UNHCR DECRIES WESTERN REFUGEE POLICIES
A new UNHCR report forecasts that although the number of people forced to abandon their homes across the world will continue to rise, fewer will be able to find safe refuge. According to the report, the five million people who requested asylum in Western Europe, North America and Australasia over the past decade have faced "an array of different measures intended to prevent or deter people from seeking refuge."
"The State of the World's Refugees: a Humanitarian Agenda" says life has never been tougher for the 22 million refugees and displaced people protected by UNHCR. Despite fewer wars between states, the changing nature of war and communal conflict is driving more and more people from their homes. Although 10 million refugees have returned to their countries since 1990, many new groups have been forced to flee and the number of internally displaced continues to rise. Increasingly, they have nowhere to run.
According to the biennial report, which examines the plight of refugees worldwide, "It is becoming increasingly difficult for refugees to find a place of safety beyond the borders of their homeland.... In many parts of the world, people who have taken refuge in another country have been harassed, attacked and even forced to go home against their will." ( p. 51)
Civilians are being targeted more than ever before in an estimated 35 civil wars or communal conflicts now raging worldwide. In some conflicts, the primary objectives include expelling or dispersing large sections of the community. In certain regions, refugees have been pushed from country to country, fleeing fighting or attack.
Safety during asylum is under greater threat, with more assaults on refugee camps, rape of refugee women and forced recruitment of men and boys.
An array of measures preventing people from seeking asylum
Meanwhile, rich and poor nations have become united in their determination not to accept refugees. Governments are increasingly slamming the door in the faces of those seeking asylum, regarding them as political, social or economic threats. According to the report, the five million people who requested asylum in Western Europe, North America and Australasia over the past decade have faced "an array of different measures intended to prevent or deter people from seeking refuge." ( p. 183)
Western politicians and media routinely label asylum seekers "bogus," even when they have escaped from situations of armed conflict.
The report says this in turn influences poorer nations' attitudes to asylum seekers. "When the very countries responsible for establishing the international refugee regime begin to challenge its legal and ethical foundations, then it is hardly surprising that other states, especially those with far more pressing economic problems and much larger refugee populations, have decided to follow suit." ( p. 69)
UNHCR under pressure to support repatriation to unsafe countries
With donors emphasising the need for "quick fix" solutions for refugee emergencies and poor nations reluctant to host people long-term, the report says "UNHCR faces increasing pressures to support repatriation which is neither strictly voluntary nor strictly safe." ( p.91)
It adds "A large proportion of the world's recent returnees have been repatriated under some form of duress." ( p. 147)
Such attitudes mean that millions of people are being returned to nations still suffering conflict and instability, with no guarantee they may not have to flee again.
International refugee protection under unprecedented pressure
According to the report, "The international regime of refugee protection, painstakingly developed since the beginning of the 20th century, is now under unprecedented pressure." ( p. 4)
Meanwhile, as the refugee count drops, the number of internally displaced continues to rise. The report says up to 25 million people beyond the 22 million already cared for by UNHCR may have been forced to abandon their homes. Many are trapped in war zones in their home countries with neighbouring borders firmly closed.
The international community is now focussing more on the internally displaced. But the report points out that such aid "has in some instances been used as a pretext to obstruct the flight of people whose lives are in danger, to limit their right to asylum and to return them prematurely to conditions of danger." ( p.69)
The mere fact that they have not crossed a border means that these people's needs are sometimes completely ignored. Unlike refugees, the displaced often have no access to international assistance. They are not protected by international refugee law.
The plight of stateless people
The State of the World's Refugees is the first UNHCR publication to highlight the plight of millions of people who are stateless or whose nationality is disputed. Some, like around three million Palestinians worldwide, have been stateless for decades after being displaced by war. However, over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people made stateless. Millions have lost their nationality since the beginning of the 1990s due to the redrawing of borders or the introduction of new citizenship laws. The world's interest in the problem of statelessness has grown as a result of recent events in the former Communist bloc. But, as the report points out, large populations of stateless people can also be found in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East, many of them living in conditions of acute insecurity.
International community shuffles off refugee problem on humanitarian agencies
The report also describes how the international community, wary of intervening politically, is increasingly expecting aid agencies to provide solutions to such complex humanitarian problems. In her foreword to the book, the High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, warns that the tools available to humanitarian agencies are limited. "However proficiently such agencies are managed and co-ordinated, they cannot bring civil wars to an end, oblige states to respect the human rights of their citizens or bring a halt to the deliberate displacement of civilian populations," she says.
"The State of the World's Refugees" suggests a plan of action to counter the blight of forced displacement. It includes steps to eradicate poverty, promote human rights and democracy, strengthen peace-building operations in war-torn societies and ensure that those responsible for forcing millions from their homes are brought to account. Forced displacement, it says, is not only a product of political instability, but can create and perpetuate it.
Put at its simplest, according to the High Commissioner, "the challenge of the 21st century will be to ensure the security of people. Unless people feel secure in their own homes, the security of states will continue to be threatened."
Source: UNHCR: The State of the World's Refugees 1997-1998, A Humanitarian Agenda, report and synopsis on UNHCR homepage: www.unhcr.ch