Teens simulate refugee plight

A hundred students took small, tentative steps around the room, their eyes shut and their hands reaching out as a cacophony of voices drowned out the sounds they most wanted to hear.

They were trying — largely in vain — to find all the members of their “family,” who had been dispersed across the ballroom in a simulation designed to build empathy for the plight of refugees.

The Pacific &Asian Affairs Council, which helps educate Hawaii students on global affairs, staged the exercise at the Hawai‘i Convention Center Saturday, complete with a packed shelter, simulated war injuries, indecipherable forms, a border crossing and deportation hearings.

“They put me very far from my family, and everyone was making a lot of noise, so I figured if I yelled, I wouldn’t even hear anyone, so I was just quiet,” said Keahi Akina, a senior at University Laboratory School. “I was getting worried as time went on and I couldn’t find anybody. Keeping my eyes closed was really hard. Not being able to see was awful.”

He didn’t find a single family member before the whistle blew and the group moved on to the next step. Nearly 100 “refugees” were herded into a 20-by-20-foot corner of the room, where guards barked orders at them.

Students from 19 public and private schools took part in the program, which was created by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. Each family had a different scenario to act out.

Vianca Deguzman, a Waipahu High sophomore, said she felt fearful without her team and that being crammed into the refugee camp was awful.

“I was scared the whole time,” she said. “Doing the camps and stuff, I was really claustrophobic — too much people. I know it’s fake and everything, but it feels really sad to be in their shoes.”

Ashley Taylor, a Kalani High School sophomore, had tried out the exercise earlier as a member of PAAC’s Global Leadership Program and was there Saturday to help guide the other students.

“It really opened my eyes to the way refugees are treated and the process they have to go through to actually get asylum, which most people actually really deserve, and it really made me think about the things that I took for granted,” Taylor said. “I already have a home here. I’m safe, and these refugees don’t have that.”

Later in the day, Terrina Wong, deputy director of the Pacific Gateway Center, filled the students in on refugees and migrants in Hawaii.

Teachers who attended saw the role-playing as a valuable exercise, and not just for students.

“Our leaders should experience this because it humanizes the issue,” said Natasha Schultz, PAAC Club adviser at Mid-Pacific Institute. “It doesn’t solve the problem but it humanizes the issue.”