Call for international action as Nepal/Bhutan bilateral talks fail to solve refugee crisis
More than 100,000 Bhutanese Hindus of Nepalese origin - an estimated one-sixth of the population of Bhutan - have been living in refugee camps in southeastern Nepal since the early 1990s when they were arbitrarily stripped of their nationality and forcibly expelled from Bhutan in one of the largest religious/ethnic expulsions in modern history. (1)
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lutheran World Federation, the Jesuit Refugee Service, Habitat International Coalition and the Bhutanese Refugee Support Group have called on donors to urgently convene an international conference involving the two governments, refugee representatives, UNHCR and other UN agencies to devise a comprehensive and just solution to the 12-year-long refugee crisis.
The agencies argue that the pilot screening programme to determine eligibility to return (started by the governments of Bhutan and Nepal in Khudunabari camp in 2001) is deeply flawed. The screening process excludes UNHCR, fails to comply with international human rights and refugee standards and risks leaving tens of thousands of refugees stateless. Bilateral negotiations have failed to address refugees' key concerns regarding repatriation to Bhutan - guarantees of safety and security, citizenship rights and restitution of property.
In a move criticised by the NGOs, UNHCR has announced it is to begin phasing out assistance to the refugee camps in the absence of a just and lasting solution by Nepal and Bhutan and to explore possibilities for local integration in Nepal and resettlement in third countries.
The NGOs have called on donors to apply new pressure to Nepal and Bhutan and insist that the two governments uphold the refugees' rights and allow UNHCR to monitor the repatriation process.
"For too long donor governments have offered tacit support to the bilateral process between Nepal and Bhutan," said Eve Lester, refugee coordinator at Amnesty International. "Now they must recognise that this strategy has failed and international efforts are needed to find a comprehensive solution."
The joint NGO statement is at: http://hrw.org/press/2003/10/nepal101303.htm. A report from Human Rights Watch examines the uneven response of UNHCR and the government of Nepal to rape, domestic violence, sexual and physical assault, and trafficking of girls and women from refugee camps. See www.hrw.org/press/2003/09/nepal-bhutan092403.htm
UNRWA and ICRC scale back operations in occupied Palestinian territories
UNRWA has warned that lack of donor response to its emergency appeal is forcing cutbacks in its efforts to lesson the pain of the effects of violence on the Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza. While donor responses to UNRWA emergency appeals at the beginning of the current intifada exceeded 100%, as a result of donor fatigue there is now only a 40% response.
Since October 2000 nearly 14,000 UNRWA-registered refugees in the West Bank and Gaza have been made homeless by house demolitions carried out by the Israeli army. UNRWA faces a bill of $30.5 million for the cost of its re-housing efforts in the Gaza Strip alone. UNRWA has only been able to offer replacement homes to 228 families in Gaza, the remainder having to make do with tents and blankets. Work to rebuild the Jenin camp, ravaged by the Israeli offensive in April 2002, has fallen behind schedule.
Insufficient funding has also forced UNRWA to curtail the number of employees in temporary positions in the West Bank by a quarter. In Gaza the agency has had to forego expenditure on construction and maintenance projects that would have generated job and training opportunities for Palestinian workers.
Almost 230,000 families depend on UNRWA food parcels. As a consequence of lack of funding and Israeli restrictions on distribution activities, UNRWA reduced the tonnage of food delivered in the third quarter of 2003 by 17%. With a 25% malnutrition rate in Gaza and almost as much in the West Bank, the agency has had to cut back food distributions to half of what had been foreseen for 2003. UNRWA has reduced its nutritional norm from providing 60% of each family member's daily nutritional requirements to 40% of these requirements
In November the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced the end of relief distributions to around 300,000 people in the West Bank. Noting that "humanitarian aid cannot be a viable solution to the crisis in the West Bank", the ICRC reminded Israel of its primary responsibility under the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure that the population of territories it occupies has sufficient access to food, water, health services and education. The ICRC will intensify its efforts to monitor the humanitarian impact of curfews, movement restrictions and accelerating confiscation of land and property along the separation wall.
UNRWA's annual report is online at www.un.org/unrwa/news/releases/pr-2003/ga-30october03.pdf. Information on how to donate to UNRWA is at www.un.org/unrwa/emergency/donation/index.html. A donation of US$30 can provide one month's food parcel for a family of eight.
The ICRC press release announcing an end to large-scale humanitarian operations is at: www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/5TGCYH?OpenDocument
New legislation endangers refugee protection in UK
A new Asylum and Immigration Bill (the fifth in 11 years) has been condemned by refugee and human rights organisations. They fear that plans to remove the right to a second tier appeal and limits on legal aid would remove a vital check on notoriously poor initial decisions (over 15,000 orders to deny asylum were overturned on appeal in 2003). Support will be withdrawn from families ordered to leave the UK who fail to take up a paid route home. Their destitute children could be taken into care. The proposed law could also result in families being imprisoned for arriving without travel documents - despite the fact that Refugee Convention states that refugees should not be penalised for arriving without appropriate documentation.
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen described the bill as "devastating for thousands of refugees seeking protection in the UK … the appeals process can be the only barrier between a refugee and the secret police waiting to torture them on their return." Refugee Legal Centre Chief Executive Barry Stoyle complains that "the proposed one-stop appeal tribunal … will make life-or-death decisions without anyone being able to question them."
For further information, see the Refugee Council press release at: www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/news/dec03/relea144.htm
Refoulement from Panama
The Panamanian government is planning to repatriate refugees who have entered Panama to escape the violence and civil war in Colombia. Most are Afro-Colombians from Colombia's north-western coastal department of Chocó. The Panamanian border province of Darien is home to 1,515 refugees and persons registered as requiring special protection. According to the Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos Panamá, the Panamian government is planning to force the Colombians back to Colombia, despite the continuation of the violence which forced them to flee to Panama in the first place.
Although Panama is a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it has refouled Colombian refugees on a number of occasions. In April 2003, 109 Colombians (63 of them children) were taken from their place of residence in Darien and deported to Zapzurro, on the Colombian side of the border. When some refused to move or tried to escape they were reportedly manhandled by the National Guard and forced into helicopters. Some of the refugees were forced to sign a document declaring that their return to Colombia was voluntary.
Amnesty International has produced evidence that previous repatriations have been far from voluntary and that returning refugees are placed at risk of attack if they refuse to collaborate with paramilitaries backed by the Colombian army. Amnesty complains that "cooperation between Panama and Colombia seriously undermines the civilian and humanitarian nature of refugee protection."
See: http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230782003
Distress of deportation from Morocco to Nigeria by Dr Yahya Yahyaoui
The history of Morocco's Mediterranean coastline is inextricably linked with the history of migration, whether flight is for economic reasons or from conflict.
The current route taken by potential migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe leaves from Oujda, in the far north-east of Morocco and on the Algerian border. This phenomenon has attracted greater attention in recent months because of the methods used by the Moroccan authorities in detaining and deporting significant numbers of these migrants. With the discreet support of, and doubtless under pressure by, the Spanish authorities, those detained have all been deported - in aeroplanes chartered by Spain - from Oujda's Angad airport to one sole destination: Nigeria. This is being done without any administrative formalities and with no regard as to where the migrants/asylum seekers actually originate from. Huge distress is being caused.
These hundreds of potential immigrants, dreaming of a more secure life in Europe, no doubt believed they would be doing no more than passing through Moroccan territory. But since Europe has barricaded its borders, there has been a greater migratory movement from the south towards Morocco and as a result, Morocco itself has come under pressure to act as a filter - one that now retains the majority of those entering the country.
If one takes into further consideration the political pressure and economic blackmail exerted by Europe on Spain to contain and curb population movements, one can begin to understand that this is a very complex situation, characterised by grave abuses of individuals' human rights.
Dr Yahya Yahyaoui teaches at Oujda University, Morocco.
According to a report in the Guardian in October 2003, every year thousands of people attempt to cross the 30-mile Strait of Gibraltar which separates Spain from Africa, while thousands take the long trip west from Morocco to the Canary Islands. A Moroccan immigrants' group said that in 2002 4,000 people had died or disappeared in the attempt. In 2002 Spain repatriated 74,467 immigrants - 58% more than in 2001 - of whom 23,381 were Moroccan.
See www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1063682,00.html
For more information about Spain's treatment of migrants and asylum seekers from Morocco and other African countries, see Human Rights Watch reports at: www.hrw.org/doc?t=europe&c=spain