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REFUGEES: CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
Fernando Alcoforado *
From its origins as a social mode of production, capitalism has been characterized by
barbarism which means savagery, cruelty, inhumanity, incivility. Massacres, genocides
and multiple forms of human degradation characterize capitalism in its historical
development. It would be in the capitalist periphery that capitalism would expose its
most barbaric face. This is the case of the current refugee crisis that is the biggest since
the Second World War.
With the end of the Cold War, Washington has outlined strategies to establish its world
domination on the principal markets and sources of raw materials, with the use of
military power, starting with the energy-rich regions of the Middle East and Central
Asia. The refugee crisis is the tragic result of a criminal policy of war and military
intervention for regime change, implemented by the United States and the European
Union in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and, above all, Syria .
What the world witness today, with thousands of desperate refugees trying to reach
Europe, it is the effect of this policy, maintained by the major Western powers. In more
than a decade, Afghanistan wars and Iraq, waged under the pretext of being "against
terrorism", and justified on the infamous lies about "Iraqi weapons of mass destruction",
devastated whole societies and killed hundreds of thousands of men, women and
children.
To these wars followed the war for regime change - led by the United States and NATO
- which overthrew the government of Muammar Gaddafi and turned Libya into a
country of mockery, with virtually no government, wracked by continuous fighting
between rival militias. This was followed by civil war in Syria - fueled, armed and
financed by the US government and its European allies, aiming to topple Bashar Al-
Assad and replace him with an obedient puppet to Western powers.
The predatory interventions in Libya and Syria were done in the name of "human
rights" and "democracy." Some even welcome the actions of militias linked to the
Islamic state against Bashar al-Assad regime armed and funded by US American
government. The current situation and the unbearable pressure of death and destruction
that takes hundreds of thousands of people desperate and fatal escape represent the
confluence of all these crimes against humanity committed by the US government and
its European allies.
The rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) and the sectarian and bloody civil wars ongoing in
Iraq and Syria are the product of the devastation of Iraq by the United States, followed
by the US support and its allies to the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Islamic militias like
in Syria. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and other of Bush administration,
which fought a war of aggression in Iraq based on lies still utterly unpunished. The
Obama administration is primarily responsible for the disasters that triggered in Libya
and Syria and remains unpunished. They are all responsible for what happens today on
the borders of Europe, which should be seen more than a tragedy, as a prolonged and
ongoing war crime.
The refugee crisis is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century, but the
international response has been a shameful failure especially for the UN that does

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nothing to solve the problem. The current refugee crisis will not be resolved if the
international community does not recognize that it is a global problem that requires
international cooperation. Amnesty International has accused the international
community of a shameful failure on what he called the worst refugee crisis since the
Second World War. This is the worst refugee crisis of our time, with millions of men,
women and children struggling to survive the brutal of wars and governments that
pursue selfish political interests instead of showing compassion.
The situation is desperate for the four million refugees in Syria, the majority of whom
live in five neighbors countries - Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt - which are
burdened with this influx. In the face of reduced humanitarian assistance and the lack of
prospects of returning home, many Syrians are trying to reach Europe, especially to
Germany, across the Mediterranean, the most dangerous sea route. In addition to the
Syrians, there is more than three million refugees in sub-Saharan Africa. The flow
originating from countries that are already many years in crisis, such as Sudan, Congo
and Somalia, are in addition to hundreds of thousands of people who had to leave
countries such as South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Burundi.
Faced with the impossibility of preventing the flow of refugees to Europe due to the
infeasibility of their return to their home countries, there is no alternative in the short
term for the international community, but to welcome all who aspire to move away from
areas of conflict where they came from. The United States and the European Union that
were responsible for the disruption and devastation of the countries of the refugees have
a moral duty to assist them and house them at this juncture. The UN has also come out
of their passivity and move to act with effectiveness to prevent the worsening
humanitarian crisis.
Human history has been characterized so far by the victory of barbarism over
civilization. Civilization and Barbarism are antonyms, ie, words with opposite
meanings. According to the dictionary, Civilization is a word imbued with qualities, that
is, includes the educated goods, living in society, in short, that fit the established
standards. In contrast, Barbarism is the state in which the live barbarians and these are
those living without culture, civilization, violent, cruel, in short, that do not conform to
established standards. If the concept of civilized does not apply to the peoples of
capitalist periphery because they are not well educated, the concept of barbarian applies
more than the civilized to those who consider themselves civilized (North American and
European governments) because they are violent, cruel and do not conform to
established standards of civilization.
According to Eric Hobsbawm, the last 150 years, barbarism has increased permanently.
Year by year, decade by decade, violence and contempt for the human being have
increased seeming not to be a limit to this phenomenon. Something far worse: men and
women have become accustomed to the barbarism there no longer have astonishment,
strangeness, or horror faced the inhuman acts. Karl Marx wrote in 1847 this amazing
and prophetic passage: "Barbarism reappeared, but this time it is engendered in the
bosom of civilization itself and is an integral part of it is the leprous barbarism,
barbarism as leprosy of civilization" [See Barbárie e modernidade no século 20
(Barbarism and modernity in the 20th century) of Michael Lowy, published in Brazil by
the newspaper Em Tempo"- emtempo@ax.apc.org and originally in French, in the
journal "Critique Communiste" No. 157, hiver 2000].

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Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012) and
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015).