As disorder and wars are ravaging the lives of the people in different parts of the world, the number of refugees, fleeing their countries and trying to find some place safer, is also increasing. The European countries are mostly the destinations of these migrants. Particularly, this year the number of refugees moving towards Europe is increasing alarmingly and every now and then there are tragedies that are really unfortunate and inhumane.
On Thursday, the dead bodies of around 71 migrants (sixty men, eight women and three children, ages 2, 3 and 8), most of whom most probably belonged to Syria, were found inside a truck, which was abandoned on an Austrian highway. These people were thought to have suffocated in the truck that did not have any sort of ventilation and the bodies had decomposed in the heat. The truck was believed to have come from Bulgaria.
The number of migrants trying to reach Europe from Middle East and Africa this year has reached to its record high. According to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, around 300,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea into Greece and Italy this year alone. Only in the month of July, more refugees and migrants have reached Greece than did in all of 2014.
So far this year, 2,373 people have died trying to reach Europe by sea, according to the International Organization for Migration. In all of 2014, 3,281 people died. In just one incident last week, 54 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean. Currently, the world is facing a refugee crisis that is really tragic and requires sincere efforts.
The refugees who leave their homelands in search of better life, most of the times suffer different sorts of hardships before they reach somewhere safe. Most of them even do not reach to the destination they set for as happened in the incident mentioned above. On most of the occasions they fall prey to the ill intentions of human-smugglers, who discriminate them as much as they can. Furthermore, they have to go through severe kind of psychological depression and strain as they go through the worst sort of experiences.
The crisis in Middle East and North African countries compelled so many refugees to leave their countries and find refuge in European countries. Apart from that there are many refugees who have travelled from Asian countries that suffer from conflicts, clashes and discriminations. Afghanistan is one of the most dominant countries in this regard. Decades of wars and terrorism along with droughts and shortages of basic requirements have compelled million of people to leave the country. Though there has been remarkable decrease in this regard, millions of Afghan refugees are still living their lives in neighboring countries (like Pakistan and Iran), European countries, Australia and America; while, there are thousand others who are still in different sorts of camps and detention centers around the world waiting for some sort of sympathy and attention. The circumstances faced by these refugees are not always welcoming and they have to bear the brunt of different sorts of reactions. Though in some countries they are welcomed warmly, in others they are treated in a very cruel manner.
The poor Afghan refugees who have left their homeland and are compelled to live in other countries have very uncertain and on some occasions even pathetic lives. The foreign lands have not always treated them with warm hugs; every now and then they have been the victims of discrimination and ill-treatment. Most of the Afghan refugees in the neighboring countries, especially in Iran and Pakistan have suffered the consequences of fluctuations in the way they are treated. Definitely, it has been generous of both the countries to compensate the Afghan refugees, who because of wars and instability left their dear homeland, but on certain occasions they have also displayed the attitude that have violated the rights of the refugees to a great extent.
As the movement of the refugees is a great problem for the refugees and the countries from where they move, in the same way it is problem for the countries to which they move. It is not always an easy task to control the flow of refugees by any government. It has to keep in deliberation its own people and policies and at the same time has to respect the international policies and regulations regarding the rights of the refugees. Besides, it has to adjust for the compensation of the refugees who move in, and have to deal with the issues like multiculturalism, terrorism and racism, suitably.
Though, the problems are great in this regard, the developed nations of the world do have the potential to absorb the shocks of refugee influx. Most of the European countries, America, Canada and Australia in this connection have been playing dominant role in compensating for the refugees and asylum seekers from different countries of the world. On the other hand United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has been making sure that the rights of the refugees are secured appropriately. Definitely there are political and diplomatic concerns for all the governments of the world to consider, but the issue of migrants is more important than such concerns, as it involves the precious human lives and the lives of human beings stand more sacred than any other concern, belief or ideology.