Putting Politics Aside
So much has been reported on the migrant crisis that is now taking over in Europe, and still there doesn’t seem to be a concrete solution. Many countries, including Britain and Hungary, are just trying to turn a blind eye and hope that other countries will make the problem go away. As we saw last week, thousands of migrants, many of whom are refugees from Syria, were stranded outside the train station in Budapest. They were waiting to board a train to Germany or Sweden, where they know that they will be given asylum and a chance of a new future for themselves and their families, away from the wartorn countries that they have just fled. When the reporters from the various TV stations interview one of these poor refugees, we immediately realise that this is not just a mass of hysterical people, who want to infiltrate our wonderful social system, but everyone is an individual with a horrific story behind them.
How desperate must you be to agree to travel in the back of a lorry – for kilometres – with 70 other people, only to be abandoned on a roadside and face the most horrific death – suffocation? How desperate must you be to roll yourself into the foetal position, under the bonnet of a car next to the engine, choking on the petrol fumes? An African migrant from Guinea, western Africa, was caught, stowed away behind the car’s engine. He almost died of breathing problems, but survived baking temperatures, in his desperate ploy to reach a better life in the European Union. How desperate must you be to hand your eight-year-old son over to human traffickers, who demanded € 5000 and then tried to smuggle tiny Adou out of Morocco – in a suitcase? Fortunately, he was discovered when the image of his body was captured on an x-ray scanner and the photographs went around the world.
Shall I go on? How desperate must you be to walk for hundreds of kilometres to an unknown destination, only to be greeted by a huge barbed wire fence stopping your journey or to wait in a camp in Calais, known as the jungle, with thousands of other refugees? Waiting for a chance to hop on a train which is going through the Channel Tunnel, only to be captured by police and brought back to "the jungle". One man even walked the whole length of the dangerous, 31-mile tunnel, in his flip-flops! The 38-year-old South African man risked his life by walking to France through the tunnel, where trains pass at 100 miles per hour. He evaded security guards when he walked to France, not from it. Perhaps, he found out that the streets of England are not paved with gold, as most migrants think, and that Mr. Cameron is not so welcoming.
Yes, these poor people are terribly desperate and instead of us waiting for politicians to decide which country is going to take them, we should all try and do our bit. I find it so heart-warming that some of my friends are doing so much. Some have become teachers, not only helping the refugees to learn German, but organising excursions, picnics and pizza evenings to make them feel welcome. One friend has "adopted" a young Syrian family with baby twins. She has found them a flat, sent a mail to us all to donate whatever we can – clothes, furniture or kitchen utensils – and helps them to overcome the redtape, which she says is unbelievable. But most of all she has given this family the most important thing – hope. We could all take an example from the people who organised the "Welcome Refugees" party, in the Volksgarten, Salzburg. It was amazing to watch the people speaking together and the children playing, without fear of being bombed or attacked. While the politicians are sorting it out, we could try to help – now.