COMBATING CAUSES OF ALL FORMS OF CRISES AS THE 2016 WORLD REFUGEE DAY IS MARKED TODAY MONDAY JUNE 20
Today June 20, the global
community is commemorating the World Refugee Day. On 4th of December
2000, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in its unanimous Resolution
decided that, from 2001, June 20 of every year would be celebrated as World
Refugee Day. In the resolution, the General Assembly noted that 2001 marked the
golden jubilee or the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention
relating to the status of Refugees.
Each year on June 20, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and
countless civic groups around the world host World Refugee Day events in order
to draw public attention to the millions of refugees and people who are
internally displaced worldwide.
A refugee can be described as a person who has been forced to leave his
or her country due to persecution, which could be attributed to his/her race,
religion, nationality, political opinion, or social affiliation, or as a result
of disaster, either natural or manmade, such as massacre, genocide, war,
inferno, earthquake, terrorism, climate change, and famine, just to mention but
a few. In some cases, the internally displaced individuals within a certain
country can also be referred to as ‘Refugees’.
Recently, the Bornu State government in Nigeria cried foul as well as
sought for the financial assistance of the international community in regard to
the alarming number of displaced persons recorded in the state owing to the
ongoing terrorism of the Boko Haram sect in the area. Such incident is not peculiar
to Nigeria, but to many other countries in the world.
Statistics show that not less than forty-three million people worldwide
are presently displaced as a result of conflict and persecution, which is the
highest number since the middle of 1990s. More than fifteen million of the
aforementioned figure are refugees who fled their home countries, while the rest
are people who remain displaced by conflict within their own homelands and they
are generally regarded as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Worldwide, refugees have really
suffered an untold hardship in the respective camps or localities they are being
hosted or they found themselves; they mostly lack the three basic needs of
mankind, which remain food, clothing and shelter. Most of them often feared
killed by deadly diseases, or sometimes due to the unbearable hazards attached
to the environment they reside in.
It is worthy to note that, most of the beggars found on the major roads
or streets of most cities in Nigeria, likewise other countries, are refugees. A
good number of them who hail from the neighbouring countries to include Niger
Republic, Chad, Benin Republic and Cameroon, migrated to Nigeria in search of a
lasting succour. This implies that more than half of the world’s refugees are
in urban environments, not in camps. This set of people invariably fall victim to
human trafficking, which is currently on the rampage in several countries.
No doubt, displaced persons are found virtually in all the nations
across the globe. Since refugees are mainly victims of either manmade or
natural disasters, there is a compelling need to take appropriate and drastic
measures that would thoroughly address all forms of disaster or conflict
witnessed by mankind virtually on a daily basis.
It is noteworthy that, even the natural disasters such as earthquake,
depletion of the Ozone layer, climate change, erosion, and what have you, are
mostly attributable to human/manmade actions or activities. Needless to say
that, any event that could lead to displacement of individuals from their
places of residence or country of origin, can be averted by the concerned
persons or authorities, as the case may be.
To this end, inferno for instance, which usually takes place as a result
of man’s carelessness or lackadaisical attitude, can be prevented by
sensitizing the public on the fundamental actions that could lead to such
disaster. In the same vein, people ought to be professionally directed on
where, when, and how to erect various structures both residential and
industrial as well as in the case of drilling
of boreholes in order to help avoid future occurrence of earthquake and other
related crises.
There is also need for legal backing in respect to prevention of the
various uncalled attitudes or practices including discrimination, extremism, racism,
ethnicity, human rights violation, et cetera, that can result to a
life-threatening crisis such as insurgency, terrorism or war. Hence, the bill
on prevention of terrorism that is presently lying on the floor of the National
Assembly ought to be given a speedy hearing by the 8th Assembly with
a view to passing it into law in earnest.
As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the sixteenth (16th)
commemoration of the World Refugee Day, there’s a compelling need for the
various civil society organizations as well as religious bodies to embark on a
massive and rigorous awareness crusade that would educate the entire public on
the dangers inherent in any form of crisis, which will go a long way to bring a
holistic attitudinal change among the overall citizenry. Think about it!
Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor
(TheMediaAmbassador)
-Public Affairs analyst & Civil Rights
activist-
Chief Executive
Director, Centre for Counselling, Research
& Career
Development - Owerri
_____________________________________
frednwaozor@gmail.com
+2348028608056
Twitter: @mediambassador
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