In full preparation of the southern hemisphere to face a “summer of extremes” and “record heat”, the renowned Brazilian nun Rosita Milesi, recently awarded the Nansen Prize by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), warns that “Global warming and its consequences already generate more forced displacement than wars.”
At 79 years old, Milesi, known as Sister Rosita, awarded for her work at the head of the Institute of Migration and Human Rights (IMDH) that she founded in Brasilia in 1999 and has directed since then, highlights in a telephone interview with elDiario.es that the The situation is “especially worrying” in Latin America, “with unprecedented floods and prolonged droughts.”
After his time in Chile, where he participated in an institutional event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, a pioneering model of regional collaboration, Milesi highlights the need to “pay attention to the countries with the least resources and the most vulnerable, such as women, children and the elderly. The nun, of Italian descent He has spent almost four decades dedicated to working with migration: “It became the cause of my life.”
There was an expectation of a change of course in Venezuela, but when this was not confirmed, the migratory movement returned with more force
In the midst of escalating uncertainty in Venezuela due to the imminent inauguration of the future president, Sister Rosita remembers that, whatever happens in the Caribbean country starting in January, Latin America will not be able to look the other way in the face of a possible increase in migrants and refugees because “their reception is a legal imperative, although – he says – the forced displacement of large populations overloads the support and assistance systems of governments.”
He anticipates that the migratory movement “will possibly increase” after January 10, if Nicolás Maduro is still in power, in a replica of what happened just after the July elections: “There was an expectation of a change of course in Venezuela , but when it was not confirmed, the migratory movement returned with more force.”
According to UNHCRthere are currently more than 730,000 people in need of international protection in Brazil, among them 144,000 people recognized as refugees, mostly from Venezuela, followed by Cuba and Syria.
Sister Rosita, who joined the Scalabrinian Missionaries congregation at the age of 19, founded to help Italian migrants arriving in America at the end of the 19th century, says that the demands for refuge and migration “are a consequence of the lack of prospects in the country,” rather than by “one president or another,” although “both points are related.” Both Maduro and the opponent Edmundo González Urrutia claim victory in the elections. González Urrutia has expressed his intention to go on January 10 to the headquarters of the National Assembly (Parliament), controlled by the Government, to take the oath of office.
Many of those who promote xenophobia are children or grandchildren of migrants
Given the rise of hate speech against migration, which politicians and the media often link to crime, Sister Rosita called for “the responsibility of political leaders” to stop “sowing hatred” and wondered “who will assume responsibility for its consequences.” In his opinion, “many of those who promote xenophobia today are children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren of migrants, people who arrived from various parts of the world to rebuild their lives in the ‘New World’.”
The nun believes that the best recipe to combat these discourses is education: “Through it, children, adolescents and young people can build intercultural communities that value otherness and the contribution of those who arrive in the country, although without belongings, but with their potentialities and talents.”
Regarding the relations between governments and organizations defending human rights and migration and refuge, he believes that “there is a difficulty for States to accept the presence on the ground and to collaborate” with these entities. “Whenever we can, we insist that States welcome us as allies, not as enemies,” she says after being asked about the successive attacks that Israel has carried out against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza.
In the face of any sudden crisis, the authority’s response is closure
Recognized for her work on Brazil’s 1996 Refugee Law, which expanded the definition of a refugee in accordance with the Cartagena Declaration, and on the 2017 Migration Law, she is not surprised by the first reaction of several European countries to the Bashar al-Assad’s flight from Syria to suspend the processing of asylum applications from citizens of that country: “In any situation of sudden crisis, the usual response of the authorities is denial, closure.”
For her, “the question should not be ‘how many people are asking for asylum?’, but rather ‘how many people need asylum and what would be the consequences of not welcoming them from a humanitarian point of view?’”
The town that welcomes us today was already welcomed at some point or may need hosting in the future.
Critical of the lack of “historical dimension of States,” she reflects that “practically all countries, at some point in history, have generated humanitarian pressure on others, whether due to wars or natural tragedies.” The winner, who says that receiving the Nansen Prize “is an honor,” concludes that migration “is a cyclical movement” and that “the people who welcome us today were already welcomed at some point or may need hosting in the future.” .
#Sister #Rosita #Nansen #Prize #Global #warming #generates #displaced #people #wars
