We have been living in years in a time of global pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped the migration movements or the protests against the systems and state apparatuses that even today do not treat people equally, here I mean the Black life maters movement and the protests that have happened all…
We have been living in years in a time of global pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped the migration movements or the protests against the systems and state apparatuses that even today do not treat people equally, here I mean the Black life maters movement and the protests that have happened all around the world.
Despite decades of struggle, human rights do not belong to everyone equally. The right to life does not belong to the approximately 22,000 refugees who have drowned in the Mediterranean so far, certain EU countries have criminalized the rescue missions of NGOs, put a “knee” on the neck of the refugees and left them breathless, left them to drown. The countries on the Balkan route have also claimed the lives of hundreds of refugees.
Seeing how refugees can’t breathe under these “knees”, with the last efforts we repeat that the rights of refugees are also human rights, we repeat that the right to asylum and safe life are rights given to every individual, that the state should remove the “knee” from the right to asylum and let him “breathe”.
Refugee policies must begin with respect for human rights, and border management and migration itself must be based on the preservation of human dignity. But, unfortunately today we are witnessing that migration is “managed” with violence. Amnesty International has published a report on the horrific alleged harassment of refugees and migrants by Croatian police in their irregular attempts to cross the border.
Because these people are excluded from regular entry but also to the right to a safe life. The way refugees and migrants are treated today is the criminalization of the right to asylum. Efforts must be made to find a legal solution to their movement in order to minimize the victims of the dangerous journey on which refugees are forced.
We live in a time of pronounced and systematic racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. But, unfortunately, we have a multi-sectoral approach to refugees, and that makes their struggle important, and their rights a priority for the states. In the course of my work, I have devoted too much energy to combating fake news aimed at spreading hatred towards refugees and criminalizing the solidarity of the people. It is painful that fake news also affects the state's policy towards refugees. Since 2017, when the then opposition based the entire campaign for the local elections on spreading fear and panic, on building migrant camps in Macedonia, and talking about refugees in ordinary numbers, calculating the alleged hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants waiting for our border, unfortunately, defines the future of this issue in Macedonia.
Since then, all progressive processes for refugees have stopped, the Strategy for Integration of Refugees and Migrants 2017-2021, has never been voted by the Assembly, not even debated. Macedonia has the lowest rate of approved asylum and protection applications. There is no talk of the presence of refugees and migrants by our authorities. There is no talk of human rights and the dignity of these people. Authorities are talking only about border security, preventing the movement of irregular migrants, smugglers, and the like. Policies and practices are created that are influenced by fake news and I think that they “put a knee” on the asylum and do not allow him to “breathe”.
Unfortunately, the countries on the Balkan route, which also includes Macedonia, have an asylum system that discriminates against and excludes refugees from the protection system. And as the struggle for justice for George Floyd begins to spread across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, addressing the issue of systematic racism and discrimination, so does the need for justice for all human beings. It is the states that have an obligation to build inclusive policies in which there is no room for discrimination and racism.
This is not only a problem for refugees and migrants “trapped” in the Balkans, despite all the postulates of the rule of law, but also changes the concept of what the state can do to its own citizens. The target is the whole society, all its democratic foundations. At the moment, in many places in the world, refugees and migrants are the most vulnerable and that is why they are targeted, but at the same time they are the first group that is under attack, and after them will come the second and the third. If authoritarian tendencies grow, anyone can become a target. That is why the idea of solidarity should be spread, so that people understand what is at stake when we say that we must fight against xenophobia and respect for all human rights.
In the end, it should be clear to us that discrimination is a weakness of the state apparatus to ensure equal treatment and respect for human dignity, if we do not point out and protest against that weakness, then in the same state system human rights will lose their significance.
Let us stand up for justice and human rights, if not now, WHEN?
Written by Mersiha Smailovic
Link: www.radiomof.mk
