Mobile, floating habitats for refugees
Re Canada falling short amid global refugee crisis, Opinion June 21 Even if Canada doubled its present activity, this would obviously not scratch the surface. Resettlement programs are expensive, and will always be underfunded. If they are the best we can do, then many refugees will die, and many others, still trapped in a war zone, will also die. Resettlement is, in short, the squeaky wheel getting the grease.
What we need is to accept that there will be a perennial need for succor for refugees. Our approach is to treat each new appeal by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as if it is a surprise, a new emergency, instead of what it really is: situation normal.
The problem of refugees is that they need to be removed from the danger zone. But as candidates for resettlement they are undesirable except in small numbers. Once they enter a country, be it in Canada or the EU, they obtain rights that are expensive to oblige. Therefore the bean counting will always determine how many are helped, and there is no fair and just way to winnow the applicants. Whoever gets left behind has been mistreated.
We need a place that is outside the danger zone but also outside a host country. I suggest we build large seaborne habitats that can be towed to the shore nearest the accumulation of refugees. There they could live in safety and security, get jobs in the various tasks associated with maintenance of the habitats, and their children can be educated.
The process of creating a healthy and educated population to eventually be repatriated to the (former) danger zone will not only be fairer, embracing a larger number of people than any resettlement program, but these people will also be the corps of people who will rebuild the devastated country when the wars have ended.
We will all benefit from this approach. Right now, it is an approach to dealing with war. But with the manifestation of global warming, it will be an approach to famine, drought, ocean inundation and desertification. We will need the practice. It’s time to start learning now. Ian Cameron, Orillia. Ont.