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Report By URGC Ambassador Dr. Amelia Constantinou
HOW DISPLACED PEOPLE BECOME AN INVISIBLE COMMODITY
The United Refugee green Council (URGC) reports on the abuse of seafaring employees many of which are Refugees, Environmental Economic Refugees, Internally Displaced, Stateless People, Refugees Returnees or Asylum Seekers. Displaced People
There are difference within these displaced people -
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.
An internally displaced person (IDP) is a person who has been forced to flee his or her home for the same reason as a refugee, but remains in his or her own country and has not crossed an international border. Unlike refugees, IDPs are not protected by international law or eligible to receive many types of aid. As the nature of war has changed in the last few decades, with more and more internal conflicts replacing wars among countries, the number of IDPs has increased significantly.
A returnee is a refugee who has returned to his or her home country. The majority of refugees prefer to return home as soon as it is safe to do so, after a conflict and the country is being rebuilt.
A stateless person is someone who is not a citizen of any country. Citizenship is the legal bond between a government and an individual, and allows for certain political, economic, social and other rights of the individual, as well as the responsibilities of both government and citizen. A person can become stateless due to a variety of reasons, including sovereign, legal, technical or administrative decisions or oversights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights underlines that “Everyone has the right to a nationality, yet it is believed there are over 12 million stateless people globally.
Asylum seekers are people who flee their own country and seek sanctuary in another country, they apply for asylum – the right to be recognized as a refugee and receive legal protection and material assistance. An asylum seeker must demonstrate that his or her fear of persecution in his or her home country is well-founded.
An Environmental Economic refugee are people who cannot maintain a living in their country due to environmental and economic reasons often and will become displaced within their own country or migrate to bordering countries or by sea
Whichever way we wish to label them they are displaced people who find themselves in vulnerable situations most of which become victims of human rights violations, crime and labour abuse
The global reality of displaced people is unknown, but it is estimated to be close to 229 million people globally.
Refugees are reported to be in the region of 54 million worldwide, stateless people 12 million, 163 million forced and abused child and adolescent labour, these are children separated from their families, orphaned street children who have lost one or both parents and abandoned, in India alone there are 22 million street orphans and it is estimated globally to be in the numbers of 163 million. These are all displaced people.
Many of these people are assisted by the UN to the best of their capacity, most however, receive no assistance or aid.
Many displaced people fall victims to criminal organizations, in cases of displaced children, they are focussed upon for child prostitution, child pornography, forced child marriages, forced child slave labour, child abduction where children limbs are broken or they are blinded, mutilated or disabled in various ways and placed on the streets to beg for organized gangs, sold as child slaves to households and worked day and night as servants/slaves, child soldiers, terrorism, drug trafficking and in more horrific cases children are used for body parts
HOW DISPLACED PEOPLE BECOME AN INVISIBLE COMMODITY
The United Refugee green Council (URGC) reports on the abuse of seafaring employees many of which are Refugees, Environmental Economic Refugees, Internally Displaced, Stateless People, Refugees Returnees or Asylum Seekers. Displaced People
There are difference within these displaced people -
A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.
An internally displaced person (IDP) is a person who has been forced to flee his or her home for the same reason as a refugee, but remains in his or her own country and has not crossed an international border. Unlike refugees, IDPs are not protected by international law or eligible to receive many types of aid. As the nature of war has changed in the last few decades, with more and more internal conflicts replacing wars among countries, the number of IDPs has increased significantly.
A returnee is a refugee who has returned to his or her home country. The majority of refugees prefer to return home as soon as it is safe to do so, after a conflict and the country is being rebuilt.
A stateless person is someone who is not a citizen of any country. Citizenship is the legal bond between a government and an individual, and allows for certain political, economic, social and other rights of the individual, as well as the responsibilities of both government and citizen. A person can become stateless due to a variety of reasons, including sovereign, legal, technical or administrative decisions or oversights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights underlines that “Everyone has the right to a nationality, yet it is believed there are over 12 million stateless people globally.
Asylum seekers are people who flee their own country and seek sanctuary in another country, they apply for asylum – the right to be recognized as a refugee and receive legal protection and material assistance. An asylum seeker must demonstrate that his or her fear of persecution in his or her home country is well-founded.
An Environmental Economic refugee are people who cannot maintain a living in their country due to environmental and economic reasons often and will become displaced within their own country or migrate to bordering countries or by sea
Whichever way we wish to label them they are displaced people who find themselves in vulnerable situations most of which become victims of human rights violations, crime and labour abuse
The global reality of displaced people is unknown, but it is estimated to be close to 229 million people globally.
Refugees are reported to be in the region of 54 million worldwide, stateless people 12 million, 163 million forced and abused child and adolescent labour, these are children separated from their families, orphaned street children who have lost one or both parents and abandoned, in India alone there are 22 million street orphans and it is estimated globally to be in the numbers of 163 million. These are all displaced people.
Many of these people are assisted by the UN to the best of their capacity, most however, receive no assistance or aid.
Many displaced people fall victims to criminal organizations, in cases of displaced children, they are focussed upon for child prostitution, child pornography, forced child marriages, forced child slave labour, child abduction where children limbs are broken or they are blinded, mutilated or disabled in various ways and placed on the streets to beg for organized gangs, sold as child slaves to households and worked day and night as servants/slaves, child soldiers, terrorism, drug trafficking and in more horrific cases children are used for body parts
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Adult displaced people enter into any labour job that will allow them to survive, survival most often relates to be able to feed themselves and their families, and those that cannot obtain any type of work will resort to any means to survive, which criminals take great advantage off.
It is not uncommon for adult parents to sell their children, most often this is in the form of child marriages to a man twenty to fifty years senior. This is forced by the parents to gain money and also to stop their young daughter from being raped.
The ethnic cleansing of displaced people by locals is not uncommon, many displaced people disappear or are murdered on a daily basis for religious reasons, political, economic or simply because they are not welcomed. In many cases they are murdered in masses by criminals who have used them for criminal acts and do not want to be identified.
There are too many horrific abuses displaced people suffer on a daily bases, what we do know is that whilst we all try to uphold and respect human rights these peoples human rights are constantly violated and displaced people are very reluctant to report crime or human rights violations to local authorities because they will not be heard or they fear repercussions.
To escape some of the above many displaced people try to obtain free passage to another country via ship, they will obtain false documents to obtain the position on a ship, and most often the shipping company knows they are not genuine documents. Some shipping companies will also allow them to work on the ship without papers, obtaining free labour which would normally cost the shipping company tens of thousands of dollars.
Those that obtain labour on a ship are both men and women, once they set sail they become out of sight and out of mind, the treatment they receive is pure abuse, they are worked constantly round the clock, often with no more than two to three hours sleep, they are beaten, and rape is not uncommon for men and women. Those who fall ill are thrown overboard.
If the shipping company arrives at its destination waters, the shipping company will not hesitate to throw them overboard or place them in small raft and set them adrift so as to avoid prosecution and fines by port authorities and customs.
Let us ask ourselves, how realistic this is? According to the ILO there are 21 million forced labourers in the shipping industry of which 19 million are exploited by private enterprises or individuals for economic activities. These are just the ones ILO knows about, the ones that ILO does not know about are the ones that never reach their destinations.
Displaced people find it difficult to travel from country to country via land locked border crossings, the easy option for them is by sea, which has become an area of exploitation for shipping companies.
People trafficking by boat has become very common, we see tens of thousands of people being rescued from unseaworthy vessels around the world almost every week, this is the people trafficking industry that has become the most lucrative organized crime in the world today. It has come to world attention due to the media, but let us not forget that this has been going on for decades through shipping organisations, the difference here is, the fact that these poor people were rescued which caught media attention, but what about the millions of people over decades which were trafficked through forced labour via commercial shipping, what of their fate?
It is not uncommon for adult parents to sell their children, most often this is in the form of child marriages to a man twenty to fifty years senior. This is forced by the parents to gain money and also to stop their young daughter from being raped.
The ethnic cleansing of displaced people by locals is not uncommon, many displaced people disappear or are murdered on a daily basis for religious reasons, political, economic or simply because they are not welcomed. In many cases they are murdered in masses by criminals who have used them for criminal acts and do not want to be identified.
There are too many horrific abuses displaced people suffer on a daily bases, what we do know is that whilst we all try to uphold and respect human rights these peoples human rights are constantly violated and displaced people are very reluctant to report crime or human rights violations to local authorities because they will not be heard or they fear repercussions.
To escape some of the above many displaced people try to obtain free passage to another country via ship, they will obtain false documents to obtain the position on a ship, and most often the shipping company knows they are not genuine documents. Some shipping companies will also allow them to work on the ship without papers, obtaining free labour which would normally cost the shipping company tens of thousands of dollars.
Those that obtain labour on a ship are both men and women, once they set sail they become out of sight and out of mind, the treatment they receive is pure abuse, they are worked constantly round the clock, often with no more than two to three hours sleep, they are beaten, and rape is not uncommon for men and women. Those who fall ill are thrown overboard.
If the shipping company arrives at its destination waters, the shipping company will not hesitate to throw them overboard or place them in small raft and set them adrift so as to avoid prosecution and fines by port authorities and customs.
Let us ask ourselves, how realistic this is? According to the ILO there are 21 million forced labourers in the shipping industry of which 19 million are exploited by private enterprises or individuals for economic activities. These are just the ones ILO knows about, the ones that ILO does not know about are the ones that never reach their destinations.
Displaced people find it difficult to travel from country to country via land locked border crossings, the easy option for them is by sea, which has become an area of exploitation for shipping companies.
People trafficking by boat has become very common, we see tens of thousands of people being rescued from unseaworthy vessels around the world almost every week, this is the people trafficking industry that has become the most lucrative organized crime in the world today. It has come to world attention due to the media, but let us not forget that this has been going on for decades through shipping organisations, the difference here is, the fact that these poor people were rescued which caught media attention, but what about the millions of people over decades which were trafficked through forced labour via commercial shipping, what of their fate?
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There are more displaced people in the world today then the 1st & 2nd World war combined, and despite the ongoing aid and support applied by governments and UN, the numbers increase on a daily basis and as they increase so does the human rights violation, crime and terrorism.
Displaced people are considered by criminals, terrorist and unscrupulous industrialist as expendable and a crime is very difficult to be detected or reported when a displaced person is trying to avoid the authorities and in absence of no proof of name/identity, nationality or citizenship, a displaced persons rights are considered by most authorities as limited and in many cases void. This gives criminals and unethical companies the green light to exploit, break the laws and violate human rights, fully knowing that prosecution is very slim and unlikely.
We at URGC have heard the terrible term ‘’Harvesting’’ used on many occasions, it refers to people trafficking, forced slave labour of displaced people and with 229 million displaced people there is no shortage for criminals to apply criminal acts or for unscrupulous companies to break the laws or for terrorist to recruit people promising them a place and state as its citizens.
Displaced people are considered by criminals, terrorist and unscrupulous industrialist as expendable and a crime is very difficult to be detected or reported when a displaced person is trying to avoid the authorities and in absence of no proof of name/identity, nationality or citizenship, a displaced persons rights are considered by most authorities as limited and in many cases void. This gives criminals and unethical companies the green light to exploit, break the laws and violate human rights, fully knowing that prosecution is very slim and unlikely.
We at URGC have heard the terrible term ‘’Harvesting’’ used on many occasions, it refers to people trafficking, forced slave labour of displaced people and with 229 million displaced people there is no shortage for criminals to apply criminal acts or for unscrupulous companies to break the laws or for terrorist to recruit people promising them a place and state as its citizens.
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The world has seen how ISIS receive recruits from all over the world, very few who are highlighted by the media are from western European countries, USA, Canada, but the vast majority are displaced people who have nothing to lose, and are promised a home, new life for them and their families, respect and citizenship in a new Islamic State which they must earn by fighting for it, an opportunity given to them by God to remove them from the suffering the non-believers have caused them, which the displaced person immediately is drawn to and can relate to due to his life experiences and past treatment, so they enter a new life in a promise land and a promised new life. As a displaced person who experiences the above suffering, it is felt they have nothing to lose but everything to gain. It is on this point why we say that terrorism has found an inflow of willing recruits and will continue to do so till the world governments recognise the dangers of not applying more action to find sustainable realistic solutions to the global displacement crisis, and until a sustainable solution is applied crime and terrorism as well as illegal corporate abuse of such people will continue and grow.
Such terrorist recruits need to get to their destination, those with ID or fake ID will chance to fly or cross land locked borders, those without ID will obtain jobs on a ship to reach their destinations.
Realistic economical sustainable solution to resolve global displacement are required which naturally require funding, which the UN is desperately short of due to the ongoing increase of worldwide displacement. Governments globally must realise that until displacement is resolved terrorism and crime will feed of it and grow which creates more displacement which turns in to a vicious never ending chaotic circle harvesting recruits for terror.
The problem is displacement caused by global governments actions and or lack of actions, until this is realized and acted upon, the above will continue to thrive.
Apply housing, infrastructure, social development and socioeconomic infrastructure and you combat crime and terrorism, you give people something to live for and build for themselves and children.
Such terrorist recruits need to get to their destination, those with ID or fake ID will chance to fly or cross land locked borders, those without ID will obtain jobs on a ship to reach their destinations.
Realistic economical sustainable solution to resolve global displacement are required which naturally require funding, which the UN is desperately short of due to the ongoing increase of worldwide displacement. Governments globally must realise that until displacement is resolved terrorism and crime will feed of it and grow which creates more displacement which turns in to a vicious never ending chaotic circle harvesting recruits for terror.
The problem is displacement caused by global governments actions and or lack of actions, until this is realized and acted upon, the above will continue to thrive.
Apply housing, infrastructure, social development and socioeconomic infrastructure and you combat crime and terrorism, you give people something to live for and build for themselves and children.
