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FACT SHEET : REFUGEES
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says there are
22.2 million people (as of 1 January 2000) in the world who are "of concern"
to them. Not all of them are recognised as refugees. The traditional
definition of refugees denies the firm link between the political situation
in a country, its sources in international policies and the need for people
to flee poverty and despair.
Where do refugees come from?
Two groups, Palestinians (3.5 million) and Afghans (2.5 million), account
for over 27% of the world's refugees and asylum seekers in 2000. The top
five countries from which refugees and asylum seekers came were: Palestine,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Burundi and Sierra Leone.
Where to do refugees flee?
Over half of the world's refugees and asylum seekers in 2000 were in Asia
and Africa. Afghan refugees fled mainly to Iran, Pakistan and India. Iraqi
refugees sought refuge primarily in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Those who
fled from Burundi went to Tanzania and D. R. Congo. Only 38% of the world's
refugees and asylum seekers are in Europe and North America.
False and genuine refugees?
The traditional refugee definition recognise only those refugees that flee
war or personal political persecution. But how about women from Afghanistan
that suddenly saw their lives robbed of any perspective other than the
precise role the regime saw fit for them. What about the people who were
rendered destitute when the colonialists first converted local agriculture
into "cash crops" such as sugar cane, only to see the prices of these "cash
crops" crumble. Making a difference between the reasons of refugees for
leaving their home countries can only be valid to meet their specific needs.
It cannot serve as an excuse to exclude them from the protection they need.
UNHCR reports: Europe does not abide by the Refugee Convention!
"Governments are increasingly slamming the door in the faces of those
seeking asylum," says UNHCR, "regarding them as political, social or
economic threats... The five million people who requested asylum in Western
Europe, North America and Australasia over the past decade have faced an
array of different measures intended to prevent or deter people from seeking
refuge". The same report criticizes governments because, following the
recent agreements on interpretation of the UN Convention, only those who can
prove persecution by governments have a chance of getting a refugee status.
This implies that no refugee status will be granted to those fleeing from
persecution by a non-government entity or general violence in their country.
People fleeing the bloodshed in Algeria are a good example of people who
would be sent back to danger, according to this interpretation of the
Convention.
EUROPEAN POLICIES: The Creation of Fear and Despair
The biggest danger of these policies lies not in the official part - not
even in the official breaking down of the UN Refugee Convention through new
treaties and conventions - but in the building of a climate of fear and
despair. The political discourse of the last years has made refugees and
asylum seekers into scapegoats. Unemployment, high taxes, the decline of
culture, family and western society as a whole: all of these frightening
phenomena, real or mythical, are blamed on the newcomers. This is the basis
for militarisation, datalinking and the export of exclusion.
Datalinking: No more health care, education or housing for "illegals"
In several countries efforts have been taken to assure that no "illegals"
have access to health care, education of housing. This means that "illegals"
are even more vulnerable to exploitation. Recently cases have been reported
in which refugees have not gone to hospitals or doctors, fearing they would
be turned over to the foreign police. As a result, people are dying. The
children of undocumented refugees can now no longer go to school. Should
health care and education be related to residency status? Are they not basic
human rights?
Militarisation: Dogs, infrared cameras, 8 km of wall
In Germany sniffer dogs have the help of electronic "sniffers". New devices
will measure the oxygen and CO2 emissions in transport trucks. This should
help to discover people hidden in the cargo. The authorities in Melilla, a
Spanish enclave in Morocco, rely on a simpler, more visible method. They
have been working for several years to build a fence of more than 8 km in
length around the city to pre-vent Africans from crossing the border.
Exporting exclusion
Europe is setting an example to the rest of the world. "When the very
countries responsible for establishing the international refugee regime
begin to challenge its legal and ethical foundations," UNHCR says, "then it
is hardly surprising that other states, especially those with far more
pressing economic problems and much larger refugee populations, have decided
to follow suit."
Safe Third Countries
The EU countries are working on closing their borders. This seems not to be
secure enough, however. European states have set up a "cordon sanitaire"
around the Union. The countries in Central and Eastern Europe receive money,
favourable contracts and diplomatic agreements in exchange for standing
guard at the borders of the Union to keep any unwanted refugee or asylum
seeker out-side. The Dublin Convention has also introduced the "Safe Third
Country" rule, which allows EU countries to deport asylum seekers to a
country outside the EU. This country is deemed to be safe. The asylum seeker
has passed through it and should have applied for asylum there. This rule
does not take into account that many of these "Safe Third Countries" have no
adequate asylum procedures. The real danger exists, as a result, that asylum
seekers are pushed back from country to country until they are deported to
the country they fled from in the first place, without having had the chance
to apply for asylum.
A buffer zone
The first reaction of the Turkish government to the threat of a second Gulf
War was to send more than 5,000 Turkish troops into northern Iraq. The goal
of their mission: to set up a buffer zone in case Iraqi Kurdish refugees
might want to flee across the Turkish - Iraqi border. In 1997 German and
Dutch politicians promoted the idea of spending money reserved for the
reception of refugees and asylum seekers on camps and facilities in the
neighbouring countries to war-zones. In that way people would not have to
come to Europe. Problem solved. The much-heard word of "burden-sharing" was
transformed into "pushing the burden away".
At the Tampere EU Summit in October 1999 governments agreed on so-called
Action Plans. These plans target six "Third World countries" which will be
subjected to economic and political pressure to agree to the EU's
readmission plans to expel migrants and rejected asylum seekers. They will
receive some economic support in return for keeping their citizens from
reaching Europe.
Germany: Death before deportation
On 30 August 1999 19-year old Rachid Sbaai committed suicide by setting
himself on fire in his cell in the Bueren detention centre, near Hamburg.
The Algerian refugee, who was arrested and detained for deportation last
March, had been put in isolation after he allegedly took part in an argument
after a televised football match. According to anti-deportation campaigners,
the psychological pressure of isolation and constant threat of deportation
drove him to set fire to his clothes and bed covers. Since the practical
abolition of the right to asylum through the Asylum Act of 1993, more than
30 people have killed themselves whilst in detention or due to the threat of
deportation in Germany. The use of isolation as a disciplinary measure to
pacify refugees shortly before deportation is common practice in Germany's
detention centres. The measure results in resistance through hunger strikes,
suicide attempts and protests, often leading to severe injuries to those
detained. These effects are largely ignored by the media. Suicides are
becoming more common all over Europe, as detention is used more and more,
even for young adults and psychologically unstable refugees.
Spain: Drowned between two worlds
In the early hours of 27 September 1999, the State Police of Ceuta responded
to cries for help and rescued an Algerian youth who tried, together with a
compatriot, to reach the enclave city on board a small dinghy. Shortly
afterwards, the lifeless body of his friend was found.
Thousands die both in the Strait of Gibraltar and the Adriatic, trying to
reach the "promised land". Traffickers are blamed for these deaths, but we
should question who gives the traffickers this power over human lives.
Switzerland: No Human Rights for deportees?
Criticism of forced deportations following the death on 3 March of
Palestinian Khaled Abuzarifeh, 27 - and another incident in which police
officers accompanying a deportee to the Congo were attacked by airplane
passengers - has led to a limited debate on state violence during forced
deportations. But the only concession to date has been on the issue of
gagging, with the announcement that in future Swiss police will put a small
tube through the tape and mouth in order to avoid suffocation.
Refugees questions
1. What is a refugee for you? How do you see a refugee?
2. Can you name some regions refugees come from?
3. Why do you think refugees leave their homes?
4. Imagine you are a refugee. What would you do?
5. Have you ever met a refugee?
6. Are there refugees in/from your country?
7. How does your national media picture refugees?
8. What can we do for refugees as human beings?
9. What can we do to change the status of refugees in our countries?
Do you need more information?
http://www.united.non-profit.nl.
Youth Action for Peace
Av. du Parc Royal 3, B-1020 Brussels, Belgium
Tel.: 0032 2 478 94 10; Fax: 0032 2 478 94 32
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