World Refugee Day: The need for a more equitable burden-sharing in refugee protection

Posted by humanrightsthinkers on June 23, 2011 · 5 Comments 

SPECIAL GUEST POST FROM FRIEND OF HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM, MARINA LOURENÇO. MARINA IS CURRENTLY A MASTER STUDENT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW AT ÅBO AKADEMI.

It has already been some time since other voices started to call the world’s attention to the fact that developing countries are bearing a much heavier burden in refugee protection than does the developed world. On Monday UNHCR (the United Nations Agency for Refugees) published its annual special report Global Trends 2010 in celebration of the Refugee Day and drew our attention again to the miserable situation of refugees around the world. It restates that the world’s poorest countries are the ones hosting the biggest refugee populations, both in absolute terms but also in relation to their economies.

The report’s conclusions, although not exactly new, are certainly striking. The number of people forced to flee their homes (including both refugees and internally displaced persons) has been reaching the highest for the last 15 years. From each five refugees, four are in developing countries. The most relevant cause of displacement is still violence and protracted conflicts. Several new conflicts have emerged in recent years, while others have lasted much longer than expected, impeding refugees and displaced people to return home. But we have watched increasing numbers of people who had fled their homes as a result of climate change. The report also draws attention to the fact that many countries still detain refugees for illegal entry, and many more still incur in refoulement.

This year’s Refugee Day also reminds us of the 60^th anniversary of the Refugee Convention, but we may not have much to celebrate. Specially on the last two decades, several countries have been developing very strict systems of border control. The justification for that often lies on a right of States to control the entry of foreigners as well as on security concerns, but the problem is that they may result in denial of protection to people whose lives and freedom are in danger.

While States do have a right to control entry and expulsion of aliens, that is certainly not an absolute prerogative. 60 years ago the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was promulgated and by joining it, States made a series of compromises with which many are not complying today. One of the core provisions of the convention establishes the so-called principle of non-refoulement, which basically prohibits States to expel or return (refouler) a refugee to the frontiers of territories where his or her life or freedom would be in danger.

A crucial problem arises when States create mechanisms to impede refugees to ever access their borders. And this is done by several means: visa regimes whose requirements refugees are not in condition to comply with, carrier sanctions that impose on airlines and other transportation service providers a fine for admitting on board travellers without the appropriate documentation, immigration officers placed in foreign airports or territories who impede potential asylum seekers to even exercise their right to leave their own country (a right which is guaranteed by the core human rights documents), and this is just to name a few.

In theory, those practices exempt States from the risk of incurring in refoulement. In practice, however, they leave refugees without any protection, strengthening the chains of people smuggling and even making them more vulnerable targets to human trafficking. Europe is unfortunately not alone and similar practices can be observed in other parts of the developed world, but it is probably the most elucidative example of this situation. Ignoring the special needs and circumstances of refugees, the current mechanisms of border control have created what has been called the “fortress Europe” and placed refugees into a broader group of potentially illegal immigrants which Europe so insistently fights to keep away from its borders.

During this special week when we think over the rights of refugees, António Guterres, the chief of UNHCR, has called States for a more equitable burden-sharing and reaffirmed that “when people are fleeing violence, borders must be kept open”. He has also highlighted some recent very inspiring examples of refugee crises management. The first one in Tunisia: the country kept its borders open to the big influx of Libyan refugees, who found protection even in the homes of Tunisian citizens. The second remarkable example is also the most recent refugee crisis, which resulted from clashes between government and protesters in Syria. Despite the risks that such a sudden and continued influx pose to its own internal stability, Turkey has kept the borders open to Syrian refugees and has promptly provided for their basic needs.

UNHCR has produced a very interesting short video with findings of its Global Trends 2010 report and an overview on the current world’s refugee situation: http://unhcr.org/v-4dff6b8d6

Filed under Europe, Refugees · Tagged with Europe, Global Trends 2010, Refugees, UNHCR, World Refugee Day