17일 세계노총이 6.20세계난민의날을 맞아 성명을 발표했다.
성명은 <제네바협정에 따르면 난만이란 종교적인 이유 또는 전쟁이나 사회적환경에 의해 정치적인 이유로 시민권이 있는 자국을 떠나기로 자발적으로 결정한 사람들로서 자기자신을 보호할 여건이 되지 못해 보호를 필요로 한다>며 <수백의 비극적이고 우울한 배경이 있다는 현실에도 불구하고 민중들이 숫자로 취급되고 존엄을 빼앗겨 끝내 자살에 이르고있다>고 밝혔다.
이어서 <세계난민의날은 전세계의 난민들의 인권을 보호하기 위한 노력을 촉구하기에 좋은 기회다>라며 <세계노총은 지금까지 그래왔듯 난민문제 해결을 위해 연대와 지지를 발전시켜 나갈것이다>고 말했다.
그러면서 <세계노총은 국제계급운동의 대표로서 난민문제 해결의 가장 좋은 방법은 그근원을 제거하기 위한 싸움을 벌이는 것이라고 생각한다>라며 <가장 중요한 것은 전쟁들을 중단하는 것이다>고 강조했다.
세계노총은 <구호물자를 공급하는 것과 같은 자선이 아니라 군사적인 행동이 요구되고 있다>면서 세계난민의날을 기념하기 위한 6가지 구체적인 투쟁과제를 명시했다.
아래는 전문이다.
A refugee, according to the Geneva Convention, is someone who voluntarily leaves the state of which he is a citizen, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted there for reasons of religion or war or even because of his status as a member of a particular social group or political opinion (political refugee), and in addition it is impossible for him to secure protection from his country or, because of this fear, he does not wish to be placed under that protection.
This typical description in real life translates to:
• women jumping into the sea with their children, without knowing how to swim, to escape the bombings
• people who die of a simple appendicitis, helpless in the cell they have been locked up in, after their arrival in the “civilized western world”, having traveled countless miles under harsh conditions, chased either by a regime, or by war, or by misery and poverty
• children living in modern concentration camps, the so-called hot spots, without being able to go to school, without play, without childhood… Children who suddenly became adults when they saw the corpses of their friends or family members, after a military attack on their place
• families that are separated during their escape and that the political leaders of the powerful states prevent their reunification, because “their economy” cannot withstand a larger number of refugees …
This is the brilliant reality, which can be enriched with hundreds of tragic stories and dark descriptions, like the ones we hear and see every day in the news bulletins.
It is a reality where people are treated as numbers, losing every trace of dignity, and often leading them to suicide, while they have managed to survive wars and other afflictions.
June 20, World Refugee Day, is a good opportunity to raise awareness of the plight of refugees around the world and of efforts to protect their human rights. WFTU welcomes this anniversary as always, as a symbolic day for the further development of solidarity and support to our fellow human beings who have found themselves in this situation. Refugee is a deep social problem, which has now reached the dimensions of a humanitarian crisis, since according to statistics, every minute 20 people leave their homes to avoid war or persecution. As the World Federation of Trade Unions, however, as a representative of the global class movement with more than 105 million members in 130 countries, we consider it the best way to honor refugees, but also to offer them substantial help, is to fight to eliminate the causes that lead to forced displacement and refugee status. We have fought, we fight and we will fight for every issue, big or small, that can alleviate their situation, such as setting up reception centers where refugees will be hosted in decent conditions with all the basic supplies for human life, or to speed up the procedures and provide them with the necessary documents in order to move to the destination they want. But the most important thing is to stop the wars, which is one of the main factors in forced relocation. Economic rivalries and antagonisms between the great capitalist states and their multinationals are leading millions of people into persecution. Many times the forced displacement or migration of populations is done only in order for a multinational to proceed with the extraction of minerals or oil in the ancestral lands of the natives. The world class labor movement must aim at these causes, highlight and shed light on the culprit behind the refugee problem: it is capitalism, the socio-economic system based on the greed of big capital. For the profit of multinationals human life is just a number, a statistic. For the working class, however, human life, especially of the workers and the popular strata, is the supreme good.
The WFTU calls on all its members and friends, as well as the entire working class, regardless of race, nationality, religion or gender, to intensify their struggle, develop their solidarity and increase their activities around the refugee issue.
We are not talking about charity, where with a blanket and a package of spaghetti we get rid of the issue. We are talking about militant action, where the organized trade union movement will demand from the states and their political leaderships, the immediate solution of the problems:
• improving living conditions in existing reception centers
• immediate medical care, especially during this period of the COVID19 pandemic
• providing the necessary documents and speeding up the transfer of refugees to the destination of their choice
• reunification of all refugee families, who were divided during their escape from their place
• access to school education for all refugee children
• to immediately stop wars and military interventions
This is how we think we celebrate Refugee Day and this is how we think the class movement should address the refugee issue: as another abscess of the rotten capitalist system.
The Secretariat