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Commentary: COVID-19 and susceptible refugees

opinion

Editor's note: This column was written prior to Frank Dabb's passing in late April.

Canadians facing the deadly COVID-19 pandemic can put this crisis in perspective.

Our nation is blessed with the medical response capability that is the envy of most of the rest of world’s 7.5 billion souls.

Take, for example, the more than 70 million refugees, displaced and stateless persons that the United Nations Refugee Agency says are caught up in the relentless COVID-19 pandemic.

The turmoil of wars and religious and racial conflict account for the 41 million displaced persons still in their countries, the 25.9 million refugees who have fled their birthplaces, and the 3.5 million who have made formal application for asylum in another country.

Each day 37,000 people are forced to flee their home because of conflict and persecution.

They  don’t have access to organized medical care.

They cannot fend off the pandemic.

Social distancing, protective personnel equipment and medical testing are science fiction to them.

All of these people are susceptible to having their human rights violated.

Countries who are hosting these refugees are overwhelmed to deal with the pandemic that is also threatening their people.

Refugee children and newborn babies are especially vulnerable to lack of health care.

Millions have had their education disrupted, especially young women. Many will never resume studies.

Millions have lost their jobs or are poor farmers who can’t get crops to market because of COVID-19 quarantines.

The United Nations Refugee Agency has 16,803 staff including medical professionals working on this crisis, but they are overwhelmed.

On June 10, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy gave his greatest Cold War speech at the American University graduation ceremony when he received an honorary degree.

He announced an initiative by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States to work on the next phase of nuclear disarmament.

Those of us who lived through both that summer of peace talks and the current pandemic see the parallels of fear, hope and faith.

President Kenney said in that speech;

“If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe.

“For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.”

He went on to say, “‘When a man’s way pleases the Lord,’ the Scriptures tell us, ‘he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.’

Kennedy concluded "And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights – the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation, the right to breathe air as nature provided it, the right of future generations to a healthy existence.”

Frank Dabbs was a veteran political and business author and journalist who died in late April. Find out more about him here: Recently deceased renowned journalist left his mark




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