HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES SAYS INSTITUTION OF ASYLUM NOW UNDER THREAT WORLD-WIDE

Press Release
REF/1124

HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES SAYS INSTITUTION OF ASYLUM NOW UNDER THREAT WORLD-WIDE

Annual Meeting of UNHCR Executive Committee Hears Call for New Initiatives Aimed at Prevention and Protection

GENEVA, 16 October (UNHCR) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, warned today that the institution of asylum was now under threat world-wide, and she called for new initiatives aimed at prevention and protection in countries of origin as well as during flight and exile abroad.

Opening the annual meeting of the agency's 50-member Executive Committee, Mrs. Ogata said one of the most difficult problems confronting her office in recent years had been the global decline of asylum, even on a temporary basis. In a world in which war deliberately targeted civilians and peace failed to bring security, the dual mandate of the UNHCR -- international protection of refugees and finding lasting solutions to their plight -- was being severely tested.

"Many countries are openly admitting their weariness with large numbers of refugees, and are bluntly closing their borders", she told delegates attending the five-day meeting which ends on Friday. "Others are more insidiously introducing laws and procedures which effectively deny admission to their territory."

The High Commissioner said that in major incidents in Africa and Europe in recent months, borders had been closed to refugees fleeing danger. Thousands of refugees and displaced persons have found themselves caught in the midst of conflict and violence. Some had been killed, others had been brutally attacked and terrorized, or forced to return to danger.

To counter this trend, Mrs. Ogata said, the UNHCR must do more than just appeal to the generosity of asylum States. There must be action to enable countries to receive refugees as well as initiatives to find solutions to refugee problems and, where possible, to prevent the outbreak of new crises.

She said the composition of the 27.4 million people currently considered "of concern" to the UNHCR illustrated how the agency's focus has shifted

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somewhat, from exile towards countries of origin. "Only about 14.5 million are refugees", she noted. "The rest include 4 million returnees, 5.4 million internally displaced persons and 3.5 million civilians affected by conflict. Almost half of the population of concern to the UNHCR is thus to be found within their own country."

While help for refugees and the countries that offer them asylum was vital, that alone was not enough, Mrs. Ogata said. Protection abroad could not be assured without a parallel effort to find solutions at home. And in many trouble spots, prospects for solutions were dependent on progress towards overcoming political problems. "In some parts of the world, political events may finally be turning the tide away from human suffering to homecoming", she said. "However, in none of these instances is return likely to be under ideal conditions. In many, it will be dogged by political insecurity and economic uncertainty."

In Rwanda, Liberia, the former Yugoslavia, the Caucasus and elsewhere, she went on, the UNHCR worked closely with political and peace-keeping operations, with the underlying objective of ensuring that humanitarian concerns were part of the political dialogue and that the agency's capacity to carry out its work of protection and assistance was reinforced. In many parts of the world, returnees from exile required continued protection and monitoring and this created a "new dimension" to the agency's protection responsibilities. "Just as we can no longer passively wait for refugees to cross the border but are increasingly involved with the internally displaced in order to avert outflow, we can no longer passively wait for conditions to change so that refugees can volunteer. Instead, we must work actively to create the conditions conducive to their safe return", she said.

Such efforts were under way in Rwanda, and the UNHCR, as the lead humanitarian agency, was willing to promote the organized return of refugees and displaced persons in the former Yugoslavia, once a peace agreement was in place.

Citing the examples of Myanmar, Guatemala, Rwanda and Tajikistan, Mrs. Ogata said the presence of the UNHCR and other international bodies in the country of origin instilled confidence in returnees and the internally displaced alike. She mentioned the recently concluded programme in Tajikistan, where with essential government support the UNHCR had launched mobile teams which, among other things, monitored human rights and helped re-establish the rule of law. The UNHCR also provided special help which allowed the vast majority of refugees and displaced to safely return and reintegrate.

Besides the question of safeguarding human rights, she went on, there was the need for socio-economic conditions in countries of origin to be improved, through both small-scale programmes like the UNHCR "quick impact

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projects" and larger, longer-term rehabilitation and development schemes through organizations like the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others. The challenge of rebuilding war-torn societies was not an easy one at a time when development assistance was shrinking and humanitarian needs were expanding. There was a vital need to open a "third window" for financing emergency rehabilitation activities. That way, donors could channel resources from both humanitarian and development funds, and organizations, whether humanitarian or development, could use them.

Addressing the need for prevention, Mrs. Ogata noted the UNHCR move towards greater involvement with the internally displaced as part of a preventive approach to refugee problems. There was, moreover, a need for timely international efforts to help strengthen the will and capacity of governments -- individually and collectively -- to pre-empt the reasons which forced people to flee in the first place.

"If we are to break the pattern of coerced displacement, the security of States must presuppose the security of people within those States", Mrs. Ogata concluded. "A major test for the coming decades, as I see it, will be to develop a humanitarian perspective of security."

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