UNHCR warns of "asylum fatigue " by BBC News 12:00am 20th Apr, 2006   19/4/2006    Global numbers of refugees are falling dramatically as people return to former war zones, the United Nations says. Some 9.2m people were refugees in 2005, the lowest figure for 25 years. But in a five-year survey, the UN"s refugee agency (UNHCR) warns of "asylum fatigue" in both industrialised and developing nations. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warns that public confusion meant people who needed help were seen as a public threat.    In the State of the World"s Refugees, published on Wednesday, the UNHCR says global numbers of refugees have fallen dramatically thanks to improving conditions in states including Afghanistan, Angola and Sierra Leone, among others. The reduction in cross-border wars and conflicts in the past five years had contributed to the fall in refugee numbers. But, the UN warns, the reduction in refugees may prove to be temporary because of continuing instability in some of the worst-hit areas of the world, coupled with a rise in civil wars, internal conflicts and the growing crises of internal displacement.    In the survey, the UN says that while numbers have fallen to the 25-year-low, the international system for refugees and asylum seekers, designed after World War II, has reached a "critical juncture".    This historic deal was under pressure from many quarters, including government responses to mass migration in an increasingly open, globalised world, public confusion over asylum and refugees, international security anxieties and the internal displacement of some 25 million people. One "apparent cause" for the drop in numbers was restrictive measures to limit asylum in some countries, the report says.    Core elements of the refugee system are being questioned, the UN says. Asylum seekers are portrayed less as people needing protection and more as "illegal migrants, potential terrorists and criminals".    In turn, both industrialised and developing nations are suffering "asylum fatigue", warns the UNHCR. With two-thirds of the world"s refugees in developing countries, many of these states believe they are receiving inadequate support from richer nations.    "In the past few years, asylum issues and refugee protection have become inextricably linked with the question of international migration, particularly irregular migration," said Antonio Guterres. "In the context of the ever growing ... migration flows, asylum seekers are often using the same illicit channels as illegal migrants, and as a result are denied access to asylum procedures that states are obliged to provide under international law. "Untangling the two means timely protection interventions to detect those in genuine need. The UNHCR does not intend to become a migration agency. But migration requires our attention - to be vigilant of its effects on the right to asylum. "While UNHCR recognises it is the prerogative of states to control their borders and manage migration, such measures should not preclude the right of those in real need to adequate procedures that states are obliged to provide under international law."    Mr Guterres said that internal displacement, people not covered by the 1951 Refugee Convention, remained the international community"s "biggest failure". "People who would otherwise seek safety in neighbouring states are more frequently compelled to remain within the borders of their own country, most often in similar conditions as refugees," he said. "Two long-running conflicts in Africa - the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan - alone accounted for an estimated 7.5 million internally displaced people in 2005." The survey says that despite improvements in the international picture, there are at least 33 protracted crises where more than 25,000 people have been refugees for five or more years. Taken together, there account for more than half of the world"s refugee situations.
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