Hope
Humanity continues to live
The families that were picked up by Pope Francis and given asylum in the Vatican is really admirable and shows his nobility. God has created millions of souls on earth, and all these creatures crave for water, food and shelter — it is their routine. Animals may not laugh or cry for the suffering of others but humans do and that is what differentiates us. If we do not understand or realise the sufferings of our fellow beings, we would be equal to animals.
Pope Francis understood the sufferings of these refugees as a human being. These refugees are innocent people, and not criminals. Their sin is that they were born in the “wrong” country, and are now forced out of there.
The Pope was emotionally moved by the plight and conditions of these refugees when he visited the Moria Camp in Greece, to which he encouraged them to look at the bright side and assured them of his support. In his capacity, he gave them asylum in the Vatican. However, it is important to note that while he did this, he did not care about their religion, but simply the fact that they are his fellow beings.
Meanwhile, the rest of Europe viewed the incident in a different light, and failed to see the positive approach. I don’t see Pope’s decision as a lesson to Europe, rather as a gesture of humanity and hope. His action was a healing touch to the wounds of almost 3000 or more Syrian refugees in Moria Camp and in other parts of Europe.
Pope Francis has been insisting to fight terrorism with one weapon, and that is ‘love’. Europe’s concern of suffering from refugee influx is understandable, but one must also understand his or her duty as a human being. True to his words, the move of Pope Francis is a welcome one, although it might be a drop in the ocean, doing something is definitely better than doing nothing.
From Mr Jay Kumar
Office manager based in Abu Dhabi
Impression
“The issue is political, not religious”
Taking in refugees will not teach a lesson to anyone, let alone Europe. First of all, they shouldn’t even be called refugees. If that’s the case, then everyone is a refugee. Soldiers, who go to war might as well be referred to as refugees as they stay more than a few months in war zone areas.
Bringing 12 Syrians back to the Vatican is an act to impress, and not to teach. These 12 Syrians will not save the thousands of Syrians who are stranded across the Eastern European borders. In terms of the migration crisis, action needs to be coming from a higher level, for example the European Union (EU).
International bodies such as the United Nations (UN), Human Rights bodies, EU and Amnesty International need to take a step to tackle the situation across the borders of Europe. They need to step up and prevent refugee crisis from occurring as soon as Nato (North Atlantic Traety Organisation), or any other Western country starts attacking another country.
“The March 18 deal between the EU and Turkey stipulates that anyone arriving clandestinely on Greek islands on or after March 20 will be returned to Turkey unless they successfully apply for asylum in Greece.” This statement should then also be applied when they go to war with these countries. The move from the Pope is great, however, the situation is political, and not religious. Considering the nature of the issue, the action would be appreciated if it came from a government or an organisation rather than a Pope, or any other religious figure. The action by the Pope wouldn’t teach anybody a lesson.
From Ms Kiran Shaheen
Analyst based in Dubai
Collective help
Everyone follows their own agenda
With regards to the refugee crisis, I don’t think that Europe will take the Pope’s actions into consideration as they are already following their own agenda. The constant bickering between European Union (EU) member countries on how to deal with the refugee crisis has led to where we are today. Refugees, having escaped from their war-torn home countries are unable to live in peace even within the EU because their fate is at stake and their plight is not being taken into serious consideration.
Even if the refugees manage to stay in Europe, only a minuscule amount of asylum applications eventually get approved, while the majority of them are stuck in red tape. Living in makeshift refugee camps and being dependent on foreign aid, the asylum seekers have no clear path of integrating themselves into the mainstream society or earn a living by working, neither does their children have means to get an education. The recent terrorist attacks on Belgium and France have further been used as a pretext in the name of security by several EU countries to limit their intake of refugees. The most recent agreement with Turkey of transferring refugees and supporting Turkey financially for agreeing to take refugees from Greece only adds to this argument.
It is also worth mentioning that countries to which these refugees are being sent back, do not necessarily have the means to support them in the first place, and they could be subject to further abuse. Unless the EU gets into a consensus on helping the refugees collectively, there could be no solution.
From Mr Aravind Kumar
Flight operations controller based in Dubai
Personal agenda
Europe will not change for the better
As a gesture of solidarity and hope, three families, including six children have been selected by lottery to accompany Pope Francis back to the Vatican. It can be argued that it is an admonition of the European Union (EU) policy more than any real solution in itself, for Europe has bigger concerns.
The Union’s continually plodding reaction to the migration crisis has been criticised and continues to drive further schisms between the 28 member states. Agreements still cannot even be reached on migration quotas for each EU member state on one hand, while on the other, thousands are now trapped in Greece in a legal limbo as borders have been re-erected in places such as Macedonia and Hungary. So Pope Francis’ lesson for Europe is being drowned out by inter-member bickering.
Doing something is better than doing nothing, it is said. Yet a deal aimed at reducing the migration flow and preventing people smuggling via sea routes with Turkey is what German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed upon smacks of desperation. Effectively, it will make Turkey an out sourced agent of the EU as its migration manager.
Turkey, with 2.7 million registered Syrian refugees is already host to the largest number of refugees in the world. The deal itself is also not concrete, as Turkish leaders have warned that the agreement will collapse if the EU fails to grant visa-free access to Turkish citizens. This in itself seems doomed to fail even with full EU cooperation as Turkey has not yet fulfilled the 72 conditions for a visa-waiver qualification, and the deadline is ultimately on May 4 when the European Commission will issue its report on the process.
Germany, which has taken in the most amount of refugees and is economically the powerhouse of Europe, in addition contends with the ever-increasing rise of anti-immigrant parties in its own backyard, not to mention those in countries such as UK, France and Eastern and Central Europe. These parties have seen major boosts in popularity, especially in light of the Paris and Belgium attacks. Germany is now toying with the idea of creating “safe zones” to shelter these refugees in Syria. How this idea would work is anyone’s guess, short of occupying parts of Syria with EU troops to maintain and secure areas for the housing and education of people fleeing the war, which might very well become the endgame if EU leaders continue to plod from one half-realised idea to another.
So ultimately, Pope Francis’ hope that “the ocean will change” is correct, but it does not look to be changing for the better.
From Mr Daryl Mac Oirghialla
Journalism graduate based in Dublin, Ireland
— Compiled by Donia Yassinson/Community Web Editor
