Stop being bystanders — there are refugees in dire need who need help

Epic journey: the Kindertransport statue at Liverpool Street station reminds us how Jewish children were brought to safety during the war
UIG via Getty Images
Rohan Silva29 November 2018
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About suffering they were never wrong, the Old Masters.” So begins WH Auden’s classic poem Musée des Beaux Arts, which is all about the way we often ignore tragic events in our midst, distracted as we are by the hustle and bustle of our busy lives.

If you want proof, just watch the video posted on social media this week of a young refugee being viciously bullied at a school in Huddersfield. If you haven’t seen it yet, it makes for heartbreaking viewing.

The boy — who came to the UK after fleeing the war in Syria — is walking along in his school uniform when he’s suddenly attacked by another pupil, who grabs him by the throat and violently wrenches him to the ground, before pouring water all over his face.

But perhaps the most saddening part is the way the victim quietly gets back to his feet afterwards and continues walking in silence, while all around him other students stand around talking — barely paying attention to the cruelty that’s just taken place in front of them.

On Twitter you can find people criticising those onlookers who did nothing to intervene, or to console the poor boy after the attack. But before we rush to condemn, it’s worth considering whether we’re really all that different ourselves when it comes to standing by when bad things are happening.

Rohan Silva 

After all, many children will be sleeping tonight in windswept tents in refugee camps scattered across France, Germany and Hungary. In a continent as prosperous as Europe, that’s a truly appalling state of affairs — and yet it’s hardly ever discussed by our political leaders, diverted as they are by all the arguments about Brexit.

If that’s not depressing enough, think of this. Our Government has a formal requirement to allow up to 480 vulnerable refugee children to come to the UK — a legal responsibility under what’s known as the Dubs Amendment, which requires the UK to offer unaccompanied minors safe passage to this country. However, the Government has completely failed to fulfil that responsibility, with only 220 minors let in so far. That means that hundreds of young people aren’t getting the help they desperately need — and which they’re legally entitled to.

It’s a shocking state of affairs. You might reasonably expect that political failure on this scale — which involves UK law being broken — would be hotly debated in Parliament, with ministers being held to account, and perhaps even being forced to resign. But no. There’s resounding silence on this issue — while yet more testosterone-fuelled arguments about leaving the EU dominate the airwaves.

Auden wouldn’t have been surprised by this disregard, but that doesn’t make it any less dispiriting.

When you think about the scale of the refugee crisis, it’s easier to feel powerless. According to the United Nations, there are now 68.5 million displaced people worldwide — and more than half of them are under the age of 16, meaning that one in every 200 children in the world is a refugee.

But the sheer magnitude of the problem doesn’t mean we can’t make a difference. For starters, the Government could easily break through the bureaucratic logjam and start to fulfil its legal requirements, which would be life-changing for hundreds of vulnerable young people. And in the run-up to Christmas, we can all decide to buy gifts from the Help Refugees charity shop just off Carnaby Street (and online atchoose.love) — raising money and providing supplies that will keep refugees warm and safe through the winter.

"Political failure on this scale would be hotly debated in Parliament, with ministers even being forced to resign"

If we are in need of inspiration to stop being bystanders and start taking action, a great place to look is Liverpool Street station. There you’ll find statues commemorating the Kindertransport, which was an amazing rescue effort that brought Jewish children to safety in the UK in the nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War.

A young London banker named Nicholas Winton was moved by the tragedy unfolding in Europe and decided to take action.

Winton wanted to help children stranded in Czechoslovakia and worked tirelessly to raise funds, arrange travel across the continent — no easy task given that war was about to break out — and find homes for all the little boy and girl refugees who came to the UK.

It wasn’t just Winton who refused to stand by while others suffered. Hundreds of British families volunteered to open their homes to take in those refugee children —and thanks to that generosity of spirit, 669 Jewish children were saved from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis.

Shortly after one of the trains bringing those young people to the UK arrived, the young refugees were taken to a cinema. No doubt many of them were anxious about being so far from home — and desperately unhappy to be away from their loved ones. I’m sure some were worried that they might be unwelcome in this new country — or even face abuse and hostility for being immigrants.

When the youngsters got to their seats in the cinema, they found something special waiting for them. Each of them had been given a chocolate bar as a Christmas present from the local community — a wonderfully open-hearted and generous gesture at a time when so much of Europe was succumbing to ethnic hatred. It just goes to show it’s not inevitable that we stand idly by while other people are suffering.

As Nicholas Winton proved, along with all those families who provided homes and care for children in need, no matter how difficult things might be, it’s always possible to make a difference.

It’s exactly the same with the refugee crisis today. We just need to stop looking the other way.

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