PH can teach U.S. about the proper treatment of Syrian refugees

Syrian refugees in Jordan.

One week after the terrorist attacks in Paris, by a vote of 289-137, the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to halt the admission of Syrian refugees into the U.S. until they undergo a “more stringent vetting process,” one that virtually assures that no Syrian refugee will be allowed to enter the U.S.

Not to be outdone by the action of their colleagues in the House, the nation’s Republican governors also announced that their states would not accept Syrian refugees.

The Republicans have sent the clear message that “Syrian refugees are not welcome” in the U.S., a message that ironically falls in line with the ISIS goal that targets the Syrian refugees. As Zach Beauchamp wrote:

“ISIS despises Syrian refugees: It sees them as traitors to the caliphate. By leaving, they turn their back on the caliphate. ISIS depicts its territory as a paradise, and fleeing refugees expose that as a lie. But if refugees do make it out, ISIS wants them to be treated badly — the more the West treats them with suspicion and fear, the more it supports ISIS’s narrative of a West that is hostile to Muslims and bolsters ISIS’s efforts to recruit from migrant communities in Europe.”

In sharp contrast to the actions of the Republicans, French President Francois Hollande declared that his country would still accept 30,000 Syrian refugees, an announcement at a gathering of French mayors that drew a standing ovation.

Hollande emphasized that it was France’s “humanitarian duty” to honor its commitments to refugees, even in the wake of the ISIS terror attacks which killed at least 129 people in Paris.

Jewish refugees barred in 1939

Before the House vote on November 19, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), a House member who opposed the Republicans’ House bill, reminded House members that “we face a choice that will echo through history” specifically referring to the time when the U.S. also turned away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939. “We must not let ourselves be guided by irrational fear.”

What Rep. Nadler referred to was a 1939 incident that was made into a 1976 Hollywood film, Voyage of the Damned, which was based on the true story of the luxury liner MS St. Louis, which left Hamburg, Germany with 937 Jewish passengers bound for Florida where the U.S. government refused to allow the Jews to disembark.

After the ship was refused entry in other ports, it returned to Germany where its Jewish passengers were forcibly removed and dispatched to concentration camps for extermination. A Nazi official in the film declares: “When the whole world has refused to accept them as refugees, no country can blame Germany for the fate of the Jews.”

But at least one country can blame Germany for its genocide of the Jews. In the year when the MS St. Louis was rejected by all the countries where it sought refuge, the Philippine Commonwealth accepted 1,300 Jews and was willing to accept as much as 10,000 more in Mindanao if the US State Department had allowed it to do so.

The Washington Times reported on December 5, 1938 (“Quezon Urges Jews’Haven”) that “the possibility of a haven for Jewish refugees from Germany was broached today by Pres. Manuel Quezon” who said “I am willing to facilitate entrance of such numbers of Jewish people as we could absorb…I favor large scale immigration to Mindanao, if well financed.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq-…

Safe haven for Jewish refugees

The Philippines has a proud history of being a haven for refugees seeking asylum, and of engaging in humanitarian efforts to resettle them. A refugee, as the United Nations defines it, is  “any person who: owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
On February 15, 1939, Philippine Commonwealth Pres. Quezon said that his country “could not turn a deaf ear to the sufferings of these unfortunate people.”

A year later, the Philippine Congress passed the Philippine Immigration Act of 1940, which provided Quezon with broad discretionary powers “to admit aliens who are refugees for religious, political, or racial reasons, in such classes of cases and under such conditions as he may prescribe.”

Jewish refugees in Marikina.

On April 23, 1940, Quezon personally greeted 40 Jewish families to the 8 hectares of land he had donated to them in Marikina saying in his welcome address:

“It is my hope, and indeed my expectation, that the people of the Philippines will have in the future every reason to be glad that when the time of need came, their country was willing to extend a hand of welcome.”

Chinese and White Russian refugees

The Philippine welcome mat was not just extended to Jewish refugees. In 1937, when the Japanese Imperial Forces invaded mainland China, Quezon issued Proclamation No. 173 offering aid to refugees from China fleeing the Japanese invasion.

Among the refugees were the “White Russians”, supporters of the Russian Tsar who had fled to Shanghai when the Bolsheviks seized power in 1922.

In December 1948, Pres. Elpidio Quirino offered refuge to 8,000 White Russians who had fled the Chinese Communist victory in China and they were settled in the former naval base of Tubabao Island in Guiuan, Samar.

Indochinese refugees

In April 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War, the Philippines opened its doors to thousands of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees who were fleeing their countries by boat.

On August 21, 1979, the Philippines established a task force on international refugee assistance working with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in giving aid to the refugees within its shores.

In its short history from April, 1975 to August, 1982, the Philippine Refugee Processing Center provided food, shelter and education to about 400, 000 Indochinese refugees.

Headline of Quezon urging a safe haven for Jewish refugees.

How can a country which bills itself as “the greatest country in the world” have presidential candidates proudly proclaiming their intent to throw persecuted Syrian refugees under the bus?
‘Greatest country in the world’

In the HBO TV series, “Newsroom”, lead anchorman Will McAvoy, portrayed by Jeff Daniels, is asked in a college forum “What makes America the greatest country in the world.” McAvoy hesitates before delivering the following:

“It’s not the greatest country in the world, Professor, that’s my answer…there’s absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number 4 in labor force and number 4 in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: Number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending where we spend more than the next 26 countries combined, 25 of whom are allies.”

“It sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were and we never beat our chests. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men, we aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior.”

The Philippines may be last in traffic management and first in the corruption of its public officials but the country can still teach the US about how it should treat Syrian refugees.

(Send comments to [email protected] or mail them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415.334.7800).

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