Medecins Sans Frontieres' experience of working with refugees shows, on a daily basis, the ways in which their rights are being eroded and ignored. The refugees are MSF patients in so many of the 80-plus countries in which MSF works - and who are represented in our 2001 Activity Report.
They are a symptom of the violence and political failure that have driven some 40 million people around the world to flee for their lives.
In the most recent refugee situation, in Afghanistan, our volunteers were alongside Afghans as they ran from their homes and as they struggled to cross borders to Pakistan and Iran.
MSF has seen how, at almost every stage, the world is failing to honour the protection that should be given by the 1951 Refugee Convention, being re-affirmed again today in Geneva.
The most basic rights are the most common failures:
The right to be able to enter the territory of another country when your life is in danger.
The right to apply for asylum and, where that application is refused, the right to temporary protection if return to the country of origin would be dangerous.
The right to choose when to return to the homeland and to be free of the threat of forcible repatriation or refoulement.
The abuse of these rights is most clearly seen where states have tried to contain or trap vulnerable people within the borders of countries in violent conflict. There is a clear common interest between the groups fighting civil wars and using the population as a weapon of that war, and the governments outside trying to stop refugees reaching their borders.
Humanitarian aid is sometimes used by those governments as part of the strategy of containment. They send it in as an excuse for not meeting the real need for proper protection of the victims of conflicts.
The huge growth in the global numbers of internally displaced people is testament to this cynical policy. So is the growth of criminal traffiking in people.
As MSF's Francoise Bouchet-Saulnier sets out in her essay in the MSF 2001 Activity Report, "Borders are constantly being closed. Obligatory or forced relocation and repatriation leaves little hope to defend any kind of right to refuge for a growing number of individuals." (see Using the law of war to protect the displaced).
Without the commitment to helping people to flee terror, the entire basis of international humanitarian assistance is eroded. This is a fundamental tenet of respect for human life and dignity.
MSF calls on all states:
to respect fully the basic right of people to flee from their country when their life or safety are threatened and to seek asylum across international borders
to honour their commitment to sharing the financial burden carried by states hosting large numbers of refugees
to support and fund organisations such as the UNHCR in ways that reinforce the existing legal standards of asylum, hosting and repatriation.
An international responsibilty
The refugee accounts point the finger very directly at the failures of poor, fragile states to protect their own and their neighbours' citizens. MSF is concerned at these breaches but it is also aware that stronger, secure states are encouraging this behaviour by their own narrow interpretation of their responsibilities towards refugees.
Wealthy countries are trying to protect themselves against refugees, instead of setting an example by offering protection to them.
In particular with respect to Europe, Liesbeth Schockaert points out in her contribution to the 2001 MSF Activity Report that, "European countries have refused to take up their part of global responsibility sharing, in terms of money and action". (see Protection for, or protection from?) Symptoms of this refusal internationally include:
Repressive policies, which fail to distinguish between people needing protection and increased irregular migration.
Diversion policies that return asylum seekers to safe 'third' countries.
An increasingly narrow interpretation of the 1951 Convention that is designed to exclude as many grounds for refugee status as possible.
Progressive reduction in funding to the UNHCR
Statutory sanctions in some EU states against people providing humanitarian help to undocumented migrants.
MSF asks the international community to implement the spirit of the 1951 Convention and:
ensure genuine protection and assistance to those fleeing their country of origin as well as those trapped inside the borders as a result of violence and conflict
engage actively in sharing the burden of these refugee crises by proper funding of UNHCR for it to carry out its full mandate and by funding other refugee assistance programmes
accept those fleeing persecution into their countries and respect their right to seek asylum according to internationally accepted standards
The lesson from all these examples is not that new international laws need to be agreed or conventions revised. The way forward is for states, which have the primary responsibility for upholding existing laws, to work with the spirit of those laws to respect the rights of refugees and the displaced.
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