S.A.V.E - Support All Vulnerable Evacuees
Vietnamese refugees in HK in 1980 after Vietnam War
An article expressing my opinions regarding recent information about Syrian refugees and how EU countries react to such news.
3/9/2015 marks the 70th anniversary of Japan's surrender to China, or perhaps in terms of football matches (to all football fans out there), a draw between China and Hong Kong. But what seems to be neglected amongst the HK people is the Syrian crisis; which is perhaps, top news all around the world. I believe people are curious to know what will happen to the Syrian refugees, and why some countries refuse to accept refugees, but to expatriate them instead.
Unfortunately, HK is too far away from the EU so of course they can't and won't be involved. Before we move on, let me tell you a bit of history - the Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s during the Vietnam War.
PS: I am not much of a historian nor do I study history in uni but that's what I know of as basic knowledge.
Surely everyone knows about the Vietnam War; films such as the opening of 'Mr. Holland's Opus'. Forrest Gump or the musical Miss Saigon, have themes related to the Vietnam War. Of course, it has no direct relations with the Vietnamese refugees. Vietnam War ended in 1975 and when both north and south were separated, the refugees started to flee from their own divided country. When news came around SEA (South East Asia) and China, in 1979 Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia turned the Vietnamese refugees away, and some managed to attain refugee rights in Indonesia. Hong Kong (at that time HK was a British colony), however, was the first city to be listed as the 'first port of asylum' as Vietnamese refugees began to flee from Vietnam to HK. Even though at first the British HK government considered the refugees as 'illegal immigrants', and they refused to take responsbility, the government eventually requested medical aid, shelter and food to the UN. Therefore, the refugees were allowed to stay and were even granted working status, due to HK's liberal policy. As the years passed the post-Vietnam War chaos had further settled, and with HK's new policy regarding 'new Vietnamese refugees who seek to stay in HK for economic reasons only will be detained and expatriated back to Vietnam', the Vietnamese gradually departed, leaving a small number of Vietnamese refugees in HK till this very day. This policy (actually a Vietnamese recording by the HK government) was the notorious 'Bắt đầu từ nay', or in English, 'From this day'.
Now, you might be wondering how many Vietnamese refugees died while fleeing from Vietnam? According to the UN (source from the UNHCR), an estimated number of 400,000 people have died at sea whilst escaping from their own country. Not a small number eh?
And now let's look at the current situation. Why do Syrian refugees risk their lives to flee from their own country? Simple - you know the news: the Syrian Civil War, the formation of ISIS and its invasion etc. Every one of us know how brutal, how merciless the militants of ISIS are, and EU 'shows their deepest concerns about being secretly attacked by ISIS'. Yes - that has happened in France, in Tunisia and in other countries, but let's not wrap things up by saying 'all refugees who are Syrian or Iraqi, or having an Islamic religion are terrorists'. There is no difference than saying 'all yellow people are Chinese' because it isn't at all true. So far, only Sweden, Austria and Germany have agreed to accept these refugees and lest we all know, Germany has been very positive with the news.
How about the rest?
Greece shows sympathy and are willing to accept refugees, but knowing they have recently just overcome their economical issues, it would be hectic for them to accept all the refugees in one go. Still, good effort though.
Spain immediately rejected the offer. Poland only accepts refugees who are Christians (which is barely possible; 1 out of 200 refugees could be a possibility), Denmark 'can sort themselves out and UN can stop interfering them'. Czech Republic 'strongly against the plan', and what was utterly ridiculous was that the police had to mark the refugees with numbers on their hands - an obnoxious act once done by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Slovakia 'proclaim readiness to ban all refugees from entering country'. France agreed fully at first but made a swift 180 degree turn on its choice, as if they were in Formula 1, and immediately said 'no, goodbye Germany, you sort it out yourself mate'.
What about UK? Without doubt, our honourable Tory prime minister has once again proved themselves 'righteous' by stating 'they have no plans to participate'. But why? It's not that the UK is in economic crisis; is that request too much to accept? Isn't it inhumane and satanic to show no sympathy at all for the deaths of many Syrian refugees, particularly about the death of a young Syrian boy who drowned in the sea and was found lying face down in the shores of Turkey? Refugees in the UK are described by the PM as 'swarms' and they would 'break into their country'. That would be unfair because we as overseas people immigrate to the UK to work/study and perhaps, that might be considered as 'breaking into the UK' as well? How ignorant - it most likely has defamed its reputation by saying such detestable words. If so, why would the UK government agreed to accept Vietnamese refugees to land in HK in 1976 at the first place? Why wouldn't they allow Syrian refugees to land in the UK now - when economy in the UK is booming fast? Luckily, not many of the people I know stand on the government's side; they want Britain to act fast and to help refugees setlle down.
The Syrian refugees have done no harm - all they wanted was to flee from Syria and settle down in another country, until things have been resolved, just like the Vietnamese refugees. As mentioned there were more than a hunderd thousand deaths at sea, because Vietnamese refugees couldn't find a proper place to move in temporarily; only HK and Indonesia were willing to aid. Would we want to repeat all this again? It is only a matter of race against time - if EU countries insist in refusing to take part, the more deaths it will cause, and these countries who ignored the situation would be to blame. The UK hasn't an excuse; the UK government should definitely cease their plans on banning 'immigrants/refugees' and should allow refugees to stay in the country.
If the EU countries were very concerned about the lives of Syrians, then why hesitate to accept them as temporary (or permanent if Syria is still in chaotic state) immigrants? Would you rather deport them back to where they come from, or would you be a saviour and aid them before it is too late? Only petitions could help us wake the government up and let them know that we care.
Therefore, S.A.V.E the Syrian Refugees, Support All Vulnerable Evacuees. Technically I am Chinese, but as a UK citizen and a person who spends more time in the UK, I support the Syrian refugees and the government must act as soon as possible, hands down. I have already signed the petition and I urge you (readers) to do so as well, if you haven't done it. If we don't want history (Vietnamese refugees) to repeat itself again, we have to do the best we can.
M xx
PS: I don't care much about politics, but important and reasonable ones, I care more than you can even imagine.
PPS: Click here to go back to the previous page.
Links to article
1. http://stopwar.org.uk/news/if-this-powerful-image-will-not-change-uk-attitudes-to-refugees-what-will
Link to signing petition
Syrian refugees fleeing from their own country