Callous act against those fleeing war zones
Trump’s new ban on immigrants slammed by human rights bodies
AS WORLDWIDE condemnation for Donald Trump’s executive order banning citizens from predominantly Muslim countries entering the US continues to rage, local Muslims and human rights organisations have joined the chorus of censure.
The US president’s executive order – signed at the weekend – placed a 90-day ban on citizens from Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have rebuked Trump’s order, calling it an “inhumane act against people fleeing war zones”.
MSF’s Southern Africa director Guilhem Molinié told The Star that his organisation was concerned that the US adopted a stance of not assisting people who he said were “trapped in conflict”. He said he was also concerned that other developed countries were proposing to follow the US example.
“We are also concerned with other regions in the world – such as Europe and Australia – which are starting to move towards policies of trying to keep refugees out.
“In a way, the current US administration’s decision to ban Muslims from certain countries echoes the world environment that seeks to be less and less caring for refugees,” Molinié said.
Asked whether the executive order was justifiable considering the global refugee crisis posing a possible threat to sovereign states in terms of managing asylum seekers, Molinié was adamant that countries now opposed to accepting refugees had done so for many years in the past, because of extensive vetting.
He added that sinister motives were at play with the “sudden” refugee ban. “Before someone can be given refugee status, people have to prove what is directly causing harm to them and their families. This process has been recognised internationally for more than 50 years.
“So it seems to us that this executive order is a sudden slamming of the doors in the face of people in need – which is unacceptable,” Molinié said.
Iqbal Jassat, an executive member of the Media Review Network (MRN), analysed the executive order from a media perspective, saying the Western media’s “fear mongering” was what fuelled Trump’s “Islamophobic policies”, which were also key to his successful campaign.
“Each time a bomb has gone off in Europe or other parts of the world, the immediate
‘US uncaring of people who are trapped in conflict’
conclusion is that it is linked to what is routinely referred to as ‘Islamic terrorism’. The narrative linked to the commentaries provided by various so-called terror experts regularly and unreservedly refers to the need to wipe out what they refer to as the ‘evil ideology that drives Islamic terrorism’,” Jassat explained.
“The legitimate resistance to the US’s wars of aggression – whether it’s in Somalia, Libya, Iraq or Syria – by the indigenous citizens of those regions is also unfairly termed as symbolic of this so-called Islamic terrorism.
So there’s a clear failure whereby Western media does not distinguish between mindless attacks on civilians with the legitimate resistance that people are permitted in terms of international law to oppose foreign armies invading their lands,” Jassat contended.
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs Thabo Mokgola said he was still awaiting any reports of people from banned states being stranded in South Africa’s international airports.