Close to Home: Race should not affect treatment of refugees

I watch as millions of Ukrainians struggle to escape the Russian terror in their homeland. We sympathize with their fears and agonize over lives lost and ruined. I’m reminded of the refugees I met in Samos, Greece, where I went in 2016 to help the Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Palestinians and Africans who arrived there.

They had escaped poverty, death and violent upheavals in their countries and were searching for peace and safety.

What they found on arrival in Samos was a detention camp. Instead of receiving a warm welcome, they were locked up and sometimes sent back home to certain death.

Politicians took advantage of what became known as the refugee crisis. They bowed to the basest instincts of a population that didn’t want those strangers in their land — those people with odd headdresses and foreign cultures and religions. They whipped up hatred in hope of garnering votes. They got votes. The right-wing grew. Conditions for refugees became unbearable.

During my eight months stay on Samos, I interviewed many refugees. I heard their stories of escape and near-death experiences while traveling thousands of miles through mountains and deserts, trying to avoid wild animals, including police who were on the lookout for them. Hunger, cold, thirst, imprisonment and sickness never left them. Avoiding death was a constant effort. So was the need to pay off often-deceitful smugglers in hopes of securing a safe arrival. Many times, this didn’t happen.

The small, overcrowded boats carrying men, women and children from Turkey to Samos often capsized at sea. Sometimes whole families disappeared. If they did arrive safely, they were taken to the detention center where they were kept for an indeterminate time. How long often depended on political decisions made by men in well-tailored suits in air-conditioned offices in some far-off country.

It should become obvious that the people I’ve referred to are brown or Black, not white and blue-eyed like the desperate Ukrainians who are welcomed with open arms across Europe and the U.S. Volunteers are rushing to help them and fundraisers are rampant. NATO and the U.S. are providing Ukraine with billions of dollars in in humanitarian aid and weaponry. There are no detention camps for Ukrainian refugees.

What a contrast to the arrival received by Middle Eastern, African and South Asian refugees.

Given the ugly history of racism and bigotry, it’s reasonable to suspect that the Ukrainians are treated as they should be because their skin color and culture are more acceptable to people of similar characteristics.

The color and cultures of Syrians, Africans, Afghans, Palestinians and Pakistanis, as well as Latinos, Yemenis and Haitians, are different, and they’re often unwelcome, regardless of the violence or poverty they’re fleeing. As a result, millions are lingering on streets, under bridges and in overcrowded, dangerous tent cities devoid of humane care, justice and hope.

The difference in the way brown, Black and white brothers and sisters are treated only brings shame. For the good of all, this must be changed. There is no time to waste.

While I was in Greece, I was asked by the Schwarz Foundation of Munich, Germany, to put my interviews into book form, which I did. You can learn more about the realities of being an unwanted refugee if you read “Hear Me,” available through Amazon and Lulu.com.

Sallie Latch, a retired teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer, is the author of “Hear Me.” She lives in Petaluma.

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