¡@
The western world needs to accept a ¡¥new
deal¡¦ on refugees
By Simon Tisdall / The Guardian, London
¡@
ILLUSTRATION: CONSTANCE CHOU
People in wealthy western countries such as ¡§Tea Party¡¨ members in the US
agitated about rising prices, unemployment and house repossessions might pause
to reflect that things could be worse: They could be refugees. For a multitude
of reasons, among which the financial crisis is but one, there has never been a
worse time to be a displaced person, economic migrant or asylum seeker.
Speaking this week at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, UN High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres described the daunting
dimensions of an accelerating global crisis that the international community has
yet to fully understand, let alone provide a coherent response to. Moreover,
contrary to the populist and racist perceptions peddled by Europe¡¦s far-right,
many Western countries are doing less, not more to help.
Four-fifths of all refugees eke out a living in the developing world, which
carries a correspondingly disproportionate share of the burden, Guterres said.
Comparing the number of refugees a country hosts with its per capita GDP shows
that the 25 countries most affected by the refugee phenomenon are all in the
developing world, including 14 least developed countries (LDCs).
Pakistan, subjected to harsh criticism in a recent White House report over its
perceived failures as a partner in the ¡§war on terror,¡¨ is the most heavily
burdened state in the world, with 745 refugees, mostly Afghans, for every US$1
in per capita GDP. In contrast, Germany, Europe¡¦s richest economy, has 17
refugees for every US$1 of national income. Britain has seven.
Guterres, a lifelong socialist and former prime minister of Portugal who took
over at the UNHCR in 2005, said in an interview that the organization spent much
of its time firefighting in the teeth of negative global trends. One was the
growing intractability of conflicts that showed no sign of being resolved and
the diminishing, increasingly dangerous ¡§humanitarian space¡¨ in which the UN and
aid workers were obliged to operate.
¡§There is an arc of crisis reaching from Pakistan and Afghanistan through the
Middle East to Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Chad that produces two-thirds of the
world¡¦s refugees,¡¨ Guterres said.
These problem areas were increasingly linked. They became ¡§breeding grounds¡¨ for
terrorism and all such problems were exacerbated, in turn, by global megatrends
¡X population growth, urbanization, food and energy insecurity, water scarcity
and, particularly, climate change, he said.
In addition, local or regional crises, as in Zimbabwe and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, have also become entrenched and created both
quasi--permanent and global refugee populations.
¡§In this arc, things are not getting better. Somalia is a total disaster. Yemen
is getting worse,¡¨ he said.
Guterres said the number of refugees being resettled abroad was rising but the
number of resettlement places on offer was inadequate ¡X roughly 10 percent of
the 800,000 annual applicants. The total number of applicants has doubled since
2005.
¡§Europe currently provides around 6,000 resettlement places a year or about 7.5
percent of the total worldwide,¡¨ he said.
Asylum seekers faced similar obstacles while forced repatriation policies, as
applied to Iraqis for example, sent an ¡§unhelpful¡¨ signal to Syria and Jordan
where the vast majority of Iraqi refugees were located, he said. Advances had
been made and the UNHCR does not dispute the right of countries to control their
borders.
¡§Overall, however, there is still no true European asylum system but a patchwork
of different national ones, making the situation totally dysfunctional,¡¨ he
said.
Guterres also highlighted the plight of an estimated 27 million people forcibly
displaced within their own countries, whether by conflict or natural disasters;
the particular vulnerability of child refugees, who are preyed on by traffickers
and smugglers; and the relatively new phenomenon of ¡§global refugee populations¡¨
that are not located in one placed but seek opportunity wherever they can find
it. The most striking example being Somalia.
There were nearly 700,000 Somali refugees at the end of last year, approximately
half in Kenya and a quarter in Yemen.
¡§But Somali refugees are everywhere, from Costa Rica to Nepal,¡¨ Guterres said.
¡§I do not believe there is any group of refugees who are as systematically
undesired, stigmatized and discriminated against as Somalis ... It is difficult
to conceive a situation more abject than that of the Somali refugee.¡¨
Guterres made plain there were no instant solutions, but he said much more could
be done, starting with a full-scale international debate about the scale and
seriousness of the problem and how it links to key global challenges such as
climate change, which he described a universal ¡§accelerator¡¨ of negative trends.
In dealing with intractable conflicts, more ¡§robust¡¨ peacekeeping and diplomatic
interventions might be required, he suggested. Governments should improve
access, curb the spread of cheap weapons and provide better protection for
humanitarian personnel. Closer cooperation on migrants between states of origin,
transit and destination was needed, he said.
Most importantly, perhaps, ¡§a new deal on burden-sharing¡¨ between the developed
and undeveloped world was required, he said ¡X with renewed emphasis on
prevention. ¡§The international community is not good at prevention, but
prevention is much cheaper in the long run.¡¨
¡@
|