Opinion Editorial November, 2024: Stateless Evictions
The world is witnessing its highest ever volume of transnational and domestic migration. At the same time, there is a record high number of causes behind the trend. To be sure, economic migration has always existed and it continues to be the most prevalent example. But wars, criminal violence, political instability and climate change are all increasingly spurring people to seek greener pastures — both within and outside their own borders.
We see this today in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan (among others) in the case of war. (We see it also in Russia in the case of anti-war political dissidents.) Criminal violence is fueling migration in places like Haiti and Ecuador. Burma (Myanmar) is now so politically unstable that the plight of the indigenous Rohingya is becoming a footnote to its civil war. Climate change is threatening the very existence of some South Pacific Islands communities. And as winter begins in Mongolia, more nomadic people will be forced to give up that centuries-old lifestyle as lower temperatures wipe out their livestock. The prognosis is for even worse to come according to a United Nations announcement just a few days ago.
Among these trends, we witnessed the continuation of another last month: The world is becoming less sympathetic to migrants. Last month, the European Union announced that it would increase the number of deportations of migrants. Meanwhile, Canada announced it would decrease the number of migrants it allows into the country next year. In four days, we will know how large a factor migration was in the United States presidential election.
Far too often, indigenous people are impacted both by the need to migrate and outside resistance to migration. But what happens when that migration took place hundreds of years ago?
This month's photo shows an indigenous Bajau woman doing what her people have been doing for centuries — selling produce at a market. The market takes place every Sunday in Kota Belud in northern Sabah State, Borneo, Malaysia.
Until last month, few were probably aware of the recent treatment of the nomadic, sea-faring Bajau Laut people in this part of the world by the Malaysian government. It has gone underreported in the mainstream media. Then, Reuters published an exposé on events that began in June this year.
The vast majority of Bajau Laut people who were born in Sabah have no formal documentation to prove their citizenship. So, they are effectively stateless in their own country. In June, local authorities began evicting them from, and then destroying, their homes. They are being treated as though they were illegal migrants.
Perhaps it is human intelligence rather than artificial that should concern us.
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