Recognizing World Refugee Day and the Impact of COVID-19 on Refugees | Senator Omidvar
On June 17, 2020 Senator Omidvar rose in the Senate chamber to recognize World Refugee Day. In her statement, she acknowledged the additional struggles that refugees face due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I rise today to recognize World Refugee Day. I rise every year to acknowledge this important day, and I will continue to do so until I retire from the Senate. I do so because the situation for refugees, always dire, is more so today because of the advent of the COVID crisis. As we know, the virus knows and recognizes no boundaries. It moves easily from place to place, from person to person, from country to country and from traveller to traveller.
Even as it has devastated the lives of so many in Canada and brought our society to a standstill, I want us to imagine for a minute what it has done to the already precarious lives of the 70 million forcibly displaced people in the world. We have been asked to shelter in place, but what happens if you don’t have a place and you don’t have a shelter?
The unsafe, unsanitary, crowded conditions in many camps around the world, such as in Cox’s Bazar, make them a fertile ground for the spread of the virus. The density of the living arrangements makes it impossible to quarantine or to maintain any kind of social distancing. The primary victims are, sadly, women and children, since they constitute half of the population of the displaced.
Disease now further complicates an already precarious life for those who are fleeing from armed conflict; violence; persecution; and human rights abuses, including torture, sexual assault and exploitation. As borders have been shut down, their choices for safety have been cut off. Globally, as of the end of May, 161 countries had fully or partially closed their borders, and 99 of them were making no exception for people seeking asylum.
Our own country is among them. We have closed our borders to all asylum seekers, outside of a very few, and many will want to keep these borders closed or tightened. I believe that we can be both safe and be compassionate. I also want to have hope, and I see points of light.
Asylum seekers in Quebec have stepped up and provided much-needed care for parents and senior citizens in long-term care homes. Across the country, it is asylum seekers who, alongside others, are working in meat packing plants, warehouses and grocery stores. Day in and day out, they risk their own lives in order to keep us safe. I believe we owe them our appreciation, either by moving them towards naturalization or by taking other steps to make them stable.
We also need to hear from authentic refugee voices. It is not enough to do for them; it is important to do with them.