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to function as a luxury retreat when not needed for a real emergency,
and it is equipped with tennis courts, swimming pools,
and a large gymnasium. If everyone were to consent to keep fit
by doing aerobics in their own living rooms, it would be possible
to provide primitive but adequate sleeping space for all those
whom the supplies can stretch to feed.
So those outside are now not lacking advocates on the inside.
The most extreme, labelled 'bleeding hearts' by their opponents,
propose that the shelter should admit an additional 10,000 people
- as many as it can reasonably expect to feed and house
until it is safe to return to the outside. This will mean giving up
all luxury in food and facilities; but the bleeding hearts point
out that the fate for those who remain on the outside will be
far worse.
The bleeding hearts are opposed by some who urge that
these outsiders generally are an inferior kind of person, for they
were either not sufficiently far-sighted, or else not sufficiently
wealthy, to invest in a shelter; hence, it is said, they will cause
social problems in the shelter, placing an additional strain on
health, welfare, and educational services and contributing to an
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Insiders and Outsiders
increase in crime and juvenile delinquency. The opposition to
admitting outsiders is also supported by a small group who say
that it would be an injustice to those who have paid for their
share of the shelter if others who have not paid benefit by it.
These opponents of admitting others are articulate, but few;
their numbers are bolstered considerably, however, by many
who say only that they really enjoy tennis and swimming and
don't want to give it up.
Between the bleeding hearts and those who oppose admitting
any outsiders, stands a middle group: those who think that, as
an exceptional act of benevolence and charity, some outsiders
should be admitted, but not so many as to make a significant
difference to the quality of life within the shelter. They propose
converting a quarter of the tennis courts to sleeping accommodation,
and giving up a small public open space that has
attracted little use anyway. By these means, an extra 500 people
could be accommodated, which the self-styled 'moderates' think
would be a sensible figure, sufficient to show that Fairhaven is
not insensitive to the plight of those less fortunate than its own
members.
A referendum is held. There are three proposals: to admit
10,000 outsiders; to admit 500 outsiders; and to admit no outsiders.
For which would you vote?
THE REAL WORLD
Like the issue of overseas aid, the situation of refugees today
raises an ethical question about the boundaries of our moral
community - not, as in earlier chapters, on grounds of species,
stage of development, or intellectual capacities, but on nationality.
The great majority of the approximately 15 million refugees
in the world today are receiving refuge, at least temporarily,
in the poorer and less developed countries of the world. More
than 12 million refugees are in the less developed countries of
Africa, Asia and Latin America. The effect on a poor country of
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Practical Ethics
receiving a sudden influx of millions of refugees can be gauged
from the experience of Pakistan during the 1980s, when it was
home to 2.8 million Afghan refugees - mainly living in the
North West Frontier province. Although Pakistan did get some
outside assistance to feed its refugees, the effects of bearing the
burden of this refugee population for seven years was easily
seen around refugee villages. Whole hillsides were denuded of
trees as a result of the collection of wood for fuel for the refugees.
According to Article 14 of the 1948 United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights, 'Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy
in other countries asylum from persecution.' The United
Nations High Commission for Refugees was established in 1950
and the commissioner entrusted with the protection of any
person who is outside the country of his nationality because of a
well founded fear of persecution by reason of his race, religion,
nationality or political opinion, and is unwilling or unable to
avail himself of the protection of his own government'. This definition
was originally designed to meet the dislocation caused
by the Second World War in Europe. It is a narrow one, demanding
that claims to refugee status be investigated case by case. It
has failed to cover the large-scale movements of people in times
of war, famine, or civil disturbance that have occurred since.
Less than generous responses to refugees are usually justified
by blaming the victim. It has become common to distinguish
'genuine refugees' from 'economic refugees' and to claim that
the latter should receive no assistance. This distinction is dubious,
for most refugees leave their countries at great risk and
peril to their lives - crossing seas in leaky boats under attack
from pirates, or making long journeys over armed borders, to
arrive penniless in refugee camps. To distinguish between someone
fleeing from political persecution and someone who flees
from a land made uninhabitable by prolonged drought is difficult
to justify when they are in equal need of a refuge. The
UN definition, which would not classify the latter as a refugee,
defines away the problem.
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Insiders and Outsiders
What are the possible durable solutions for refugees in the
world today? The main option~ are: voluntary repatriation, local
integration in the country they first flee to, and reiettlement.
Probably the best and most humane solution for refugees
would be to return home. Unfortunately for the majority, voluntary
repatriation is not possible because the conditions that