Refugee Crisis Event at UAB by Farook Chandiwala

I attended an event arranged by UAB Institute of Human Rights at Hill Center on Monday, October 1. The audience was approximately 75 to 100 attendees, and the program consisted of a fantastic film, Non Assistance, on the refugee crisis engulfing Europe.

The film showed how a few individuals put up some of their own personal money and bought a yacht to save refugees fleeing from Africa and the Middle East in dingy boats. The film claws at one's emotions and conscience; I was in tears. There were people of French, German and even Greek nationalities who were shown involved in this very noble project. Doctors without Borders were also shown in the film.

Unfortunately Dr. Tina Reuter-Kemper told the audience at the end of the film that the European Union had seized the boat, and it cannot continue its work any more. I have a copy of the film and I will look into possibility of showing it at BIS and maybe at IAA, hopefully in the near future, in sha Allah.

There were many good questions from the audience, which consisted of students and general community members, including some Muslim sisters, and answers from the director of the institute, Dr. Tina Reuter-Kemper, originally from Switzerland, who is now teaching courses on human rights at UAB. BIS Human Rights Committee is partnering with her committee and Unitarian Universalist Church Social Justice Committee to do programs on human rights issues.

To read UAB’s article on the event: https://cas.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/10/08/assisting-the-non-assisted/