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UNU Update | |
The newsletter of United Nations
University and its network of research and training centres and programmes |
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Issue 26: July-August 2003 |
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More refugees turning to The
institution of asylum is "under grave threat" as nations erect
ever-higher walls during the war on terrorism, leading many asylum seekers
to engage human smugglers as their only means of potentially reaching
sanctuary, according to a new analysis from the United Nations University. Published
by UNU Press and launched on
World Refugee Day, June 20, the book Refugees
and Forced Displacement says that while most decision-makers
believe human smuggling is
characterized by the illegal transportation of economic migrants, it is
estimated more than half
of those smuggled into Europe are seeking asylum – many of them people
who feel imperiled and persecuted for their race, religion, nationality,
membership in a social group or political beliefs. Contributing
expert Khalid Koser of University College London, says the rapid rise in
human smuggling reflects in part "an unintended consequence of
restrictive asylum policies." Governments have tried to deter asylum seekers by designating "safe" countries of origin whose citizens are effectively precluded from asylum, visa regulations, sanctions against smugglers, shifting the burden of assessing and processing claims to adjoining territories, physical closing of borders, detention of asylum seekers, and the withdrawal of welfare support.
Those
who have the capacity to extend security to people perilously lacking it
have a basic human obligation to do so," says editor Edward
Newman of UN University.
However, there has been a "shift from the protection of asylum
seekers to protection from them." Said
UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel: "Accommodating the needs of asylum
seekers and refugees is an important moral responsibility for the world
community. However, as we
mark World Refugee Day 2003, it is clear that the start of a war on terror
and other developments have shut the doors of sanctuary to many people in
need of shelter from religious and political persecution, or from bloody
violence and conflict. Raising
international awareness of these problems is critical to their solution
and we hope this book makes an important contribution in that regard." According
to Dr. Koser, advocates are
concerned that successfully stamping out smuggling "would deprive
many people of the possibility of seeking asylum in the industrialized
nations" but they can hardly be seen speaking out in favor of such an
exploitative and dangerous underground trade. Asylum
advocates "have been surprisingly reticent in the human smuggling
debate," he says, "and legislation by states to stop smuggling
has advanced more or less unchallenged, despite its implications for
asylum seekers. As a result, some advocates have begun to lament that the
debate has already been lost, and that asylum in industrialized nations
may be doomed." Vulnerable
to exploitation Dr.
Koser says researchers in 1994 created a very rough estimate of 240,000 to
360,000 illegal migrants to Western Europe.
Using the same analytical model with limited but more current data,
he offers a comparable estimate today of 250,000 to 350,000 illegal
migrants – 35,000 to 100,000 of them smuggled – to Germany, Austria,
and the United Kingdom alone. Those
smuggled are often left in transit countries for significant periods
without access to potential support.
Significant sums are charged by smugglers – a journey from
Afghanistan to Western Europe was recently estimated to cost between
US$8,000 and $12,000. Many of
those smuggled are indebted and/or afraid of being identified and
repatriated, and highly vulnerable to exploitation.
Returnees can face the risk of persecution for having sought asylum
or confrontation by money lenders, says
Dr. Koser. "The
implication is that these returnees might genuinely need to escape Iran,
and might have no option other than to turn once again to smugglers." While
he accepts and supports stronger measures to combat human smuggling, he
argues that the problem requires national governments to revisit and
address the issue of asylum effectively.
He urges asylum advocates to unite around recommended policy
options that could operate in tandem with anti-smuggling policies. These
include:
Refugees
from conflict
Dr.
Newman of UN University says
more restrictive Western policies reflect concerns about asylum seekers
and refugees "as sources of instability and even potential sources of
terrorism" but there’s scant evidence of any connection. He
says internal
conflicts in some regions today are characterized by the deliberate
targeting and forcible displacement of civilians as a primary objective,
systematic rape as a weapon of war, ethnic cleansing, the use of child
soldiers, and a high proportion of civilian casualties – up to 90% in
some conflicts. The objective of such tactics is not necessarily victory
over a rival political force or agenda, but the continuation of violence
itself. An
estimated 25 million people worldwide are displaced within their own
country’s borders due to armed conflict, internal strife, and serious
violations of human rights, essentially, ‘internal refugees’ who would
be considered refugees if they crossed an international border, Dr. Newman
says. Urgent
steps are needed to deal with the problems faced by victims of mass
forcible displacements, 75–80 per cent of whom are women and children.
Such refugees need protection from violence, housing, sustenance,
education, health care, employment – "but, having not crossed a
border, they do not benefit from the same system of international
protection and assistance. "Responsibility
for providing protection and assistance to internally displaced persons
rests with their government. However,
governments are often unable or unwilling to meet these obligations fully,
sometimes even deliberately displacing populations or denying them their
rights. There is thus a pressing need to bridge the institutional, legal,
and policy gap that has so often hampered effective responses to the
protection and assistance of internally displaced persons. "At
a minimum, these include the establishment of an international rapid
reaction capacity along with credible safe haven policies to respond to
refugee emergencies, and the promotion and building of civil society
infrastructure and human rights monitoring in local communities in
conflict," says Dr. Newman. The
UN and the international system generally are ill-equipped to address such
challenges today and non-governmental organizations, especially human
rights NGOs, are vital to ensuring the protection of forcibly displaced
people, he says. "The
legal rights of refugees – as refugees and also as humans with human
rights – are often demonstrably unfulfilled or violated," according
to Dr. Newman. "Opportunities and assistance to refugees and displaced
people are in large part a reflection of politics, geostrategic interests,
and fickle international donor and media priorities." Updated
definition of refugee needed
The
global refugee regime – based on the Convention Relating to the Status
of Refugees of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol, and the Office of the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees – was originally intended as a temporary Cold
War arrangement to help people fleeing communism.
Existing
international legal instruments are somewhat out of date but "not as
deficient as their application by contemporary governments leads one to
believe," according to co-editor Dr. Joanne van Selm of the
Washington DC-based Migration Policy Institute. A
refugee is defined as someone who, "owing to well-founded fear of
being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in
a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of
his nationality [or of habitual residence], and is unable to or, owing to
such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that
country." That
definition needs updating to reflect contemporary circumstances and to
clarify the distinction between refugees and economic migrants. In
Bosnia–Herzegovina, Georgia (Abkhazia), Angola, Rwanda, Congo,
Palestine/Israel, and many other places, displaced populations have been
the critical element in continuing conflict and instability, the
obstruction of peace processes, and the undermining of attempts at
economic development, she says. Dr.
Newman says terrorist attacks and the ensuing war on terror underlined
connections between human displacement and international security. "It
became clear that the origins of the unchecked fundamentalist Taliban, and
their links to al-Qaida, lay in the long-term refugee camps of Pakistan.
Dispossessed, aggrieved, and rootless populations are a potential breeding
ground for radical political movements and terrorism inside and across
borders. 'Permanent' refugee camps can give rise to enmity among the
displaced and provide a source of insurgency and instability elsewhere,
especially when those people, often not receiving the attention of a
government or international organization, are preyed upon by people with
evil intent and the means to sway followers and carry out their
destructive plans." Since
the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the perpetrators of which arrived in the US
mostly as students, the most affected immigrant group in terms of
admissions policies in the US has been resettled refugees, according to
Dr. van Selm. The admission
quota was set at a ceiling of 70,000 for 2002. However, only 26,000 were
admitted as the programme stalled with new security controls in place and
as travel was curtailed for Immigration and Naturalization Service
officers who determine claimants' status. "The
most vulnerable group – refugees – have been the target of the
greatest number of new controls, although they were already the most
scrutinized arrivals." Other
key points in the UNU study:
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