Asylum debate ignores real problems faced by refugees, say UN officials by Erika Feller, Ruud Lubbers, Gabriela Pizarro United Nations 10:27am 5th Oct, 2004   26 October 2004    Human rights of migrants deteriorating, warns UN expert.    Migrants face increasingly harsh conditions around the world, from exploitation in the workplace to frequent episodes of xenophobia or racism to detention if their status is irregular, a United Nations human rights expert says.    Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, says the phenomenon of people-smuggling is also worsening, driven by criminal organizations.    In a report to the General Assembly on her work between August 2003 and August this year, Ms. Rodríguez Pizarro states there has been "a continuing deterioration in the human rights situation of migrants." She says this is occurring at the same time as the rights of migrants are being ignored during debates in receiver countries about immigration policy.    Ms. Rodríguez Pizarro calls on countries around the world to ratify the global conventions protecting the rights of migrant workers and their families and outlawing the illegal trafficking of people. She says the regularization of the status of migrants "must be carried out with absolute respect for the human rights of those concerned, so that they cannot be blackmailed if regularization is left to their employers."    The Special Rapporteur also calls for the overhaul of traditional ways of managing migration, saying they are no longer effective in an increasingly globalized world where people in poor States can see obvious and large disparities in wealth and development.    Welcoming some initiatives that promote public consultation in the framing of migration policy, Ms. Rodríguez Pizarro says that countries should share responsibility for accepting and dealing with migrants, rather than treating the issue as one of internal security or specific economic interests.    7 October 2004    The United Nations refugee agency's top protection official said today she is alarmed that in many countries the debate on asylum is distorted by false concerns and ignores the genuine suffering still faced by refugees.    Erika Feller, Director of the International Protection Department at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told the annual meeting of the agency's governing board, taking place this week in Geneva, that politicizing the asylum debate does not solve the migration concerns of States. Ms. Feller called for greater cooperation between countries so they can share their refugee responsibilities and better manage the movement of people.    Her warning comes as the number of people seeking asylum has fallen sharply since 2001, driven partly by the conclusions of several long-running conflicts, such as in Afghanistan and Angola. At the start of this year there were only 17.1 million people who came under the concern of UNHCR, down by almost 22 per cent from 21.8 million in January 2001.    Despite this drop in numbers, refugees and asylum-seekers are facing an increasingly hostile environment in many countries today, Ms. Feller said. "It is currently in vogue to talk of a new refugee and asylum reality…but the problems of the refugee are perennial. Confronting intolerance and fear, being a foreigner in someone else's land, searching for a safe haven and waiting for solutions: these are recurring features of the refugee experience."    Ms. Feller said she was particularly worried that understandable migration concerns about preventing terrorism and fighting trans-national crime were being blurred with the issues of asylum-seekers and refugees. "Equating asylum with a safe haven for terrorists is not only legally wrong and unsupported by the facts, but it serves to vilify refugees in the public mind and promotes the singling out of persons of particular races or religions for discrimination and hate-based harassment." She stressed how important it is for nations to uphold their responsibilities under the 1951 Refugee Convention and not to seek to narrow their commitments.    4 October 2004    "Refugees facing a less friendly environment, UN High Commissioner warns", by Ruud Lubbers    Driven by prevailing fear, confusion and the politicization of humanitarian concerns, the world has become less friendly towards refugees - even though the number of people seeking asylum has fallen steeply - the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.    Ruud Lubbers opened the annual meeting of UNHCR's 66-member governing body in Geneva with a call for nations to share, rather than shift, the burden of accepting asylum seekers.    He said the fear of criminal and terrorist networks, confusion about whether people are refugees or economic migrants, and the politicization of immigration policy have combined to erode the strength of asylum laws in many nations.    "The environment we are working in now must be described frankly as less friendly to refugees," he said.    Yet the numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers continue to fall. The total number of people who fall under UNHCR's concern has dropped by nearly 22 per cent from 21.8 million in January 2001 to 17.1 million at the start of this year. The number of people seeking asylum in industrialized States has also slumped, last year reaching its lowest level since 1997.    Mr. Lubbers said the concerted efforts of the agency and many nations meant "we are finding solutions for more and more people," citing as one example the organized return to Afghanistan of more than 3.5 million refugees since 2002.    Turning to UNHCR's current operations around the world, Mr. Lubbers said "the large-scale killing and clearing of villages" has now ended in the Darfur region of Sudan. But he lamented that "it took the international community half a year to really wake up" to the crisis in Darfur.    Also addressing the meeting, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris said that agency faces a growing shortfall for its refugee-related operations. WFP is now $220 million below the $865 million it needs to feed almost 11 million people.    Mr. Morris said donations to WFP's work in Liberia have begun to dry up "ever since the television cameras left the war-ravaged streets of Monrovia," and food aid for about 750,000 people is therefore due to run out in December.
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item