EDITORIAL - A concern hidden in waves of migration

Not very long ago, the Philippines drew international praise for offering to accept migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts engulfing their countries within the region. Thankfully few, if at all, took the Philippine offer and preferred landing in other similarly open countries better prepared to handle this emerging global humanitarian crisis.

The praises were naturally well-deserved. Every country has the humanitarian obligation to open its borders to migrants and refugees fleeing conflicts in their countries. But as every country has its own limitations, not the least of which is its own obligation to look after its own interests first, the doors that it must open cannot be flung as wide as it might wish.

Again, it is well that almost nobody took up the Philippine offer. Current Philippine conditions in a number of areas are no longer as conducive and hospitable as when we took in the first waves of Vietnamese refugees fleeing the war at home, or even much earlier when we similarly embraced a few Russians fleeing the flames of revolution.

It takes money to feed and house refugees. Health is an issue. And in the new global political dynamics, security has become a major concern. These are matters that the Philippines may be prone to overlook in its desire to be the naturally humanitarian and open society that it is. Beyond our shores, these are indeed very real concerns.

Right now, every time you open the tv, there is hardly any foreign lineup of news that does not carry something about the wave upon wave of migrants and refugees streaming onward across Europe via Greece from their staging points in Turkey. Many of these migrants and refugees have perished in the crossing. But many more have made it, representing a number of nations in varying stages of crisis -- Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan, etc.

Some countries like Macedonia, realizing the dire circumstances they are facing, have started closing their borders and turning away the waves of humanity trudging across the continent, hungry, homeless, desperate. Much as the basic human instincts ache to reach out and help, there is often little that poor countries like Macedonia can do without jeopardizing its own ability to survive.

And then there is that other concern that is at the back of everyone's mind but everyone refuses to talk about -- the distinct possibility of wolves hiding among the sheep. Many of the countries the migrants and refugees come from are the very same countries that are the hotbeds of extremism. Many countries in Europe are slowly being swamped by a first wave that continues to come in through normal immigration channels. The migrants and refugees make up the second wave.