With about 42 million persons displaced from their home countries because of conflict, violence and persecution, the observance of World Refugee Day on June 21 becomes more relevant and pressing than ever.
Most of these displaced persons are from countries suffering from severe ongoing conflict and instability.
The number increases to more than 100 million if those displaced right within their home countries are included.
World Refugee Day has been annually observed since 2001 to honor the displaced people for their strength and courage in leaving their home country and their comfort zone to escape persecution and conflict.
The significance of the observance, analysts say, lies in the fact that it brings attention to the rights, needs and aspirations of refugees so that they can pursue life with dignity, self-reliance and opportunities.
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Recently, I recollected in this column my first-hand encounter with the Boat People from Vietnam, refugees who fled their country by the tens of thousands after the Fall of Saigon in 1975 and the reunification of the country under the Communist rule.
That encounter took place almost four decades ago at the Philippine First Asylum Camp in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, where I had the opportunity to interview and document through photos newly-arrived refugees, who braved the high seas for weeks in their flight to freedom. Showing signs of severe malnutrition, many of them were in near skin-bone condition.
The camp was established by the Philippine government, under then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., in partnership with UNHCR, or the United Nations High Commission for Refugees
The camp served as a transit point as the refugees awaited clearance for settlement in receiving countries. More than 50,000 refugees sought shelter at the Puerto Princesa camp since it opened in 1979 until it closed in mid-1990s.
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The Vietnamese refugees were not the first asylum seekers accommodated by the Philippine government through the years though.
A Daily Inquirer report pointed out the open-door asylum policy of the country since about 250 Russians came to flee the Bolshevik Revolution in 1921. A second wave of about 6,000 White Russians, who fled from communist persecution in China, followed from 1949 to 1951.
In between the flow of Russian arrivals – from 1934 to1941 – President Manuel Quezon granted asylum to about 1,200 Jews escaping Nazi persecution across Europe.
Israel acknowledged the Philippine gesture when it unveiled the Open Doors Monument in 2009 at the Holocaust Memorial Park in Rishon, LeZion, a coastal city about 5 miles south of the capital, Tel Aviv.
The monument honors President Quezon “for providing a safe haven for the Jewish refugees”.
The accommodation of refugees, despite the economic situation of the country, has been a testimonial to the hospitality and generosity of the Filipino spirit, which has gained the attention of the global community.
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To remember the presence of the Vietnamese refugees in Palawan, a group of former asylum workers opened the PFAC Museum in February last year. The organising group was led by former asylum OIC, retired Adm. Mike Rodriguez, and Jan Top Christensen, head of the UNHCR Field Office for PFAC, who later served as ambassador of Denmark to the Philippines.
Among the PFAC Museum board of director members is my Iloilo-based friend Dr. Vic Salas, who had served as camp medical officer. It was Dr. Salas who facilitated my camp visit when I had the opportunity to conduct first-hand interviews with refugees.
The Vietnamese heritage exhibition is located within the Palawan Special Battalion World War 2 Museum located along Rizal Avenue which was established by the Mendoza Family.
The Vietnamese museum encapsulates the experiences of the Boat People – from their covert departures, the risky sea adventures in fishing boats, their stay in the camp, their introduction to the local community of facets of their culture and eventually resettlement in a third country.
“While only the older generation can recall that there was once a PFAC, the presence of the Vietnamese in Palawan over the decades has left a lasting imprint in local culture…,” Dr. Salas wrote in an article published in the digital magazine, Positively Filipino.
For us familiar with the experiences of Boat People and other persons displaced from their comfort zones, World Refugee Day touches a nostalgic chord and echoes the call to honor them and for governments to implement measures to work for and ensure the sustenance of social justice and peace.
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Do not mistreat foreigners who are living in your land… Love them as you love yourselves. (Leviticus 18:33) | NWI
