The hope of returning home

(ES)

The movement of 15-M was born in Spain under the slogan "REAL DEMOCRACY NOW. We are not goods in the hands of politicians and bankers" has now more than 400,000 followers in social networks. Derived from this movement, many outraged citizens took the squares of their cities and decided to camp there.

After several weeks, the campers themselves are deliberating about convenience of the eviction from the camps, seeking more efficient alternative to ensure continuity and credibility to the movement that was born on 15-M. The political and business pressures are increasing, citing insanitary problems in the camps, as well as economic losses from shops around the places where outraged people are encamped.

Since that date, May 15, the media make an exhaustive follow up of all that has to do with this movement, its present and future.

A settlement for IDP's in North Galkayo, Somalia

© Kate Holt/IRIN

According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) the number of people displaced within their own country is about 26 million IDPs, of whom UNHCR assists about 15 million of them. To this figure must be added 10 million refugees, stateless 6 million, 1 million asylum seekers and 400 thousand people requiring assistance from UNHCR.

Almost 44 million people live in refugee camps worldwide. People fleeing violence and living in tents away from their homes, in conditions that UNHCR and many NGOs try to make it as dignified as possible. Refugee camps in which several generations have been born and grew up, always with the hope of returning home.

44 million human beings have "taken the secluded squares of a globalized world", not to claim, but to escape certain death. They more than anyone are goods in the hands of politicians and large corporations. However, the unhealthiness of their camps and evicting them does not seem to be a priority of our rulers, nor capture the attention of the media. And is that in the squares occupied by the refugees there are no residents or traders to be disturbed, and if those refugees try to take some of ours in Europe, borders are closed to them, or are detained until they can be returned to the fleeing countries.

So Europe's message is: "Dear refugees, stay in your camps in the middle of nowhere, do not cross our borders, that here we have already many outraged citizens to be evicted from our squares."

Only hope can change the world. The hope of the outraged people, the hope of displaced people, the hope of those who believe that a better world is possible.


IDP's: Internally Displaced People.