Refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines a refugee as someone who

owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.1

As of January 1, 2001, the UNHCR estimates that there are almost 22 million refugees in the world. 2

However, the above definition is seen by many as too narrow. It does not for example, include all of the reasons why someone might become a refugee. For example, attempts have been made to expand the UNHCR's definition of refugees to include anyone fleeing general violence or public order disturbances both inside and outside their homelands.

The problem of refugees is far from being a new problem. There have been displaced populations for millennia. We are told in Exodus how the persecuted and enslaved Israelites fled Egypt. In the 6th century, persecuted Muslims fled Mecca for Medina in the Hijra. And the 15th century saw the mass expulsion of Moors and Jews during the Spanish Inquisition.

However, in the contemporary world, World War II and its aftermath was the watershed event in the history of the refugee problem. The International Refugee Organization (IRO) was created in 1947 to deal with the resettlement of millions of displaced persons after the War. Its work was taken over by the UNHCR in 1951 under the terms of the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. The convention outlines the way in which refugees are to be treated with respect to travel, family unity, welfare services, and asylum and resettlement issues.

The UNHCR was originally created as a temporary organization, however, the refugee problem grew as conflict and persecution developed in Israel-Palestine, the Indian sub-continent, China, Tibet, Latin America, South East Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa during the second half of the Twentieth Century. As a result, the charter of the UNHCR has been repeatedly renewed for successive five-year terms.

The UNHCR has two basic goals -- protecting refugees and providing tools for refugees to rebuild their lives. Alongside this, the UNHCR also monitors compliance with major international treaties dealing with the status of refugees. One of the principle conventions it seeks to uphold is Article 33 of the 1951 Convention. This is the principle known as non-refoulement. According to this principle, the forced return of an individual to a country where the person feels unsafe is prohibited.

Several organizations provide assistance to the UNHCR. The International Organization for Migration (IOM, also founded in 1951) enables migration by assisting in the movement of refugees and to assist in the economic and social development of migrants. Other international organizations providing assistance to the UNHCR include the World Food Program (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Development Program (UNDP), and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). In addition to these UN sanctioned agencies, there are several private voluntary agencies that also address refugee issues. Among the most important are the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Council of Voluntary Agencies, and the International Rescue Committee.

There are currently many refugee crises across the world which attract the attention of the above agencies. Amongst others, these include:

• The Balkans: an estimated 1.8 million civilians have been repatriated over the last few years as democratic governments were established in Yugoslavia and Croatia. However, another 1.3 million persons remain displaced and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is a potential new source of refugees.
• Columbia: there are almost two million internally displaced citizens seeking to avoid the war over land, ideology, and drugs between Marxist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary forces, and the military. The UNHCR's 2001 program in Colombia seeks to help the country deal with this huge displaced population.
• West Africa: population movements are caused by insecurity, including the conflict in Guinea bordering Sierra Leone and Liberia where tens of thousands of Guineans and refugees fled the violence.
• Tanzania: this country has the largest refugee population in Africa, hosting primarily Burundi refugees. While an agreement was signed in May 2001 to repatriate the refugees from Tanzania the situation has not been deemed stable enough to begin a transfer.
• Chechnya: Due to the 1999 Russian offensive against Chechnya, which seeks independence, an estimated 250,000 people have become refugees
• Afghanistan: this country presents a 20 year history of violence displacing over 8 million refugees. The terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September 2001 only exacerbated an already dismal situation. Afghani refugees are the largest single refugee population in the world
• Sri Lanka: the ongoing civil war has displaced hundreds of thousands of people internally and to India. The UNHCR assists Tamils and Sinhalese including repatriating externally displaced refugees.
• Timor: both East and West Timor still face a refugee problem. However, the UNHCR had several of its employees murdered and has withdrawn. The recent East Timorese independence may provide more security to allow the UNHCR back into the region.

One of the key issues facing the world concerning refugees is that of internally displaced persons (IDPs). IDPs constitute the single largest group of refugees in the world. However, IDPs do not meet the definition of refugees according to the 1951 Convention because they have not left their homeland. They are dispersed within their home country. The UNHCR estimates that there are 25 million IDPs globally of which it helps six million. The UNHCR operates only minimally in this area because it does not have the authority to act more broadly. There are efforts within the international community to deal more systematically with IDPs but these have proved slow.

Another central issue is the rise of economic refugees. With the rapid development of cheaper and more widespread means of global travel and, some would claim, widening inequalities of wealth between countries, larger numbers of people are now forced to leave their homelands to seek jobs, usually by entering wealthier nations illegally. This development raises questions about how best to protect the rights of those forced by poverty to leave their homeland to face exploitation by criminal gangs offering transport across the world and unscrupulous employers in the host nation. This new refugee problem has also led to political controversy in Europe and America, where anti-immigration campaigns and parties have experienced a rise in support by arguing for tougher immigration controls and/or expulsion of immigrants. Those opposing such solutions argue that economic refugees are merely the victims of an iniquitous process of globalisation which has destroyed jobs and growth in their homeland and that addressing this problem is the only realistic and just way to deal with the rise in refugee migration.

Suggested Readings
Chimni, B. S. "Globalization, Humanitarianism and the Erosion of Refugee Protection." Journal of Refugee Studies 13, No. 3 (2000): 243-263
Kane, Hal. The Hour of Departure: Forces that Create Refugees and Migrants. Washington, D.C.: Worldwatch Institute, 1994.
Kibreab, Gaim. "Revisiting the Debate on People, Place, Identity and Displacement." Journal of Refugee Studies 12, No. 4 (1999): 384-428.
Newland, Kathleen. "Refugees: The Rising Flood." World Watch 7 (May/June 1994): 10-20. Tactaquin, Catherine. "Immigration and Globalization: The UN Conference Against Racism Takes on Migrant Issues." CorpWatch (August 30, 2001)
Weiner, Myron. The Global Migration Crisis: Challenges to States and Human Rights. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.

Websites:
International Committee of the Red Cross
www.icrc.org/

International Council of Voluntary Agencies
www.icva.ch/

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
www.ifrc.org/

International Rescue Committee
www.theirc.org/

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
www.reliefweb.int/ocha_ol/

UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
www.unicef.org

UN Development Program (UNDP)
www.undp.org

UN High Commissioner for Refugees
www.unhcr.ch

UN Relief Works Agency
www.un.org/unrwa

World Food Program (WFP)
www.wfp.org

World Health Organization (WHO)
www.who.int

Joseph W. Roberts is a doctoral candidate in political science at the University of Utah, USA.

1 UNHCR, 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, http://www.unhcr.ch , p. 16.

2 UNHCR, "Basic Facts," http://www.unhcr.ch.

Placed on Fabian Global Forum, May 2002