Philanthropists urge Europe to give a human face to the refugee debate

Keeping a human face to the refugee debate was the central theme of a discussion held between humanitarians and migration experts in Birgu earlier today.  

Cecilia Strada – president of Italian humanitarian organisation ‘Emergency’ – called on Europeans to be more welcoming to economic migrants.

“Syrian refugees are now welcome in Italy, but double standards are often prevalent where economic migrants are concerned.  Young Italians who go off to study in Berlin are praised, while young Ghanians who seek a better life in Italy are derided for being migrants.”

Recounting her own experiences working in hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq, she said that families in such war-torn countries are desperate to reach Europe to “end their nightmare”.

“However, when they arrive here, they find that it’s only the start of a new nightmare,” she said.

Alganesh Fessaha – president of the Gandhi Association – said that many Europeans still don’t understand why people choose to migrate in the first place.

“Nobody wants to leave their home, but they are forced to do so,” she said, describing her home country of Eritrea as an “open prison” where young men are forced to join the military for life.

“Some manage to escape to Sudan, but those that are caught and deported get tossed into prison for life.”

Malek Jandali – a Syrian-American pianist and founder of the ‘Pianos for Peace’ NGO – decried the Syrian civil war as a “crime against humanity”, comparing the refugees to the survivors of the Holocaust.

“They are called migrants, when they are people, farmers, scientists, geniuses,” he said. “The word ‘migrant’ is propaganda being pushed by a dictator [Syrian president Bashar al-Assad], and the rest of us have been watching on for five years. Shame on us.”

‘Migration not high on Libyans’ agenda’

Sami Zaptaia, managing editor of the Libya Herald newspaper, warned that Libyan factions are currently not too invested in stopping migrants using the country as a gateway into Europe.

“Europe is trying to pass the buck; they’d rather Libya kept the migrants, but why should Libya stop African migrants going into Europe?” he questioned. “Stop an average Libyan in the streets and you’d realize that migration doesn’t feature high up on his list of concerns – not as high as security, inflation, kidnapping and the devaluation of the Libyan dinar. Libya pays lip-service to migration to curry favour with the West, but it really isn’t high up its agenda.”