Blog

24/04/2020

Grace Buckley writes this week's J&P Scotland blog and her thoughts at this time turn to those living in countires affected by war and those who have fled war and are living in refugee camps.

As I’ve watched the news unfold on the Covid-19 virus, and the actions being taken to deal with it, I’ve wondered whether what we are experiencing now in the UK and elsewhere in Europe will make us more understanding of the experiences of civilians in countries affected by war, and refugees from those countries.

I think my train of thought was initiated by the fact that 15 March 2020 marked nine years since the beginning of the war in Syria. An official date for the start of the war in Yemen is 25 March 2015.

We are experiencing an interruption to normal life that is resulting in schools and businesses being closed, livelihoods disrupted and people having to isolate from each other and only go out for essentials. Some people are seeking to escape the virus by travelling to areas they think will be safer.

We don’t know how long this will last. It remains to be seen what the long-term effects on employment, on the future of our children as a result of interrupted schooling, on our economy and on our communities will be. The only thing that is certain is that the future at this time is uncertain.

In countries like Syria, Afghanistan and the Yemen, we may be surprised by the realisation that many of the problems facing people are similar, although the cause is so very different and the results are of an order of magnitude far greater. War has meant the death of loved ones, the closure of schools, the destruction of businesses, the loss of communities. People are unable to venture out safely. They go out only to get the necessities of life – food, medicines, which are often in desperately short supply. They have no control over what is happening to their lives and no clear idea of when things will get better.

For many the only solution seems to be to flee if at all possible in the hope of securing a future for their children. Sadly, this future often turns out to be illusory as they find themselves in refugee camps with no access to work, and limited access to education for their children.

In Scotland, even as the news seems to get worse, we are seeing positive signs of people working together, looking out for their neighbours and those at risk in their communities. People are also taking action to ensure our governments (UK and Scottish) don’t forget the marginalised, including the refugees and asylum seekers in our midst. There are the green shoots of optimism that this crisis will build stronger communities.

My hope and prayer is that, as we emerge from this crisis, we do not forget what we have experienced, and that this leads us to have greater understanding and compassion for the needs and actions of those affected by war, violence or disaster. We are perhaps learning that we would feel and act no differently in their shoes.

17/04/2020

Lockdown In A Refugee Camp?

As COVID 19 spreads round the globe, Justice & Peace Scotland vice chair Marian Pallister reflects on the plight of refugees and victims of conflict.

I have spent lockdown at home in Argyll. Will the Wood delivered a load of logs, the farm shop has kept me supplied with vegetables, both of which I was able to pay for on line, and my only foray to the Co-op was civilised if a little lacking in results. I have even been able to join Justice and Peace Scotland standing committee meetings by video conferencing. I can, if I’m sensible, stay well.

And in other people’s lives?

If you are a regular reader of Justice and Peace Scotland blogs, you will know that as an organisation, we have been closely involved with the young refugees in northern France. They have relatives in the UK but are held in a limbo that sees them struggle to survive in makeshift camps periodically destroyed by the French authorities. They are fed, clothed, and provided with sleeping bags and other necessities by volunteers – all of which can disappear in a few violently destructive minutes when police swoop. Now these youngsters are pushed even further from their goal to reunite with whatever relatives are still living after the conflicts they have escaped. The UK government has maintained a hostile approach to their situation.

The French COVID19 lockdown means a round up and dispersal to accommodation centres of those living rough around Calais and neighbouring ports.

In Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, the plight of the Rohingya refugees is a disaster waiting to happen. You’ll recall that Justice and Peace Scotland took SCIAF’s photographic exhibition of images taken in the camp to parishes across Scotland. I went with those images around my own diocese of Argyll and the Isles and shared the tears of those who engaged with the refugees’ plight.

Now, unable to go back home or to move on to a future settled life, the Rohingya, who escaped massacre in Myanmar, face COVID19, spreading across Asia and threatening the most vulnerable.

Most vulnerable? The undernourished, those with underlying health conditions, the poor living in overcrowded conditions. Cox’s Bazar to a T.

There are Syrian refugees in camps around the Mediterranean. In Turkey, they are ostracised as a burden on a failing state unable to care for its own virus-struck citizens. As country after country falls foul of COVID19, refugees (some welcomed, some in little better than concentration camps) are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to care, and at the front of the queue in terms of contracting the virus.

Just imagine the skeletal infants in Yemen being exposed to – after the bombs and the bullets and the starvation – the coronavirus.

Countries in the global South – Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, DR Congo – all now have COVID19 cases. Some of those countries shelter refugees. Not one has the medical infrastructure to efficiently combat the virus. Did we?

UNHCR and the world’s faith groups may offer the only care. This virus has made us hope for a better world when it has wrought its damage. Please God we will have a more humane and welcoming attitude to the world’s weakest. I pray for justice, and for peace.

10/04/2020

Bon Courage

Stefan Lunte, Secretary, Justice & Peace Europe, reflects on the effects of COVID19 in France. Weekly Blog.

I would like to greet you from Europe and offer the friendship of Justice and Peace here. After all, we are facing the same problems during this pandemic and we are all working for justice and peace. I’m sure we share some experiences.

In France, the first cases of COVID-19 were detected on 24 January. On 24 March we had 22,302 confirmed cases and 1,100 dead in hospital. There may be more dead in care homes and in general, but they are not documented yet. Since 17 March we have been living with relatively strict confinement measures, which are generally well respected. There are of course exceptions in some parts.

Health services are under severe strain. This is especially true for the east of the country and Paris. We haven’t had masks and other personal equipment, or ventilators. Nor has a wide spread campaign to test been possible because the necessary kits for testing have not been available.

Information is sometimes contradictory and the media has stirred heated conflicts around scientific debate. The best example is the question using Chloroquine as a medication in hospitals.

As in many other countries, people invent new forms of solidarity in order to distribute food and other necessary items. New forms of connectedness via social media are replacing missing physical contact. Radio stations, traditionally quite strong in France, have adapted their programmes and provide some source of comfort. Newspapers struggle more because of the restrictions on mail delivery and the confinement in general.

Two days before the confinement – I think you refer to it as ‘lockdown’ - a first round of local elections had been organised to renew city councils in about 30,000 French communes. However, the vote for new mayors couldn't go ahead. In the remaining 5,000 communes, a second round of the elections is necessary but has been postponed at least to the second half of June. In general, the elections suffered. On the eve of the poll, people were told to go to vote but restaurants and pubs were ordered to close. These conflicting messages led many people to stay at home.

Highbrow journals such as Revue des Deux Mondes Esprit, and Etudes refer to Albert Camus’ novel La Peste and compare the crisis responses of Western and Eastern societies - one stressing the freedom of the individual, the other its responsibility.

There are no masses, and with funerals being restricted in attendance and only held at cemeteries, the Church in France is limited to social media and initiatives like the ringing of all bells in France on the evening of the Annunciation Day on 25 March and lighting candles in homes.

People are no longer accustomed to stay at home for longer periods and apartments, especially in urban areas, are not designed for this. The real test for French society, as for you in Scotland, will be the impact of confinement measures after three or four weeks. Bon courage.

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