| November 14, 2002 | Thursday | Ramazan 8, 1423 |
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Registration of aliens
Trade in human organs
IT IS difficult to predict how the Kofi Annan plan for Cyprus will fare. But most observers of the scene believe the time is running out for a settlement, because the issue is linked to the European Union’s expansion. The Annan plan is full of compromises, and in some way resembles the old constitutional set-up that went up in smoke after the 1974 coup d’etat inspired by Greece to effect Enosis, the union of Cyprus with Greece. The plan envisages a Swiss-type confederation consisting of two equal constituent units representing the Greek and the Turkish communities. There will be an upper chamber with an equal number of senators from each community, while there will be a lower house on the basis of population. The presidency will rotate between the two communities, with an elaborate system for a six-man presidential council to work. So far, Ankara and Athens and the two governments on the island have not reacted to the plan yet, but it is obvious that all sides will have to be prepared for compromises if Cyprus’s 28-year-old division is to end. The issue is not confined to the two communities and to Turkey and Greece alone; the European Union’s expansion has a direct bearing on the island’s future.
The EU has already given a date for entry negotiations with Nicosia. In EU eyes, the island’s Greek government represents entire Cyprus. This is unacceptable to Ankara. If the divided island becomes an EU member, Turkey says it will annex the northern part. A similar threat comes from Athens, which says it will block EU’s expansion and frustrate Turkey’s own membership bid if the island is not admitted to the EU. There is EU pressure on Turkey also for solving the Cyprus issue, for it has declared that it will admit Greek Cyprus as a member by 2004 even if there is no Cyprus solution. This makes it obvious that, without a Cyprus solution, Ankara will not get a date for membership negotiations.
Mercifully, relations between Turkey and Greece are not as bitter as they were in the past. The Greek help to the victims of the Turkish earthquake victims in 1999 was widely appreciated in Turkey. In January this year, the leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities — Rauf Denktash and Glafcos Clerides — met for the first time in four years to hold direct talks under the UN aegis. Since then, there has been no significant progress although the two leaders have been meeting regularly. The Turkish side evidently wants a confederation, while the Greeks prefer a federation. The deadlock has served to perpetuate a crisis whose dimensions go beyond the island to affect the EU’s expansion plans. One hopes the four sides will study the plan dispassionately and come to an agreement that will satisfy them all. The reason why the 1960 scheme failed to work needs to be understood. All sides will have to show flexibility and realism in the larger interest of the people of the island. Because of the international community’s recognition of the Nicosia government, the Turkish part of the island has suffered economically, with fewer tourists coming there. A united Cyprus acceptable to both Turkey and Greece will give a boost to the regional economy and be a source of stability and progress for the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean region.
IT IS heartening to note that the National Alien Registration Authority (Nara) has a humane approach to the problem of illegal immigration. In a briefing to the Karachi nazim the other day, the director-general of Nara said the city was home to some 1.8 million illegal immigrants out of a total of 3.3 million in the country. Nara has so far registered about 36,000 foreigners, who have been issued identity cards and work permits to live and work legally in Pakistan. Addressing the Karachi councillors, the DG said they should encourage the foreigners living in their respective constituencies to come forward and register with Nara so that steps could be taken to relieve them of the distress of “living in sub-human conditions, exploitation by the police, and other forms of social and moral harassment.” The government is also considering a plan to issue white-coloured passports to illegal immigrants to facilitate them to travel abroad and visit their home countries.
These measures reflect a realistic approach to the problem of illegal immigration. In Karachi, the largest groups of illegal immigrants comprise the Bangladeshis, the Burmese and the Afghans. Professions these immigrants are engaged in range from owning pan and greengrocery shops to forming part of the skilled labour force in the fisheries, garment and ship-breaking sectors. A large number of them also work as domestic help, cooks and cleaners. Records show that a sizable number also teach at religious seminaries and serve as pesh imams. It is primarily this segment that is suspected of sheltering possibly a small number of terrorists. Others living in slums may also have petty thieves and criminals within their fold. Nara’s mandate now to regularize the status of all law-abiding immigrants through registration gives all such immigrants an opportunity to acquire a legal residency status. It is good that no distinction is being made between one group of immigrants and another in the registration process. The policy could specifically benefit illegal immigrants of Indian origin who, in the past, had little hope of acquiring legal residency in Pakistan.
REPORTS of the sale of human organs in some parts of Punjab point to an organized racket, featuring brokers and some hospital managements. As many as 400 people in some villages of Sargodha alone are said to have sold their kidneys to pay off their debt. Primarily, of course, the problem is a direct consequence of poverty in the rural areas. The victims are often poor and financially hard-pressed people. Rich landlords often mortgage entire families of peasants by advancing loans and forcing them to sell their organs to pay off their debt. It is said that donors are coerced into giving an undertaking to the hospitals concerned that they are undergoing the operation for the removal of their ‘defective’ kidneys of their own free will. This ensures that those involved in the racket have their tracks well covered.
A major obstacle in tackling the problem is that the law only allows transplants from living persons. This has created a huge gap between the demand for organs such as kidneys and their supply, which in turn sustains the racket. Experts believe that the solution is to legalize cadaver organ donations, a practice that is allowed in many Muslim countries, including Saudia Arabia. A bill on the subject was moved in the Senate in 1994 but despite lobbying by many professional bodies, it has still not made it to the statute book. The incoming government must urgently introduce legislation to end this cruel trade and to spare thousands of patients the agony of finding a kidney donor.