Moral Damages

I got into a dispute with a big company over a penalty for cancelling a voyage which we in reality had not cancelled. I could not get them, even at the management level, to tell me the legal grounds they had for charging us that penalty. In the end, I was so upset and said “Of course I cannot get that money from you by force. Unless, of course, I find a lawyer who is willing to take up this case to sue you for moral damages as well.”
    I don't know if it was my argument of the contract or if they felt my reaction as a threat... The next day, we were refunded our money.

That got me thinking... As always, my mind is processing everything towards refugees and migrants. What if there was a higher court and these people could make an appeal for all the moral damages governments have caused them by blocking their movement in the world they were born? What then?

Let alone the families of those who have died, let alone the people who are suffering in detention, let alone the invisible fathers of immigration, think of the children and the traumas they have endured: leaving war aside, traumas caused by trying to overcome the man-made and globally imposed barriers of movement.

I'm not sure I believe in it, but the idea of justice in the afterlife is quite comforting. Or the thought that life is just a dream...
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My husband reminded me that governments are acting on legal grounds when they block or send people back to where they came from. But legal should not be mistaken for moral or even right. The legal of today will be the illegal of tomorrow and vice versa. Just like I suppose slavery will not be legal again, I also suppose blocking the movement of people will no longer be legal in the future. We will be #FreeToRoamTheWorldWeAreBornIn
    That's a nice dream...