for the first time in recorded history, the number of people forcibly displaced is now over 110 million, with over 36.4 million refugees.[1]
The reality that criminal U.S. wars are main contributors is seen in
the fact that 52 per cent of all displaced persons are from
Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine with all the others also involving the
U.S. and former colonial powers. The worldwide crisis of the European
nation-state, which is also the basis for the U.S. and many other
states, is to blame for current catastrophes. The state arrangements
have failed and the rule of law established no longer functions. It is
no longer followed by the U.S. and former colonial powers or their
appeasers, who are now seeking to eliminate any restraints on their
striving for power and impunity to use police powers. This includes
eliminating international conventions such as UN conventions on the
treatment of refugees. It also means that any notions that the people
must define the state and its aims, beginning with their own rights and
duties as members of the polity, are to be discarded. As Immigration
Minister Marc Miller’s recent comments about who “should be
Canadian” indicate, new laws for asylum and citizenship are being
considered. These are laws where it is the state that defines the
citizens on a basis which conforms to the values the state decides.This
is precisely what the apartheid Israeli state does. There is not even a
hint of a modern democracy in such arrangements
According to
attempts to introduce this foundation for laws, the peoples of the
world are disposable and they are to have no say in the matter. This is
why the U.S., Canada and their ilk had no difficulty depriving the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA) of funds and why they stand by while starvation,
dehydration and disease set in and genocide occurs before the
eyes of the world. So too the situation in Sudan and other countries is
desperate and the problem of providing for refugees is based on the
most inhuman considerations possible.
Syrians account for a large percentage of refugees globally, 6.5 million people forced to leave. In Ukraine the U.S. continues to block a negotiated settlement, which Russia has called for, and pursues a proxy war where Ukrainians are used as cannon fodder and more than 5 million people are internally displaced and another 6.3 million have fled the country.
Conditions as a result of the U.S. war on Iraq mean nearly 1.2 million people continue to be internally displaced, though many are organizing to return to their homes. Palestine has one of the largest number of refugees per capita and nearly all are now internally displaced persons as the U.S./Israeli genocide continues and Israel threatens to invade Rafah where many went to seek refuge. Yemen has 4.5 million internally displaced persons, many facing starvation. This too is from a U.S. instigated and funded war using Saudi Arabia. There the people continue to stand in support of Palestine, facing down U.S. bombing and battleships and showing their spirit by demonstrating in the hundreds of thousands.
In Africa, France and the U.S. have long interfered in Sudan, inciting conflict. There is a major crisis now as a result, with more than 8 million people forcibly displaced, more than 6 million internally within Sudan. Showing its generosity, Africa as a whole is also home to 20 per cent of the global refugee population.
The large numbers at the southern U.S. border seeking asylum are the result of U.S. actions, including sanctions, economic and political interference and its war on drugs, known by many as a war for drug cartels. The U.S. has also used assassinations, coups and unjust trade agreements. All play a role in forcing millions to contend with difficult and violent conditions as they flee their homes. The recent march of more than 6,000 migrants to the U.S. border, banding together to defend their rights, and organizing to secure asylum, is but one example.
Everywhere, whether in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, the big powers are blaming the refugees for problems the imperialists and their wars, exploitation and oppression have caused. They are proclaiming people illegal, even though it is the imperialists who are systematically going against international rule of law when it comes to asylum and refugees.
The stand of the
peoples is clear: No
Human Being Is Illegal. The problem rests not with refugees, but
with the breakdown of the world order based on rule of law. U.S.-led
imperialist wars and the existing international relations permit the
impunity and ongoing elimination of rule of law and the undermining of
institutions like the UN and its refugee agencies. Solving issues of
migration, especially refugees, lies in the immediate battles being
waged and in efforts to develop anti-war governments and new
institutions of governance that uphold relations of mutual respect and
benefit between peoples.
Anti-war governments embrace ending wars, bringing troops home
and
eliminating the political and economic interference generating poverty
and conflict and migration worldwide as well as exacerbating the
degradation of the natural environment. It is evident from the
U.S./Israeli genocide in
Palestine and the massive, forced migration of so many human beings who
would rather stay in their homes, that new international relations and
institutions are required. Indications of this direction can be seen in
the united efforts of people both sides of the U.S. border with Mexico
defending
rights. In El Paso nurses and workers continue to say Not in
Our Name, Not in Our Community, as they reject detention
camps and deportations. And Canadians and Quebeckers are doing the same.
Globalization has brought to the fore that workers everywhere are one humanity and a new world order is needed that ends unjust wars and harmonizes relations among all peoples and within each country.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 14 - February 28, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54141.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca