Between safe migration and despair suicidal migration...a homeland
Dr. Michel E. Abs
The Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
The United Nations has designated December 18 as the International Day for Safe Migration, and has launched the “Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” in order to preserve the safety and dignity of people forced by economic, social, political, and security conditions to leave their homelands.
United Nations statistics indicate that there are approximately 300 million international migrants in the world, and that there are 50,000 migrants who have perished during their migration, most of which is illegal, during the last decade.
What drives a person to disbelieve in his homeland and seek to leave it as quickly as possible and by all means, forgetting or ignoring the dangers that characterize many forms of migration?
It is misery, lack of dignity, lack of security, injustice, and many other reasons that make a person feel alienated in his homeland to the point of hating this homeland and wanting to deny it.
What drives people to sneak across land borders or across oceans in search of a better life? It is also misery and the search for a lost human, political and economic dignity.
We find them in the thousands trying to cross from their countries through several countries to reach where they consider themselves safe, despite the illegality of their immigration.
Stories of boats that sank and people who perished in the depths of the sea fill the press, and pictures of child victims haunt us, whether the people immigrated from our country or from anywhere else in the world.
These journeys of annihilation are nothing but the cry of the miserable in the face of the tyrants of politics and economics, a cry in the face of oppression and hunger.
The Lebanese proverb says, “A drowning person grips to the ropes of air.” Yes, these people left their countries and drowned while thinking that the “air ropes” might be more kind to them than their societies.
The worst part is the stories of travel gangs that hide behind travel companies or other forms of camouflage, and allow people to immigrate illegally and lure them into dangers in which they may perish.
The Lebanese press has provided us with details of the stages that preceded and accompanied the sea voyages that ended in tragedy, and has devoted pages to the role of smuggling gangs and their control even over sailors or boat owners. These gangs are searching in Lebanon today for their “clients” in miserable neighborhoods and refugee camps, adding new misfortunes and severe suffering to the misfortunes of the destitute, as some victims are still at the bottom of the sea.
In this context, we must mention that the NGO “Akwa Foundation” held a symposium on the subject in the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon, where this phenomenon is concentrated due to the misery suffered by Lebanon’s second capital, which contains Lebanon’s richest people.
Data indicate that the coasts of northern Lebanon witnessed at least 155 illegal immigration attempts during the third quarter of 2022, in which 4,637 people participated, and led to the death of at least 214 people, and the loss of 225.
On the other hand, a Lebanese security official told the “Sky News Arabia” website, “This issue requires the concerted efforts of several people, as patrols are not enough to obstruct the work of smugglers who exploit the difficult circumstances of those who want to leave Lebanon, as “arresting and detaining ordinary people will not solve the problem and prevent infiltration by stealth. Human smuggling trips do not stop with seasons of heightened security on the borders, but their costs only increase, which increases the power and ability of smuggling gangs to extort.
Lebanon has always been a source of emigration, as its political and economic space were always narrow compared to the aspirations of the Lebanese, due to the political and economic feudalism with which Lebanon was naturally characterized, despite the manifestations of modernity it has always displayed.
But the corruption that has ruled the country since the end of the civil war, the theft of people’s deposits in banks, the arrival of displaced people to it, and the disintegration of state structures, have increased the rate of unemployment, poverty and misery and left the Lebanese not only unable to grow, but also unable to secure basic daily requirements.
Lebanon, like other countries in the world that are similar to it in terms of political and economic structures, needs decades to rise from its decline, as the problem lies in a value system and social culture that produce such structures and prevent any radical social change for the better.
Lebanon has fallen, firstly because of the crazy civil war, and secondly because of its submission to foreign political and economic interests, in a swamp of backwardness and misery which, combined, constitute a significant obstacle to its progress and prevent its transformation from a swamp into a homeland.
The only thing that can be relied upon is education, training, awareness and advocacy, in an attempt to restore the social capital that ended decades ago and which rehabilitation requires diligent work in this direction.
1- https://www.skynewsarabia.com/middle-east/1597381-%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A8-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AA-%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%82%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%94%D8%B2%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%94%D8%B1%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%B2%D9%8A%D9%81-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%8A
2- https://www.imlebanon.org/2023/02/13/akwa-foundation-jousour/