Families in today’s world face many issues and concerns related to their safety and security. As the geopolitical tensions rise around the world, migration has become a major topic of concern. Families fleeing their homeland to escape danger and seek refuge in another country must often brave the odds and dangers of travel, which include having to dodge checkpoints set up by immigration officers.
Recently, families in East Africa have had to weave their way through long grass in order to evade border controls and checkpoints set up by immigration officers. This hidden path allows families to navigate through the terrain and seek safety and refuge in a new country. This hidden path must be embarked upon in order to avoid the harsh punishment and interrogation of officers should their journey be discovered.
Families must be conscious of the risks associated with this kind of travel including getting lost or being apprehended by immigration officers. Undocumented immigrants must go undetected so the journey does not become a more dangerous and difficult one. The fact is that many families have been forced into this kind of journey in order to have a chance of finding safety and refuge.
The long grass taken to obscurity of this journey has become a symbol of the migrant’s battle for safety and refuge. It has become an escape route, an oasis. But it also highlights the reality and discrimination faced by those who are trying to seek safety from their homeland. Migration checks seek to deter people from escaping their homes and entering into a new country. But the families who embark on this course of travel must take extra precaution and not be seen.
Migration checks are an important mechanism that seeks to maintain borders as well as safety. However, it must be acknowledged that when such systems are imposed with a lack of understanding of the situation of those seeking refuge, it can lead to oppressive outcomes.
As families weave their way through long grass hoping to dodge immigration checkpoints, the world must ask itself what kind of society it aspires to, and what it can do to fulfill these aspirations. We must all do our part to make sure that migrants feel safe and welcome, and that their journey to finding refuge is not hindered in any way.
