REFUGE WHERE THERE IS NO REFUGE: A REFUGEE DILEMMA.

On assignment along the refugee pentagon, traversing: Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech, Hungary, and Slovakia, the sceneric beauty as I drove along the winding roads with picturesque small villages, one is lost for words to describe the paradisiac atmosphere of the Alps.

Stopping to fulfil the call of nature I began to reminisce about my childhood days in Nigeria, when everything was in perfect harmony just like what I saw in the Alps, fortunately or unfortunately as I was about to return to my car I saw a large swarm of humanity rushing towards me, then I realised I was in the middle of something historic.

Immediately I got to my chalet I put on the television set to listen to the news, behold so many refugee from Syria camping in one of the train station in Hungary under a very dehumanizing situation in the centre of Europe. I asked what has become of the UN convention and other legal instrumentarium to protect vulnerable people seeking refuge.

The invasion of Europe by refugee fleeing war and economic hardship in their fatherland, specifically from the Middle eastern and African countries south of the sahara is nothing new contextually when we look at the historiography of migration into Europe in the last century, however what is new is the mometum, scale, the locustlike swarm of humanity, and the means of migration across the Mediterranean Sea, coupled with the perishment that followed such a dangerous journey.

We do not know the totality in terms of numbers, how many lives were lost at sea but the horrendous television images beamed into citizens homes everyday have neccesitated the huge outcry from some section of the populace, on their governments to do something humanitarian wise to help those refugees who have managed to come ashore alive.

we must not loose sight of the fact that there are opposition to this call for humanitarian help, from extreme far right groups in most countries of Europe.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a caucasian colleague at work during breaktime about the refugee crisis, and his opinion is a reflection of what is typical in this clime at the moment.

He said "Those terrorist should go back to their countries, we dont want muslims here," I was flabbergasted because I have never heard him say something that racistic before, however I can understand his frustration, the rest of our conversation cannot be written down because it is disgusting.

Europe is in deep economic downturn at this moment and there is no appetite to accommodated more stomachs to feed.

European politician and leadership are not communicating effectively with their constituencies. I wonder how I can elucidate the unfolding human crisis to my colleague when he sees the refugees as terrorist, just because they are muslims even though there are christians amongst them coming from the middle east, or when he said the Africans are only coming to spread Ebola and collect social security stipend.

In respect of communication over their international engagements, policies, obligations, etc European politicians and leadership are not pro-active thereby alienating a large number of the populace leading to all kinds of misconceptions.

This refugee crisis has open up a cancerworm of uninformed European citizens screaming profanity when it comes to international development related issues.

There is a need for massive awareness programme in schools to make the citizenry politically conscious again, to be alive to the fundamentals of international relation and co-operation, rather than the ad hoc approaches of fundraising whenever there is crisis of such magnitude as we are experiencing.

OTUNBA ADE ILEMOBADE is a philosopher
Twitter: pearl2prince