EDITORIAL: Asylum seekers should be welcomed with open arms

Rwanda, Tanzania and, to a lesser extent, the Democratic Republic of Congo, are home to at least 200,000 Burundian refugees. Rwanda even went further and gave the refugees a blanket asylum, ready to share its meager resources with the Burundians. There were no groans of displeasure among Rwandans, but they opened their arms wide to receive the refugees the best way they could. It is what is expected of them. Farther up north, it is a different story. Tens of thousands from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other conflict-torn countries, were pouring into the sea in droves, seeking safer havens in the West. They were not welcome. Then one little boy who drowned in the unforgiving waters helped to thaw the cold hearts. For the past week, the world’s media has been awash with a depressing image of a body of a small boy washed ashore of the Mediterranean Sea, who sailing with his parents to Europe as they escaped the suffering in their native Syria. The single image was enough to galvanize public opinion on the plight the 21st century “boat people”. Many western countries had slammed their doors shut in the refugees’ faces, but there was no end to the human wave. But do things have to go out of hands before the world wakes up to human catastrophes? The very countries that were refusing to let in the refuges are the architects of the endless wars and should therefore assume the consequences. But it does not have to take more bodies washing off the shores for the world to wake up. The same mistake was done 21 years ago in Rwanda when everyone looked the other was as millions were slaughtered. The world should redeem its humanity before more innocent babies are washed ashore.

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EDITORIAL: Asylum seekers should be welcomed with open arms