This has been revised with the adoption of the Protocol of Africa and Latin America to include persons who had fled war and other violence in their country, and this included refugee women and children Chapter1: General Provisions, Article 1B 1 p14, However the Convention also outlines the exceptions of the application term of section A.
The benefit of the present provision may not, however, be claimed by a refugee whom there are reasonable grounds for regarding as a danger to the security of the country in which he is, or who, having been convicted by a final judgment of a particularly serious crime, constitutes a danger to the community of that country.
The expulsion or deportation occurs when a foreigner is found to be guilty of doing something against the interests of the state or has been a criminal fugitive from another country escaping justice. Non-refoulement is applicable to refugees or asylum seekers. The principle of non- refoulement has gained ground after the First World War The Convention is both a status and rights-based instrument, which underlines a number of fundamental principles, most notably non-discrimination, non-penalization and non-refoulement.
It is a jus cogens peremptory norm , a principle on international law, in particular the refugee law that forbids the expulsion or into an area where the person might be again subjected to persecution, and protecting of refugees from being returned to places where their lives or freedoms could be threatened, war zones. Convention provisions, for example, are to be applied without discrimination as to race, religion or country of origin.
Unlike political asylum, which applies to those who can prove, a well-grounded fear of persecution based on membership in a social group or class of persons. Non-refoulement is to be distinguished from expulsion or deportation or forced removal. The UN Pinheiro Principles are guided by the idea that not only people have the right to return home, but also to the same property. It seeks to return to the pre-conflict status quo and ensure that no one profits from the violence.
The "durable solutions" to refugee populations, as defined by UNHCR and governments, are: voluntary repatriation to the country of origin; 81 www. Non- refoulement is to be distinguished from expulsion or deportation or forced removal.
When the request is accepted, one becomes a refugee and thus enjoys refugee status, with rights and obligations according to the legislation of the receiving country. Stateless persons are individuals defined under international law as individuals who are not considered as nationals by any State under the operation of its law or they do not possess the nationality of any State UNHCR Stateless people , though not understood by many countries are people who often living a precarious situation on the margins of society, lack identity documentation and often are subject to discrimination or detention by the host country.
The Germans had their own definition of refugee, especially due to the rising in numbers of refugees in Germany due to Nazism, made the League to create a High Commission in for Refugees coming from Germany and in , an agreement was signed which specifically defined a refugee coming from Germany as: "any person who was settled in that country, who does not possess any nationality other than German nationality, and in respect of whom it is established that in law or in fact he or she does not enjoy the protection of the Government of the Reich" Article 1.
The mandate was expanded to include persons from Austria and Sudetenland. The United States recognizes persecution "on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group" as grounds for seeking asylum.
The definition on refugee was limited to a specific region and did not satisfy the African definition. This lead the then OAU now AU , to adopt The OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problem in Africa, to expand the concept of refugee by the Convention of protocol and by regional conventions in Africa and Latin America to include persons who have fled war or violence in their home country, and women and children included and states thus: 82 www.
The same also applied to Jews in the Land of Canaan where God told Moses to appoint six Cities of Refuge where manslayer who kills a man accidentally flees to ,so that he may not die until he stands before the congregation in judgment Numbers , NKV. It was not until A. This actually gained acceptance and was implemented in Europe. This meant that people moving across the boundaries to other countries were required to identify their nationality.
Similar several unrests in the period between and , led to series of emigration which was experienced particularly in Eastern Europe by over 2 million Russian Jews. Repeated waves of pogroms swept Eastern Europe, propelling mass Jewish emigration to seek refuge in the foreign countries.
Further unrests and upheavals caused by the Communist regime, especially the Russian Revolution of and the civil war in in Russia, uprooted people from their homes who took refuge in their neighbouring countries, giving rise to over 1. This upsurge of refugees fleeing their homes led the decision to have a coordination office.
The first international coordination on refugee was therefore set up by the League of Nations with its high commission, Fridtjof Nansen, who was able to coordinate the ever increasing number of refugees in the region, and the mandate was expanded much wider to include, a million Armenians genocide, Assyrians and Turkish in UNHCR , While some countries accepted the refugees, the USA realized that there were so many refugees escaping from Stalin , Nazi and the Russian Revolution who were entering USA and thus passed a restriction by passing Emergency Quota Act, and Immigration Act of which was aimed at further restricting refugees especially the Jews and Slavs from Southern and Eastern Europe.
This was against the refugee law of refoulment , no return of the refugee ibid. In fourteen nations signed the Refugee Convention which assisted over one million refugees. In , the Allies created the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration UNRRA to provide aid to areas liberated areas from Axis Powers of China and Europe, where over seven million refugees or displaced persons, were assisted to return to their country of origin. It was dissolved in after resettling about one million refugees.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR , established on December 14, with its Headquarters in Geneva , Switzerland, whose main aim was to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the United Nations and also to assists in their return or resettlement. An individual was treated as an illegal alien and illegitimate migrant if found to be without a refugee status or the asylum seeker.
However, there were cases when fraudulent requests and imposters posing as asylum seekers were granted status of a refugee because of improper classification as refugee. Failed asylum applicants was devastating because it lead to most often to deportation , sometimes after imprisonment or detention, as in the case of United Kingdom where many asylum seekers were detained for the same reason.
According to UNHCR the refugee population had increased such that at the beginning of , there were some , asylum-seekers of concern to UN refugee agency found around the globe. Refugees in Africa: The world today has become more restless and many of its citizens are on the run, accounting to more than The total number of displaced persons in Africans are over There were also an estimated In there were over 3.
Causes and Crisis of Refugees in Africa: After the cold War there was an upswing of conflicts, from inter-state to intra-state, where the communities within a state are fighting over resources, identity and session Harris, P et al ed There are several factors that have given rise to refugees in Africa of which some of them are highlighted in this paper.
The major cause is political power struggle, lack of governance; thirst for power among other, together with poverty Ogata, noted that poverty alone does not create refugees.
The causes are most often political, she argued, with military action provoked by political tension or a political power struggle usually the direct cause Tandon, The vast majority of displacements of populations in Africa, whether internal or across international borders, are caused by armed conflicts or internal violence.
Mixed migratory movements towards Southern Africa from the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa continue to pose a significant challenge. These are refugees who move to the south looking for refuge as well as employment opportunities. It should be noted, for example, that not all countries or sub-regions of the continent are equally affected by this problem. According to UNHCR, the resolution of the longstanding conflicts in Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa which was experienced between the late s and mids, the southern part of the continent has been transformed from a major to a relatively minor refugee-hosting area - Angola being the primary exception to this rule.
Thus according to UNHCR statistics, the three largest refugee exoduses of all took place in Africa: from Sierra Leone , , Sudan 37, and Angola 33, as well as the largest repatriation movements to two countries: to Liberia , and Sierra Leone , This alarming refugee population is rapidly increasing at a time when the Continent is faced with serious problems of economic recovery and transformation compounded by reduction in external resources, the excruciating debt and debt servicing burden, deteriorating terms of trade, collapse of commodity prices as well as the vagaries of climate.
Theories of Refugees Liberal Universalist Arguments in Refugee Policy Boswell argues that The liberal Universalism, is a concepts of human and refugee rights, premised on the notion of the moral equality of all human beings, that it is the individual's capacity for autonomy or rationality that generates a series of rights or entitlements, including the right of life and liberty, with its basis the obligation of non- refoulement.
Liberal universalist position, states have ethical obligations to admit and assist all individuals in need of protection, without discrimination on grounds of nationality, ethnic group, among others. Typology of Refugee Theory Kunz in his typology on Refugee Theory, explains that refugees can be divided into three depending on their attitude on displacement as follows: majority identified refugee, a group of refugees who oppose the political and social activities at home and are supported by those at home, the second one is the events related refugees who left home because of discrimination and feel that they cannot be reconciled to the community, and a third one is the self-alienated ,a group that feel alienated because of their own philosophy.
Individuals perceive 87 www. Ecological changes also cause migration. Refugees in the African Continent and the Role of individual countries According to UNHCR, Somalia has over many years, been the centre of one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today.
Since , Somalia has been without a legitimate government for over twenty years and since then the country has experienced conflicts and waves of very severe drought in 60 years ,uprooting over 7. In the first half of alone, more than 83, Somalis fled into Kenya and over 54, into Ethiopia and in the second half of the year the daily arrivals in each country ranged from 1, to 1,, additional 2, crossed the North-Western border into Djibouti UNHCR, Somalia pdf, Feb.
Insecurity prevents humanitarian assistance and aid from reaching them which has in effect forced many people to leave their sick and elderly behind and flee their homes to get help, walking several kilometres for weeks to reach where aid is can be found in the neighbouring countries. As a result of such harsh journeys without food and water is devastating and many do not survive; the weakest children die along the way while their mothers watch helplessly in anguish and pain.
Egypt is a signatory to the Refugee Convention and its Protocol, as well as the OAU Convention, but it has not developed domestic asylum procedures and institutions and registration, so the work of documentation and refugee status determination RSD are carried out by UNHCR, under the terms of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government, which was signed way back in Egypt receives many refugees into the country and those on transit to Yemen and other countries in Arab and Europe, and this has given rise to erratic movements of refugees from sub-Saharan countries through the North Sinai.
These include racial. This is perhaps the most common reason why people become refugees. Religious refugees are present almost everywhere, from the Dalai Lama to Muslims being persecuted in Myanmar.
Some of the numbers are staggering - for example, More than , people have fled Myanmar since Most refugees are people who have been displaced due to either a direct or indirect result of a war. The first major international refugee crisis happened in the 20th century when more than 50 million people were displaced because of the Second World War.
As of now, the Syrian refugee crisis has been going on since It has caused over 6. The number is followed by 2. UNHCR recognizes climate change as a major factor for the refugee crisis. UN General Assembly in December , directly addresses this growing concern. It is estimated that around Climate change has changed modern humanitarian needs, and agencies like the UN are struggling to match the ever-changing requirements.
In fact, it cannot even yet be cited as an official reason to seek asylum. In Somalia alone, more than 49,00 people have been forced to leave their homes in search of food and water since January Today, the world is staring at a bigger humanitarian crisis due to the drought in Somalia that is estimated to be close to 2.
Many countries face a severe violation of human rights at the hands of the rich and powerful. Often carried out by people who hold a position of authority and are fueled by greed, corruption and power. According to Albert Social conflict is the most central subject-matter of history. So also are issues of pleasure and pain, wealth and power; modernity and history; gender relations; suppression, resistance and violence; and local versus global process.
In other words, the world is in a state of constant flux and this is conditioned by social conflict. History has indicated that a peaceful and prosperous world is one which people are safe and secure in their home with their families. It is a world in which people expectedly feel confident in their country their culture and in the family of nation and people in the world.
Furthermore, for economics or others personal reason, people can decided to relocated and abandon their home to new location to begin new life. Also, when war or civil unrest ravages a community masses are forcibly displaced. According to Albert , Historical facts buttress that a peaceful and prosperous world is one in which people are safe and secure in their homes with their families and in their communities.
It is a world in which people expectedly feel confident in their country, their culture and in the family of nations and people in the world. Further, for economic or other personal reasons, people can decide to relocate and abandon their homes to new locations to begin new life. This often can be in search of greener pastures. Also, when war or civil unrest ravages a community masses are forcibly displaced or simply flee to protect life and property.
At the extreme, they are left with only two options: death by deprivation, assault or genocide, or life in exile. One need only think of those forced to flee the violence in several nations in Africa and also where to have a glimpse of the severity of their need as displaced people. Such events and times generate population dislocations and mass refugee migration across national boundaries. Civil wars in Sudan, Liberia and Mali, to name a few examples, have significant repercussions for states in Africa as people leave their homes in search of safety elsewhere.
Government persecution of political opponents, human rights violations, and ethnic cleansing campaigns normally understood as matters of domestic politics may also have far reaching effects as migrants flee one sided violence by their government. These refugee flows can be quite large; conflicts in Sudan, Mozambique, and Rwanda have generated well over one million refugees each. Therefore, political turmoil at the domestic level can have significant spillover effects for other states and may provoke strong reactions by others when external costs are high.
In addition, internal violence may extend across national boundaries as conflicts between government and refugees or dissidents are frequently not contained by borders. African States And Refugee Conflict Dynamics Gil Loescher stresses on the need to not only see refugees as a humanitarian problem but also as a political problem particularly in terms of security. He argues that: too often refugees are perceived as a matter for international charity organizations, and not as a political and security problem, yet refugee problems are in fact intensely political.
The presence of refugees accelerates existing internal conflicts in the host countries. At the local level, refugees are frequently and not always unfairly associated with problems such as crime, banditry, prostitution, alcoholism and drugs.
In many instances, host countries simply do not have the capacity or willingness to maintain law and order in the remote and underdeveloped areas where the largest number of refugees are often to be found Crisp While this factor should not be entirely discounted, it is important to recognize the extent to which the principle and practice of asylum was www. The ideologies of pan African and anti-colonialism remain strong throughout much of the continent and influential political leaders such as Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda set a positive example in the refugee policies which they pursued.
At the same time, the relative prosperity of many African states in the early years of independence and the modest size of the refugee movements which took place at this time enabled those countries to shoulder the economic burden imposed by the presence of refugees from neighbouring and nearby states.
The Effects Of Refugees On Host Countries Several authors have asserted that refugees tend to impact adversely on the safety of various nation states. Recent work confirms the intuition that political violence and persecution are significant determinants of flight see e. Yet, refugees are not simply the unfortunate by-products of war, but may serve as catalysts for conflicts, including conflict between states.
Scholars have suggested that refugee migration can provoke international hostilities between states, including military action Dowty and Loescher ; Posen , although this claim has not been rigorously tested.
For instance, it is argued that Rwanda invasion of Zaire in was largely motivated by the desire to clear refugee camps that harbored militant factions. Refugee crises do not only bring about humanitarian disasters but also create serious implications for Border States and host communities. According to Bobbin, and Garrett , the terms internal or domestic and civil conflict imply violent interactions between states and dissidents, and the negative consequences of war and human rights violations, contained within the states.
Rather than treating states as independent units, it may be more appropriate to view them interconnected in dense networks of social interactions where process within one state have significant repercussions for other states in the region and elsewhere. The problems associated with refugees may not be restricted to a particular border area but may have spillover effects on the internal security situation of a region. As posited by Martin , refugee migration can inflict a significant economic burden on host countries or communities.
Refugees require humanitarian assistance and public service supplied by their hosts, and may compete with locals for jobs and scarce resources, bringing them into conflict with domestic actors.
In the same line, Cortes , has said that compared to voluntary labour migrants, refugees are also less likely to contribute to productive economic activity in their hosts. This sterns from the fact that unlike economic migrants, refugees are not selected for their skills, may have suffered war trauma making employment difficult, and may have lost their assets prior to fight.
In a related study, Murdoch and Sangler have revealed that civil wars in one country have a significant negative impact on GDP growth in neighboring states; they propose population migration as a potential causal factor, but do not test this explicitly. Also, refugees can be a source of negative public health with adverse consequences for their host countries. Refugees camps are often crowded and unsanitary, creating conditions ripe for infectious diseases; refugee inflows stretch domestic medical resource thin; divert health resource away from normal care; and refugees may have specific health needs related to war trauma that overwhelm the host.
To that effect, Ghobarah, Huth, and Russet and Igbal, in different research works revealed that civil wars significantly increase the rate of morbidity and mortality in the affected country itself as well as in neighboring states. Further, Wiener ; assets that refugees may upset the ethnic balance in their host countries through what may be thought of as a demographic externality. Ethnic tensions may become especially pronounced when refugees possess ethnic ties with groups already present in the host society.
Along with the refugees themselves, foreign www. According to Andreas ; Herbst ; Jackson ; Zacher , in the cases of refugee migrant, such flows threaten to extend violence and opposition activities across national boundaries. However, particularly when borders are porous, they are necessarily immune from continued attacks by the state. States may pursue their ethnic and or political rivals across the border, and such attacks necessarily violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of others.
States could object military incursions on their soil, particularly if local populations also become caught up in cross- border attacks. No state welcomes foreign incursions and military violations of their sovereignty, even though the physical ability to firmly control border may be lacking.
Of interest is the fact that refugees may not be passive actors, however, in many cases, while the vast majority of refugees never directly participate in violence rather than being unfortunate victims of violence, some refugees have mobilized into insurgent organizations and refugee camps often serve a double-purpose as sanctuaries for militant groups Lischer , Salehyan a; Stedman and Tanner ; Zolberg, Suhrke, and Aguayo Recruitment into a rebel organization may provide refugees a better alternative to life in a camp and provide individuals a sense of purpose.
Thus, violence between the countries of origin and refugee communities may not be one-sided, but takes the form of transcontinental civil wars that span intercontinental boundaries Salehyan a; b.
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