Migrants: no man is an island

''We are humans. We are not animals.''

''Where's the humanity? Where's the world?''

Those are some of the desperate pleas being made by refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa and attempting to find sanctuary in Europe.

Two of the major current flashpoints are Italy and Greece, the European countries on the geographical frontline for hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea from Libya or Turkey.

Those making the passage to Greece are often escaping war torn Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. The tourist islands of Kos and others have been overrun, and authorities have shipped migrants to the mainland to relieve the pressure.

In recent days, migrants have overwhelmed security forces and made their way into neighbouring Macedonia, and that wave has now reached Serbia, on a push through the Balkans to western Europe.

Italy has been similarly inundated by migrants crossing from Africa.

The Italian coastguard has rescued more than 100,000 people making that perilous journey, but many others have perished. At the other end of the continent, thousands are living in a makeshift camp in Calais and attempting to get to the UK by stowing away on freight trucks or attempting the Channel Tunnel on foot.

The debate about the causes, responsibilities, ethics and solutions are far from simple, of course. What is the right thing to do? Provide an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff or target the issues at source? Regional response or foreign intervention?

Does that ease or exacerbate the problem? Should there be a distinction between asylum seekers and economic migrants? Would better legal asylum options reduce the criminal networks of smugglers and traffickers or simply increase the numbers of refugees?

Is turning boats back acceptable or necessary? All that does seem clear is that regional conflict and hardship is having increasingly global ramifications. Nations are responding in very different ways, and the blame game is not helping stem the tide.

The UN says the number of displaced people worldwide is at the highest level recorded. It says a staggering 59.5 million - or one in every 122 people - is either a refugee, internally displaced, or seeking asylum. Half of that number are children.

Turkey hosts the highest number of refugees in the world. Of the more than four million Syrian refugees registered by the United Nations Refugee Agency, 1.8 million are in Turkey. Lebanon takes the most refugees per capita.

It, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan host 2.2 million Syrian refugees. (It is sobering to note there are another 7.6 million displaced people within Syria, too.)

Given the numbers and conditions, it is little wonder the shores of Greece and western Europe beckon, but there the bickering begins.

Macedonia accuses Greece of aiding the course of migrants, but that country is faced with its own economic and political crisis.

Germany takes the highest number of asylum seekers and is in favour of a mandatory European Union quota system to distribute them, but that proposal is controversial among other members, including the UK.

The pressure points are evident elsewhere, too. Australia's policy of offshore processing detention centres and resettlement is controversial, and it is easy to take the moral high ground in a country like New Zealand with the ''luxury'' of location, which can largely distance itself from the problem.

But in this digital, interconnected world, no man is an island. The internet has made borders arbitrary in many respects - for nations and individuals.

Surely, countries which seek trade deals, military and intelligence alliances to benefit their citizens economically and strategically must also heed their humanitarian responsibilities as global citizens?

This needs to be done with more urgency through the United Nations.

New Zealand must use its time on the Security Council to urge action, but we must consider our own contribution, too. And as individuals, we can help by changing attitudes. The history of the world is one of migration.

We would do well to remember our origins and our good fortune. We need to sit less in judgement and with more understanding if we are to make a difference in the lives of our fellow human beings.

 

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