Global Courant
More than 103 million people (including 36 million children) have been forced to leave their homes, according to 2022 figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 32 million fled their countries. 53 million flee within its borders. Twice as much as ten years ago.
Conflicts do not abate. The persecutions continue, as does the extremist political outcry that spreads like a toxic stain in the world, transforming itself into laws and practices of discrimination that include the death penalty for reasons that we thought were outdated. We can only hope that the number of refugees will continue to rise. The factories that generate them are working at full steam.
Even so, states remain very reticent to receive refugees. Those who do get in often receive only minimal protection, accepted as a reasonable standard. In general, the world continues to look the other way. This gives room for them to be detained or directly expelled without too many procedures or guarantees. While millions end up living in limbo deprived of almost all their rights, a normalized humanitarian tragedy made invisible in the eyes of public opinion.
In these times when intolerance beats like furious waves against the standards of protection that humanity has worked so hard to achieve, it is the responsibility of states not to forget that the refuge is a “strictly humanitarian, apolitical and individual” institution.
Refuge does not imply taking part in a conflict or that this action is interpreted in this way. They are not justifications for closing the door, not helping or failing to respect international obligations.
On the contrary, when there are generous hands with refugees, when they are not afraid of being expelled or detained for the sole reason of having fled, their contributions to receiving communities are often extraordinary.
It is that they have admirable courage. They were encouraged to leave everything behind, still desperate, terrified, full of uncertainty. They suffered unspeakably. They are grateful, enterprising, aware of what they can do because they are aware of what they could endure. No one is going to teach them what sacrifice means.
The history of our country is an example of the contribution of refugees. When it is pointed out that “the Argentines got off the boats” we must not forget that hundreds of thousands, mixed among the immigrants, were refugees fleeing ideological persecution, genocide, war and violence.
Many of the most important communities that settled here continue to gather around the memory of the hardships and persecutions that their ancestors had to go through.
Their contributions are so many and so important that we could not explain national identity without their presence. It is the best result of a generous Argentina with refugees, as it should continue to be. Being generous has always paid us well.
Fabián Oddone is a career diplomat. He was Commissioner in the National Commission for Refugees (CONARE)
