Asylum sEEkErs ArE HumAns First

Europe, the United States, and now Ontario are expressing concern about the cost of settling and supporting migrants, and some are moving toward closing borders to human beings who are fleeing war, starvation and violence.

There is no question that the “migration issue” costs everyone money. And to that I ask, so what?

Asylum seekers are human beings first, and migrants second. People choose to leave their countries of origin and travel extremely dangerous roads under horrendous conditions only if their lives are truly at peril.

Many people are concerned that the influx of humans will tax systems that are already overtaxed, and might reduce the resources available to those already here. To that, I suggest that we have choices. We could choose to reallocate existing tax revenue. We could choose to raise taxes if more dollars are needed. We could find myriad other creative solutions, if only we put our collective heads together across political and religious lines.

Certainly, I would prefer that we support all the people who come to our borders, as well as all the people who are already here, rather than failing to support human beings whose lives are otherwise going to be in grave danger from war, disease, torture, rape, gang violence or starvation. I prefer this, just as I would prefer that in the terrible event that my family and I had to flee Canada for similar reasons, the citizens of another country would open their hearts to help us.

I respectfully ask politicians at all levels to put humanity over politics, and to prioritize saving lives over saving money. Christina Marchant, Ottawa