Not All Members Of Congress Are On Junkets When They Travel Overseas

Last month, in endorsing Andy Levin's reelection bid, we showed how he has the best voting record in Congress. And he's pretty good when he's not voting too. Congress has been on another one of their long recesses. Many members scurry off to do "research" in Paris and Rome and Tahiti. Andy, vice chair of the Education and Labor Committee and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wasn't dining at Guy Savoy or in L’Arpège Paris or at La Pergola or Il Pagliaccio in Rome with the Republicans. Instead he hooked up with CARE for a grueling fact-finding trip to Bangladesh. He wrote about his trip on his Facebook page

I came to Congress to raise the standard of living for families, including abroad. As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I wanted to see first-hand how U.S. foreign assistance is providing support for the most vulnerable, including women, children and refugees; so I joined CARE for a #LearningTour to Bangladesh this recess.

We visited a ready-to-wear garment factory in Dhaka to gain a deeper understanding of the working conditions and how CARE equips workers to know their rights in the garment industry. Most of these women travel from distant villages⁠-- often leaving family behind⁠-- to provide a better life for their children.

In the afternoon, we met with union activists and leaders at the office of the Solidarity Center, the AFL-CIO’s global arm. I’m really proud that our government through USAID funds the Solidarity Center to help workers organize and bargain collectively in several sectors here. However, it’s rough going. The garment factory owners resist the workers’ efforts, and the government fails to recognize their unions as it is supposed to most of the time. When I asked how many of the activists present had lost their job or even went to jail because they tried to form a union, most raised their hands! I was deeply moved and impressed by these brave workers and the work they are doing to win a decent life in Bangladesh.

Our #LearningTour ventured south to the 34 Rohingya refugee camps, a stone’s throw from the Burmese border where hundreds of thousands crossed after a campaign of terror and violence against the Rohingya was waged⁠-- and where they still cannot safely return. My first impression is of quiet horror, of a vast sea of suffering endured and now internalized, with little outlet for expression and pretty much none at all for accountability.

Virtually every person we spoke with came through a horrifying experience, often witnessing the torture, murder, and/or rape of close family members and friends; knowing that their villages were burned down, bulldozed or destroyed as they fled; losing their home and land and fleeing with virtually nothing; now living in a refugee camp for up to two years and counting, not being allowed formal education beyond the earliest years, not being allowed to work outside the camp.

The cost to Bangladesh in hosting and administering all of these people, the infrastructure, the management-- it is huge. And what of the cost to the world community? With so many needs around the globe, Burma’s actions have caused a mass investment to stabilize this population.

While admitting all of the tensions and limitations, let us admit our shame as Americans that this already super-densely populated country struggling to escape the shackles of mass poverty is hosting a million refugees even as our country turns its back on refugees at our own southern border. And how much harder is it for us to fight for the human dignity of Rohingya refugees when this President has utterly destroyed any credibility we had? How can we press for greater freedoms for them when, had they come to our shores, their children might have been ripped from their arms and caged?

Finally, let us not forget the degradation of our one and only planet caused by massive, emergency migrations like this. Deforestation has been overwhelming. The camps were only recently broadly forested, with elephants roaming about. The strain on the earth is obvious and undeniable, and is happening in a country already hugely vulnerable to and affected by climate change.

Perhaps the greatest triumph, though, is that of the human spirit. Throughout the camps, children played and laughed with us. Mothers shared that they wished they could make some food for us during our visit, a moving gesture of hospitality. When we asked what brought them joy, parents said seeing their children happy. Our lives may be very, very different, but we share a common humanity.

Now, it is our responsibility to channel these connections to foster greater respect for human rights and encourage peaceful resolution of conflicts. We must remember the resilience of these brave men and women who have faced horror no person should. They have persevered to build better lives for their children, and so we must persevere to build a better world.