21st century is continuously hit by a series of wave related to human rights issues. A number of cross-country or civil wars; ethnic, religious, economic, or political conflicts unveil one after another crisis. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, there are more than 65.3 million forcibly displaced people, and 21.3 million refugees until 2015, and the figure is still increasing rapidly due to the unease regional conflicts across the world such as the Syrian war.
Based on World Health Organization’s research, approximately 15% of any population will be persons with disabilities. That is to say, globally, there possibly exist more than 9million of persons with disabilities among displaced populations, and more than 3 million of refugees with disabilities. However, they often remain as invisible groups within communities and international attention.
People with disabilities cannot be treated or thought as one homogenous group. Each one of them is different from another, and has distinct, diverse impairments, skills and capacities, which requires different needs and assistance. Unfortunately, even though in 2008, when The Convention on the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) came into force, and specifically identify the urgent attention needed for rights for persons with disabilities in Article 11, there does not have a complete and legitimate law or strategies targeting this group and they often face serious discrimination and violence in times of armed conflicts, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.
There are many challenges facing from refugees with disabilities. The following article will respectively go through the three biggest difficulties identified by Forced Migration Review and some cases presented by the UN.
As mentioned above, people with disabilities have different impairments and skills. This exposes them to a certain degree of vulnerability and marginalization due to the fact that it requires an adaption of “diverse contextual situations and societal attitudes”. Especially in times of conflicts, it is difficult for refugees with disabilities to cope with the harsh situations and conditions they are facing.
In an interview in 2016 with UN staffs, a 94-year-old Iraqi refugee seeking refuge in Qaymawa Camp in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, told that she was unable to move even from inside the tent to outdoor spaces because of her leg disability. Her daughter also described their times escaping from the heavy shelling, “I sat my mother on a rug because she couldn’t move. As we heard shelling and the sounds of gunfire all around us, I pulled her from room to room to protect her from bullets that might come through the window.” Fatima’s only wheelchair was broken and her family is unable to pay to fix it. Her story showed the difficulty of refugees with disabilities living in unstable situation such as in refugee camps. Although UNHCR had been trying to assist them based on their individual circumstances, there were no special services in the camp.
Secondly, the lack of specified law to protect disabled refugees’ rights result in limited assistance and invisibility of their needs. For instance, in Human Rights Watch’s 2017 January report, it showed in their findings that “people with disabilities were not being properly identified in the refugee reception system in Greece”. It also indicates that there were no “targeted programs to respond to the rights and needs of asylum seekers, refugees, and other migrants with disabilities,” after an overall interview had carried out with UNHCR and eight international aid organizations and one local group operating in the refugee sites in Greece.
Finally, the capacities and skills of people with disabilities are often neglected even when it comes to the refugee cases. A common attitude at field level reveals that many usually consider persons with disabilities are unable to participate in activities or to contribute. On the contrary, under a well-considered care-taking system and appropriate services, persons with disabilities often end up rediscovering their passion and develop skills beneficial to society. They are not a burden or “broken persons” that requires all times care services if the system can be built considering individual circumstances and flexibilities.
Nujeen, 18-year-old Syrian girl fled from the conflict and traveled all along her way to Europe, is a good example. She resettled in Germany and is now receiving education with other students with disabilities and physical therapy. She not only devotes herself to raise awareness globally on the issues of refugees with disabilities, but also is determined to study hard and become an astronaut in the future.
