The legal dilemma facing refugees
Re World’s happiest nation gets tough with refugees, April 13
I would like to add my two cents, since our family were once refugees as well. It is a very difficult decision to make: to leave your country, your family and your friends.
We escaped a Communist regime several decades ago. Since leaving our country was an illegal act, we broke the law of that country. It was the first and last law we ever broke.
Let’s have a look at the refugee crisis flooding Europe now. I do empathize with the refugees’ desire to leave the hell they have had to endure. Their first step is to find a refuge in a free or moderately run country.
You may do it legally by registering in a refugee camp; most of the poor souls do so. There you may wait until the war in your country comes to an end or apply for asylum in a country such as Canada, the U.S. or Australia. This would be similar to our own family’s situation. Our first free country was Italy. Then we politely asked the French authorities if we might enter France. If refused, we were prepared to go back to a refugee camp.
The other way is to do it illegally. And this is where the problem begins. Some refugees resort to human smugglers who, for considerable baksheesh, would deliver them to Europe.
Human smugglers are criminals and, according to the laws of any country, the refugees might now be considered criminals, too. However, this fact has been ignored for “humanitarian” reasons for the past two years.
Once in Europe you feel that it is your right to enter any country you like. Wrong! Not yet! You cannot cut in line again. All one can do is to wait to see which country is willing to take you in. Now all European countries are realizing that, including Merkel’s Germany. Time to apply existing laws.
By helping refugees, the poor old Danish lady now finds herself convicted for what would have been considered a good deed six months ago by the same government.
In Canada, we have the advantage of choosing our own refugees. After all, we are not accepting the law breakers but the people who are patiently waiting in refugee camps. And rightfully so! Let’s not forget it is still a long and painful process. A long process originally started, like it or not, by the Harper government.
Thomas Bruck, Mississauga