VOLUME 2 • NUMBER 119 • 2000

Starting a new life Americthaes The The Hemisphere’s debate worst crisis over asylum in the U.S. and

UNHCR High Commissioner for THE EDITOR’S DESK

Asylum, resettlement and money…

n the last quarter century more than two million a comprehensive safety net in place and very few genuine refugees were resettled in the . Canada was applicants fall ‘through the cracks.’ Canada’s parliament is cur- Iequally welcoming in proportion to the size of its popula- rently debating a new and Protection tion. The North American neighbors are two of around a Act which, the government has said, will offer asylum appli- dozen countries worldwide which regularly accept refugees cants greater protection. through organized and well financed resettlement programs. Internationally, Canada has made itself the advocate of Washington and Ottawa are also important global human- civilians caught up in conflict situations, and has promoted itarian players. They help underwrite the operations of agen- high-level dialogue on human security issues. The United cies such as UNHCR, shape refugee policies and provide States is at the center of a debate on how the humanitarian personnel and logistical expertise, including military backup community can best help millions of internally displaced per- if necessary, during major crises. These are admirable sons who currently enjoy little assistance or legal protection. achievements. But for years there has also been heated domes- Washington’s U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke has sug- tic debate in both coun- gested funds could be found once a new, effective system is in tries, not only on resettle- place to aid these dispossessed people. In an interview with ment and global prob- REFUGEES (pages 16-17) Assistant Secretary of State Julia Taft UNHCR / H.J. DAVIES lems, but also about also deplored the wide discrepancy in the amount of support domestic asylum policies. refugees from Kosovo received last year in comparison to In a package of stories, refugees in, for example, Guinea. She suggested that agencies REFUGEES spotlights some such as UNHCR should demand from donor countries ‘realis- of these issues. tic’ amounts of aid to fund less popular emergencies, rather Critics agree, for inst- than asking for the lesser amounts the agencies think coun- ance, that the resettle- tries will actually pay—making the donors ‘bad guys’ if they ment programs are gener- refuse.

People fleeing the Rwandan ous as far as they go—but The refugees in Guinea and other parts of Africa will need genocide cross into neighboring Zaire in 1994. After some optimism insist greater numbers of all the help they can get. Only a few months ago UNHCR that the continent’s fortunes were improving, Africa is again faced with refugees could be invited prepared contingency plans to help return several hundred widespread conflict and renewed flight of huge numbers of people. each year and those with thousand Sierra Leonean refugees from Guinea. Across the the most urgent need of continent, a program was prepared to help 160,000 long-term protection should be the first to come. The United States and refugees in Sudan go back to neighboring Eritrea. Instead, Canada are addressing some of these problems. hundreds of thousands of additional civilians were displaced Asylum procedures are often dominated by concerns about by renewed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea and Guinea ‘enforcement’ rather than ‘protection’, according to refugee braced for the arrival of even more refugees, as Sierra Leone advocates, and some applicants can relate horror stories either underwent a new bout of nationwide anarchy. about the conditions in which they are detained or peculiar To borrow a phrase, a few weeks is a long time in the vagaries of immigration policy. The United States said there is refugee business.

2 REFUGEES N°119 - 2000 Editor: Ray Wilkinson French editor: Mounira Skandrani Contributors: Panos Moumtzis, Jennifer Dean, Robyn Groves, Jeffrey Meer, Bemma 2 EDITORIAL Donkah, Andrew Painter, Rachel Goldstein-Rodriguez, Nanda Na

© C. SHIRLEY Asylum under the microscope in North Champassak, Nazli Zaki, Diana America… new problems in Africa. Goldberg Editorial assistant: Virginia Zekrya COVER STORY Photo department: 4 Suzy Hopper Knocking on the door. The United States and Canada are giants Anne Kellner The United States and in the humanitarian world, but domestic Design: 4 Canada welcome nearly WB Associés - Paris 100,000 resettlement critics question their asylum policies. Production: refugees each year and By Ray Wilkinson Françoise Peyroux hundreds of thousands of Administration: other official immigrants. But Resettlement • 8 Anne-Marie Le Galliard others have a more difficult time in starting a new life. The U.S. accepts more refugees for Distribution: resettlement than all other countries John O’Connor, Frédéric Tissot combined. Map: UNHCR Mapping Unit By Larry Yungk

Refugees is published by the Public The Long March • 12 Information Section of the United A million to one chance—from Sudan’s Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The opinions expressed by civil war to a new life in Canada. contributors are not necessarily those UNHCR / B.PRESS By Judith Kumin of UNHCR. The designations and maps used do not imply the expression Opinion • 14 of any opinion or recognition on the part of UNHCR concerning the legal Assessing the U.S. asylum system. status of a territory or of its authorities. By Matthew Wilch The two North American Refugees reserves the right to edit all neighbors are among Interview • 16 articles before publication. Articles 8 only a dozen countries U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Julia Taft. and photos not covered by copyright © around the world who accept may be reprinted without prior refugees for resettlement on permission. Please credit UNHCR and a regular basis. These children Trafficking • 18 the photographer. Glossy prints and from various countries A multi-billion dollar trade in trafficking slide duplicates of photographs not are starting a new life in covered by copyright © may be made Jacksonville, Florida. human beings. available for professional use only. By Judith Kumin English and French editions printed Governor General • 20 in by ATAR SA, Canada’s governor general discusses her Geneva. Circulation: 226,000 in English, early life as a refugee. French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Colombia • 22 Chinese. The worst humanitarian crisis in the UNHCR / R. WILKINSON ISSN 0252-791 X Western Hemisphere. By Ray Wilkinson Cover photos: (clockwise) A newly arrived resettlement family from Hundreds of thousands Sierra Leone at their new Toronto of Colombians have 28 SHORT TAKES home (PHOTO: TORONTO STAR/K. FAUGHT). 22been displaced by A Chinese asylum seeker at Krome years of conflict, producing detention center in Miami (PHOTO: the Hemisphere’s worst UNHCR/B. PRESS). Paramilitary forces humanitarian crisis. These 30 PEOPLE AND PLACES on patrol in Colombia’s Bolivar state displaced people use a floating (PHOTO: AP/R. MAZALAN). The United river platform as toilet, laundry States air force takes part in and dining room. Operation Provide Promise for 31 QUOTE UNQUOTE Bosnians during the Balkan conflict (PHOTO: UNHCR/A. HOLLMANN). U.S. Coast Guards intercept a boatload of Haitians (PHOTO: U.S. COAST GUARD).

UNHCR P.O. Box 2500 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland www.unhcr.org REFUGEES 3 | COVER STORY | The

GIVEGIVE ME…ME… YOURYOUR HUDDLEDHUDDLED MASSES….

4 REFUGEES by Ray Wilkinson

hen American General James R. Helmley, a Viet Nam war veteran, went on one of his nightly visits to recently arrived refugee chil- dren from the Kosovo crisis, one six-year-old girl asked him to bend down. She whispered The United States and W‘God Bless You.’ “I had to go sit under a tree, go through a hand- kerchief and come back to the office for a moment,” he told the Canada support global New York Times later. “I’m just really blessed to be a part of this operation.” Gen. Helmley was commander of a task force at Fort humanitarian causes and Dix in New Jersey looking after many of the more than 10,000 Kosovars the United States flew to the country at the height of the resettle tens of thousands of 1999 conflict in the Balkans. Canada was equally welcoming. The government, humani- refugees annually… but tarian organizations and private citizens threw open their doors for more than 7,000 Kosovar refugees. “The next best thing to some asylum seekers find a motherhood and apple pie was to have a Kosovar in your spare bedroom,” one Canadian immigration officer now recalls of those more chilly welcome… heady days. The Americans and Canadians were doing what they do best: being generous to the victims of the world’s latest crisis, feeling good ASYLUM APPLICATIONS LODGED about themselves and being IN CANADA AND THE USA in charge of the situation. Two months after the first Year CANADA UNITED STATES* Kosovars arrived, the mood 1995 26,070 166,590 swiftly changed when the 1996 26,120 118,170 first of four ships crammed 1997 22,580 60,470

L. QUINONES / BLACK STAR 1998 23,840 43,660 1999 30,120 41,860

* The U.S. fiscal year is 1 October–30 September. Figures reflect first instance asylum applications submitted to the INS and the immigration courts. UNHCR estimates that each application averages 1.45 persons.

Kosovar refugees (left) being welcomed at Fort Dix, New Jersey in 1999. The Coast Guard inter- cepts Haitian boat people before they can reach the U.S. (right). © U.S. COAST GUARD.

REFUGEES 5 | COVER STORY | The Americas

Kids learning from kids…

ifteen years ago chil- books with illustrations Fdren’s author Pat ranging from family Kibbe saw a newspaper portraits, pets and car- photograph of a Cambo- toons, art supplies and dian refugee boy hold- disposable cameras. ing a postcard of New The Americans paste York’s Empire State their own picture and Building and the caption write a brief biography “His only possession in on the back. Sometimes the world.” use When one of Pat’s their new supplies to students in Vermont create their own books later asked if he could for their pen pals. write to the boy, the “Before your books mother of five pointed arrived, the children had out that they spoke dif- only one book to look at,” ferent languages. a teacher in Senegal

The class came up KIDS TO KIDS INTERNATIONAL wrote to students at with an obvious solu- Somali girls in Kenya’s Dadaab camp prepare a picture book. Highcrest Middle tion: a picture book. School. “Everyone ben- Within a couple of efits,” said Kibbe. “The weeks the entire Vermont class had cre- who owned the postcard from America. refugee children feel special and enjoy the ated box loads of handmade books and, Pat Kibbe learned an invaluable lesson craft supplies. The American children courtesy of the humanitarian organization herself during the border visit—refugee have the chance to make a difference and Refugees International, Pat Kibbe was en kids often literally have no personal pos- learn about other countries and cultures.” route to the Thai-Cambodian border with sessions which is what makes such things When Pat Kibbe first met Mong- some unexpected gifts for the unsuspecting as books and education so valued by them. Kheam, his mother begged her to take him Cambodian refugee. She established Kids to Kids Interna- to the United States. She thought Kids to Khao-I-Dang camp was home to 35,000 tional and since then the organization has Kids was a better solution and she contin- children at the time, so how to find one helped nearly 300 American schools to es- ued to send Mong-Kheam dictionaries and solitary boy? It took less than 30 minutes. tablish links with children in 49 countries, ‘teach yourself’ English guides. Today he Everyone knew Mong-Kheam, the boy sending them individually created picture is a monk in Cambodia teaching English.

“It is ironic. The à with migrants U.S. Rep. Lamar GIVING GENEROUSLY from ’s Fu- United States is Smith, Chairman The United States and Canada both jian province, en of the House Sub- give generously to humanitarian emer- route to the United such a champion of the committee on Im- gencies overseas—Washington is the largest States via Canada persecuted abroad, migration, labeled single contributor to UNHCR, under- arrived along that Canada a ‘Club writing the agency’s approximately country’s western while at the same time Med for terrorists.’ $1 billion budget by 25 percent or more. coastline. A lone treating its own asylum In some quarters at Both countries supplement funding with bugler playing ‘O least, there was the expertise including civilian personnel and, Canada’ in defense applicants so roughly.” palpable sense that at times, military units including cargo air- of his country’s both countries had craft which helped feed the people of the shores greeted become a ‘soft Bosnian capital of Sarajevo during four these latest arrivals and a blizzard of hostile touch’ for foreigners simply wanting winters and later helped sustain the hun- media headlines helped re-ignite a long- to better themselves or those with more dreds of thousands of refugees who fled running debate on Canada’s asylum laws. evil designs. the bloodbath that was Rwanda. The situation was exacerbated a few The contrasting attitudes to the two They help shape critical humanitarian months later around Christmas when a situations underlined the ambiguity— policy—Canada was particularly instru- rejected Algerian asylum seeker named some critics use harsher terms—of Wash- mental in pushing through the Conven- Ahmed Ressam was arrested trying to ington and Ottawa towards what are per- tion on the Prohibition of the Use, Stock- enter the U.S. from Canada with a carload ceived as ‘real’ refugees and more dubious piling, Production and Transfer of Anti- of explosives. In the heat of the moment asylum seekers. personnel Mines and Their Destruction

6 REFUGEES TOP TEN COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN OF ASYLUM SEEKERS which was signed in Ottawa in December In Canada and in the USA in 1999 world, who are in greater need of protec- 1997. Both countries regularly intercede as percentage of total* tion than some ‘political’ groups accepted with other states to support humanitarian CANADA USA** in the past. causes. But the debate over asylum procedures The United States accepts more Sri Lanka 10% China 10% is the thorniest and most controversial refugees for permanent resettlement than China 8% 8% problem where outspoken advocates and all other countries combined—an estimated Pakistan 8% Haiti 6% lawmakers and government officials who 75,000 this year—and spends a massive Hungary 5% Indonesia 6% run the systems, lock horns. 4% Mexico 5% $500 million bringing them to the coun- Mexico 4% El Salvador 4% The United States, critics say, operates try and helping them begin new lives. DRC 3% India 3% a double standard toward refugees and asy- With a population only one-tenth the size 3% Ethiopia 3% lum seekers. “It is ironic,” says Eleanor of the U.S., Ottawa accepts a proportionate Iran 3% Guatemala 2% Acer of the Lawyers Committee for Hu- number of refugees. Around 7,300 will ar- Colombia 2% FR Yugoslavia 2% man Rights based in San Francisco. “The rive this year with government support Others 50% Others 49% United States is such a champion of the and several thousand others are likely to persecuted abroad, while at the same time come under private sponsorships.The * All percentages rounded to the nearest treating its own asylum applicants so Kosovars who arrived last year were given whole number. roughly.” After five years of asylum re- the choice of either staying permanently **U.S. figures reflect the fiscal year 1 October form, Doris Meissner, Commissioner of or returning home, unlike those in , 1998-30 September 1999, and refer to first the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization most of whom have been told they must instance claims filed with the INS only. Service (INS) dismissed much of this do- go back now the crisis has ended. mestic criticism. In a recent interview, she Advocacy groups say despite this record told REFUGEES her agency today “is far more both capitals could do better. As a per- manitarian causes than Washington and professional than just a few years ago” and centage of a country’s annual wealth other Ottawa. And, proponents said, North handles applications “faster, more equi- states, especially the Scandinavians, con- America could accept more refugees for tably and more humanely than at any tribute proportionately far more to hu- resettlement, from more parts of the other time.” Ã UNHCR / B. PRESS Evelyn Rengifo came to the U.S. from Colombia in 1979. She served an eight month prison term in 1984 on drug related charges. However, despite having served time and then been released, under toughened 1996 legislation the INS took her into custody and began proceedings when she came to the attention of the agency. She did not see any of her five children, all American citizens, for eight months until she was released shortly before Christmas (above) after a judge ruled she faced the likelihood of torture if she was forcibly returned to Colombia.

REFUGEES 7 | COVER STORY | The Americas

From Sudan to North Dakota The United States accepts more refugees for resettlement than the rest of the world combined by Larry Yungk

hen Foni Silvestro and her family es- prise of the North Dakotans: “Well, at first ended decades of international obscurity Wcaped the seemingly unending civil it was somewhat of a surprise for local peo- when a film of the same name, a black com- war in their native Sudan, they had appar- ple to see very tall Africans walking down edy about kidnap and murder, captured the ently left one hell only to reach another. the streets.” imagination of a global cinema-going au- They spent years in refugee camps in In fact, Fargo provides a microcosm for dience. Refugees from Somalia, Bosnia, Viet neighboring Kenya. Scorching heat, sand- America’s resettlement program. Sudan is Nam and the former have also storms and uncertainty a world removed settled here. Last year nearly 600 refugees were constant companions. from North Dakota. moved in. When they flew to New Since 1975 more Both regions may York after being accepted be dominated by ACCEPTING REFUGEES for permanent resettlement than two million breathtaking sweeps The United States is one of only around in the U.S. yet another shock of unending plains a dozen countries which accepts annual awaited them; they were go- refugees have or savannah grass- quotas of refugees for permanent resettle- ing to one of the most re- resettled in the lands, but there is lit- ment. Since 1975 more than two million mote areas of the country, a tle other similarity. refugees have settled in the U.S and a fur- town they had never heard U.S. and a further In summer, south- ther 75,000 will arrive this year. This fig- of called Fargo, North 75,000 will arrive ern Sudan can be ure represents more resettled refugees than Dakota. “Are there other Su- among the hottest all other countries combined. danese living in Fargo?” this year. places on earth. The A web of federal, state, local government they asked nervously as Dakotan winters are and non-governmental agencies spend an they waited to board their among the most se- estimated $500 million annually on reset- flight into the unknown. “Not many” came vere with temperatures regularly dipping to tlement—a massive amount compared with the discouraging reply. minus twenty degrees. global refugee expenditure. UNHCR’s an- The culture shock was mutual. Barry Still, in the last six years more than 250 nual budget, for instance, to help an esti- Nelson, executive director of an agency Sudanese families from 15 different tribes mated 22 million people globally, is only called Center for New Americans which have begun their lives anew in Fargo, a twice that. helped the Silvestro family, recalls the sur- place which catapulted to fame recently and Still, despite such largesse, the Ameri-

à North of the border, “There is a per- deal with relatively small numbers of ‘free- seeking asylum. “Closing the back door to ception among some Canadian immigra- lance’ refugee applicants. those who would abuse the system allows tion officials and the public that the only The widely reported arrival of the Chi- us to ensure that the front door will remain real refugees are those one sees on televi- nese boat people, including many unac- open,” Minister of Citizenship and Immi- sion languishing in squalid camps ‘over companied teenage minors, and the Christ- gration Elinor Caplan said, “both to gen- there’” says a Canadian lawyer. “And this mas-time ‘terrorist’ incident, propelled uine refugees and to the immigrants our attitude sometimes shows through when Canada into a renewed months-long roller country will need to grow and prosper in people arrive here under their own steam coaster debate on the merits of asylum. the years ahead.” One of the stated objec- to seek asylum.” Changes in the system were already un- tives of the Act is to “grant… fair consider- derway at the time, but the renewed furore ation to those who come to Canada claim- CHANGING TIMES increased pressure on the politicians for ing persecution.” The United States and Canada were action. A draft Immigration and Refugee UNHCR noted last year that Canada’s largely built on immigration. But because Protection Act is now before parliament refugee status determination procedure of their geographical isolation, protected and that, like the events which helped was already “in many ways a model of fair- by the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, it was prompt it, has fueled even further contro- ness and due process” though there was not until the last two decades that asylum versy. still room for improvement. Its main con- seekers—as opposed to refugees specifically It promises severe penalties for people cern at that time was the lack of an appeal chosen for resettlement or regular immi- or groups trying to abuse the system, in- mechanism for rejected applicants among grants—began arriving in large numbers cluding fines of up to C$1 million and life the estimated 30,000 people seeking asy- in North America, pressuring public opin- in prison for human traffickers and bars lum every year. The Act addresses that is- ion, lawmakers and systems designed to anyone convicted of a serious crime from sue by proposing to establish a Refugee

8 REFUGEES can program is not without its critics. Some to increase both funding and numbers of SPREADING THE LOAD have charged that especially during the cold admissions. Fargo would probably not be the first war era, resettlement was dominated by But Julia Taft, Assistant Secretary of choice for many new arrivals, but in recent political rather than humanitarian concerns State in charge of refugee issues, says num- years the United States has sought to ‘spread when, for instance, huge numbers of per- bers tell only part of the story. In an inter- the load’ away from traditional resettlement sons were admitted from the former Soviet view with REFUGEES she said the govern- areas in California, Texas and New York to bloc while African and other refugees were ment had responded to challenges that it other regions of the country. overlooked. should spread its net far wider than in the When they do arrive here, most are That has begun to change. As Wash- past in seeking out and helping the most pleasantly surprised—despite the harsh win- ington places more emphasis on people in desperate of the world’s refugees. ters—by a good work environment and immediate need of finding a new, perma- “We’re being more selective, working schools, affordable housing and one of the nent home, resettlement from places like with UNHCR and others to find people lowest crime rates in the country. If, as the Middle East and Africa is growing. This who are really at risk, who need to be Barry Nelson said, people were initially year, nearly 18,000 Africans from 25 coun- moved more quickly,” she said. surprised by seeing tall Africans in the tries are expected to come to America, the But this does not come without a cost. community, today “diversity is seen as a fastest growing refugee population, com- In Africa, for instance, the United States value, rather than something to be feared.” pared with fewer than 7,000 only two years was screening “something like 24 different Refugees have added a valuable contribu- ago. African nationalities from over 40 coun- tion to the region’s labor base and have Overall, however, the number of tries” Julia Taft said. started new enterprises including small refugee admissions to the U.S. dropped from The organization and infrastructure business and ethnic restaurants. 207,000 in 1980 to 132,000 in 1993 and to a needed for such an effort was far more com- A Sudanese church provides a spiritual proposed 76,000 target for next year, ac- plex and costly, she said, than during ear- and social center for new arrivals. Self help, cording to Mark Franken, the executive di- lier times when resettlement refugees were or mutual assistance agencies, promote lan- rector of Migration and Refugee Services selected from only a few specific areas of guage and cultural services. Sudanese, Viet- of the U.S. Catholic Conference, one of the the world. namese, Somali and Sierra Leonean fami- major agencies assisting new arrivals. “There is a huge public support for lies have been officially licensed as foster refugees and refugee admissions in this parents. LACKOFWILL country,” Julia Taft said. “When these peo- They include Zacharia Reng and his In evidence before a congressional sub- ple arrive here, they help form a positive wife, Theresa who are currently taking committee earlier this year, Franken said attitude in their communities. They are care of Theresa’s 13-year-old Sudanese the decline represented a “lack of political making a major contribution to the country. brother. Similar homes may soon provide will to meet fully our humanitarian re- And that gets translated into congressional care for unaccompanied refugee minors sponsibilities” and undermined Washing- support, which not only reflects a willing- expected to arrive from camps in Kenya as ton’s “global moral leadership” in the hu- ness to bring more people here but also to Fargo’s resettlement population continues manitarian field. He urged the government support refugee assistance overseas.” to grow. B

Appeal Division within the country’s Im- one who applied’ and the ac- migration and Refugee Board (IRB) to re- ceptance rate has dropped view negative decisions. from around 75 percent a few Under another proposed innovation, years ago to 45 percent cur- the Board will handle all aspects of an in- rently. dividual’s claim in future, looking at both the need for protection under the 1951 STREAMLINING Refugee Convention and the 1984 Con- Another aim of the new vention Against Torture. “This will en- legislation is to cut the time hance the fairness and efficiency” of the taken to reach decisions on system, according to Judith Kumin, UN- asylum claims, Peter Showler, UNHCR / B. PRESS HCR’s Representative in Canada. the Chairman of the IRB told A young Vietnamese refugee comes to grips with REFUGEES the world of computers at school in Jacksonville, The Board itself, enlightenedly, is a spe- . Although excep- Florida. cialized independent quasi-judicial body, tionally difficult cases can take whereas in most other major asylum re- years to decide, the ‘average’ ceiving nations, government officials who processing time was reduced from 13 in the hands of a single IRB member. Most often have an ‘enforcement’ orientation months in 1998 to 9.3 months last year. The adjudicating panels now consist of two rather than one of ‘protection’ make the eventual goal is six months and an addi- members with a split decision going in fa- initial asylum decisions. Some critics be- tional three months for appeal. vor of the asylum applicant. Though some lieve that in the past the IRB was too lib- The decision-making process will be lawyers worried the new single-member eral in granting asylum to ‘virtually any- streamlined, Showler said, by placing cases panel might tilt the odds against claimants, Ã

REFUGEES 9 | COVER STORY | The Americas

The à one high-ranking official insisted “the timized by being caught Immigration activists, but the two combination of a single board member, in limbo for years, and governments say they plus an appeal will be light years ahead of handling increased vol- Service has tried will continue). the old system.” umes of asylum seekers American lawmak- But there are other concerns. Kumin is extremely complex.” to create a safety ers responded to what worried the new Act could make it more net that no one they perceived as an in- difficult for arrivals to enter the asylum UNTRAINED AND creasing and widespread system or, once there, they could face an UNDERSTAFFED falls through. abuse of their asylum increased threat of detention because of When boatloads of system and fears of new lack of proper documentation or security Cubans and Haitians ar- floods of foreigners, an considerations—issues which the U.S. sys- rived in the U.S. in the 1980s the system increased terrorist threat in the wake of tem is also grappling with. Applicants also was unprepared to deal with such huge the bombing of the World Trade Center face the prospect in the near future of a cut ‘spontaneous’ influxes. The new arrivals and an uncertain economic climate, by in legal aid provided by the country’s were met by a corps of largely untrained, provinces. understaffed and under-equipped INS per- And like his American counterparts, sonnel, officials now concede. Examiners Francisco Rico-Martinez, president of the with no training in international refugee Canadian Council for Refugees, said the law or knowledge of conditions in coun- © S. SALGADO new law could end up criminalizing people tries of origin judged asylum claims. The trying to escape persecution. “They’re get- system was politically biased and empha- ting tough on the wrong people,” he said. sized ‘control’ and ‘enforcement’ rather “The pendulum is constantly in mo- than ‘fairness.’ tion between enforcement of the law and New regulations were introduced in refugee protection,” Kumin said. “Every- 1990, including the establishment of a pro- one here wants to do right, but it’s not al- fessionally trained corps of asylum officers. ways easy to know what ‘right’ is.” But even as these improvements were im- Says Gerry Van Kessel, Director General plemented the global refugee landscape of the Refugees Branch, Department of Cit- was undergoing a profound change. In 1993 izenship and Immigration, “The bottom , unable to get its European part- line is the system must be fair. But to get the ners to agree on a policy of burden shar- right balance between fairness, a speedy pro- ing after absorbing hundreds of thousands cess where genuine refugees are not vic- of people fleeing the Balkan conflict or tak- ing advantage of the collapse of the iron curtain, decided effectively to go it alone. REFUGEES RESETTLED IN CANADA It created a de facto cordon sani- AND IN THE USA IN 1999: taire around the country declar- TOP 12 COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN ing all of its immediate neighbors ‘safe’ countries, and therefore peo- USA* CANADA** ple transiting those regions to Bosnia: 22,697 Kosovo: 7,300 make an asylum claim in Ger- Kosovo: 14,156 Bosnia: 3,333 many could be returned there Viet Nam: 9,863 Afghanistan: 1,728 with a clear conscience. “The rest Ukraine: 8,563 Croatia: 1,566 Canada and the United States help shape hum Somalia: 4,317 Iraq: 755 of the world has been playing particularly instrumental in shaping a 1997 Conv Russia: 4,256 Sudan: 555 catch-up ever since,” said one in- wounds suffered by these Angolan civilians. Liberia: 2,495 Iran: 469 ternational humanitarian official. Sudan: 2,392 Somalia: 298 The U.S. Coast Guard began a : 2,018 Ethiopia: 179 controversial policy of stopping adopting the 1996 Re- Iraq: 1,955 Burundi: 113 America-bound ‘illegals’ on the form and Immigrant Responsibility Act Iran: 1,739 Colombia: 106 high seas, creating what one (IIRIRA). Croatia: 1,660 Congo, DR: 86 lawyer termed ‘A floating Berlin Advocates and opposition members of Others: 8,895 Others: 589 Wall’ around the United States. Congress have been battling ever since to TOTAL: 85,006 TOTAL:17,077 (The Canadians adopted a differ- undo the most restrictive parts of that 1996 ent approach, stationing immi- legislation and other asylum measures. *Figures for the USA reflect fiscal year, 1 October 1998 – 30 September 1999. gration officers in key cities Persons arriving in the United States around the world to try to detect without any documentation or with false **Breakdown by country of origin for Canada is estimated and deter ‘bogus’ asylum seekers identification—often the only way genuine based on government supplied information reflecting before they could reach North asylum seekers can escape a repressive sit- country of last permanent residence. America. Both methods have been uation—are automatically detained and heavily criticized by human rights placed into a fast-track process called ‘ex-

10 REFUGEES Spreading the word….

QUESTION: What do the em- largest communications com- help uprooted persons work. It has a volunteer ployees of a postal distribu- panies have in common? throughout the world via board of directors, interns tion center in Newburgh, New ANSWER: They all made an organization called USA and around 6,000 support- York, the bishop of a major private donations to the for UNHCR. ers countrywide and as Ex- African American church in United Nations High During the first decades ecutive Director Jeffrey Los Angeles and a chief exec- Commissioner for Refugees of UNHCR’s work (it marks Meer said, “We run a na- utive of one of the world’s within the last year to its 50th anniversary this tional organization with a year) the organization local-sized budget.” helped several million peo- It raised more than $3 mil- ple each year. Those figures lion privately last year for exploded in the 1980s and operations in Kosovo, Bosnia 1990s reaching an all-time and Africa and as Meer said, high of 27 million people “Americans love to donate in 1995 and dropping slightly to causes they believe in.” to more than 22 million Requests for photographs last year. and other information on To help such huge num- Chechnya has thus far domi- bers of people, UNHCR re- nated American interest lies almost exclusively on this year. voluntary donations as do Fund raising and ‘getting private charities. Until re- the message out’ are among cently, the bulk of those the most competitive busi- funds were provided by gov- nesses around and USA for ernments and institutions UNHCR has followed the such as the , tech trend with its own web- but as national budgets be- site (www.usaforunhcr.org) came tighter, UNHCR ex- and a site for corporate dona- plored other ways of both tions (www.peaceforall.com). raising money and explain- Later this year it will launch ing to the public the ways in a direct mail campaign and a which the organization helps national program to provide refugees and its own partic- educational materials on ular needs. refugees for schoolchildren. USA for UNHCR was es- tablished in 1989, one of 15 USA for UNHCR, national committees around 1775 K Street NW Suite 290, manitarian policies worldwide. Ottawa was the world dedicated to this Washington DC 20006 vention to outlaw land mines and halt the kind of

pedited removal’ and can be ordered de- by international standards might be con- Michael J. Creppy, the Chief Immigra- ported by an INS inspector. sidered minor (an ‘aggravated felony’ in the tion Judge in the Executive Office for Im- If they ask for asylum a screening in- Immigration Act may also include crimes migration Review, said progress in intro- terview determines whether they have a which are not necessarily ‘felonies’ under ducing better asylum procedures had been ‘credible fear’ of persecution in their home U.S. criminal law). The INS is required to made in some areas, but he personally de- countries and should be allowed into the detain ‘convicted felons’ who cannot then plored this particular provision. In an in- full asylum procedure. In many cases they apply for asylum whatever the underlying terview with REFUGEES he related the story stay in detention until the end of that asy- circumstances of the case—except in a few of one woman from South America who lum procedure which can take months. very limited circumstances. The law was was adopted by an American family and applied retroactively and caught people who initially thought that she had been natu- FACING DEPORTATION had already been convicted, served their ralized. She proceeded to vote in an elec- The 1996 Act expanded the definition of sentences and released, but have now been tion, but when she subsequently discovered ‘aggravated felony’ to include offenses which ‘re-detained’ and face deportation. she was not in fact a citizen she went to the Ã

REFUGEES 11 | COVER STORY | The Americas

The Long March Thousands of Sudanese youngsters walked for months and years to freedom… and for some, a new life

by Judith Kumin

Vancouver: a city of tomor- dan’s Dinka tribe decided that killing boys just for row, a beautiful place of sleek he had to be rescued from the their clothes”—until buildings reaching gracefully civil war then ravaging parts of he reached the into a pristine sky, of snow- Africa’s largest nation in 1983. Kakuma refugee capped mountains and The youngster and 300 other camp in the harsh, sparkling Pacific waves. South- Dinka boys, the oldest aged 16, semi-arid northern ern Sudan: a place of constant embarked on The Long March corner of Kenya.

suffering and death, of gaunt, to safety. It took him and his He learned En- UNHCR / W. STONE sticklike figures silhouetted companions precisely two glish in a mud- Some of the many thousands of endlessly in single file against months and 24 days to walk walled refugee Sudanese boys on their Long March huge African skies—images 1,000 kilometers to a refugee school, worked for across the country. which are seared deeply into camp in neighboring western the Lutheran World the annals of African refugee Ethiopia. Federation, first as a volunteer a visiting Canadian immigra- folklore. Across the vast plains, simi- and later as a social worker tion official for permanent re- Trying to bridge the seem- lar armies of youngsters, Su- earning the equivalent of settlement and arrived on July ingly unbridgeable; 23-year-old dan’s ‘Lost Boys’, roamed the around $10 a month until 1997 21, 1998. William Kolong Pioth who, countryside, sometimes being when a visit by a delegation By any standards, Canada’s along with tens of thousands of recruited by the guerrillas as from the International resettlement program is excel- other Sudanese youngsters, child soldiers and porters, al- Olympic Committee and a new lent. The country accepts ap- spent years wandering, seem- ways searching for a place of pair of Nike shoes changed his proximately 7,300 refugees ingly forever, like biblical no- safety. Their saga became one life. each year, one of only a dozen mads across the East African of the most infamous stories in He was asked to help orga- states to resettle refugees on a savannah. And then, by a mil- refugee history, at the same nize volleyball and basketball regular basis. Thousands of lion-to-one chance, by an inex- time a tragedy of huge propor- events in the camp and after others are sponsored privately. plicable stroke of luck which tions and a heroic tale of sur- the visit one delegate sent him A web of official and private occasionally intrudes into the vival. a pair of Nikes. “The day those agencies help new arrivals find lives of some of the world’s shoes arrived,” he recalls, “I was temporary and then perma- most desperate people, rescue ANOTHER LONG MARCH the King.” and a flight to an undreamed- William was forced to un- More good of future in the North Ameri- dergo two further Long fortune fol- can west. Marches—“I took my clothes off lowed. The fol- The Immigration Service William’s story began when and walked naked,” he remem- lowing year he today is “far more his parents and elders of Su- bers. “There were people was chosen by professional than just a few years ago, handling ÃINS to regularize her position. She was that was then Haiti and now faces de- applications faster, more promptly detained as a ‘felon’ and faces de- portation for entering the country portation. with a false ID. Her two children were equitably and more “I have been involved in immigration born in the United States and cannot humanely than at any law for 23 years and I have never seen a pro- be deported. Esta Pierre, according to vision so sweeping,” he said. “In my per- the Times, is one of around 3,000 other time.” sonal opinion, it is absolutely wrong. They Haitians faced with the prospect of are going to have to modify that provision.” abandoning their kids if they are de- There are other alarming individual ported or taking them along to a very un- predicament of all. Rounded up for vari- stories. The New York Times reported the certain future. ous crimes, they cannot be deported be- case of Esta Pierre who entered the U.S. on An estimated 3,000 foreigners find cause their home countries, principally a doctored passport in 1993 from the terror themselves in perhaps the most bizarre Cuba, Laos, Viet Nam and states of the for-

12 REFUGEES dates, often going for people with good education or lan- guage skills, rather than those in the most immediate need. But starting January 1, 2000, Canada launched an ‘urgent protection pilot project’ to test its ability to process urgent cases within five days of sub- mission by UNHCR. “We have to respond quickly to refugees overseas who are in most des- perate need of protection,” Min- ister of Citizenship and Immi- gration Elinor Caplan said in launching the project. And the new Immigration and Refugee Protection Act tabled in parlia- ment in April proposes to fa- cilitate family reunion and re- nent accommodation, school- Staff helped William find duce significantly the tradi- ing and jobs. permanent lodging with tional emphasis placed on a William flew immediately to another Sudanese refugee, refugee’s ability to settle quickly Vancouver and moved into a but obtaining work is an- in Canada, in favor of protec- small room at the Welcome other matter. New arrivals tion considerations. UNHCR / B. EWART House reception center run by often complain of the A new home in Vancouver Back in Vancouver, William the Immigrant Services Soci- ‘Canadian Experience’ co- for William. is using the toughness bred on ety of British Columbia. The nundrum—employers de- those long marches through group was established in the mand this ‘experience’ be- the African bush and inter- early 1970s, initially to help fore they will hire, but refugees laments what she considers the minable years in refugee camps Ugandan Asian refugees who can’t get the experience if they authorities ‘enforcement men- to smooth his way through his had been expelled by Idi Amin, can’t get a job. William set to tality.’ As a nation founded on new life. “Some refugees in but has continued its work work stocking supermarket immigration, she believes, Ot- Canada don’t find it easy,” he with successive groups of shelves to get the ‘Canadian Ex- tawa could increase its reset- said. “I’m not worried about refugee arrivals. From a bud- perience.’ tlement quota. Refugees them- myself. I’m at my highest stan- get of C$7 million, provided There are other criticisms. selves complain that because of dard (of life) yet. I worry about mainly by the federal and Nancy Worsfold, Director of the way the system is struc- the others in Kakuma.” provincial governments, and the Ottawa-Carlton Immigrant tured family reunion is often And his parents? He has like other groups across the Services Organization, a local painfully slow. tried unsuccessfully through country, the Society sponsors group which helps newly ar- The authorities have taken the Red Cross to find them but English language training, rived refugees, acknowledges steps to address the concern “I can’t tell you anything about child care for mothers attend- that Canada has a good overall that Canada has been both ex- my family,” he said. “Even if my ing the classes, job counselling record toward refugees com- tremely slow and selective in mom were sitting right here, and other services. pared with other countries, but choosing resettlement candi- I wouldn’t recognize her.” B

mer Soviet Union, will not accept them Even when the INS has flexibility, the ever possible. Karen AbuZayd, the agency’s back. Effectively, under current detention system is unpredictable according to hu- Regional Representative in Washington, policy, they could be detained until they man rights activists. Regional INS offices said it was “concerned by the erosion of ba- die and have become known as ‘the lifers.’ retain a large degree of independence and sic refugee protection principles in the Kathleen Newland of the Carnegie En- while some directors actively encourage United States because of the 1996 laws” es- dowment for International Peace in Wash- the release of detainees whenever possi- pecially detention and lack of access to asy- ington said: “Congress had no idea what it ble, others are known to vigorously dis- lum procedures. “Asylum seekers who are was doing in 1996 with things like manda- courage the practice. not a threat to society should not be de- tory detention.” The problem is that while tained and should not be treated like crim- the provision remains law, INS Commis- RELEASE DETAINEES inals,” she said. sioner Doris Meissner said her agency had UNHCR urged that detainees who are When aliens are incarcerated, and their little discretion in alleviating the situation. asylum seekers should be released when- numbers grew rapidly after passage of the à Turn to page 15

REFUGEES 13 | COVER STORY | The Americas

Detect, detain, deter, deport by Matthew Wilch

Eventually, I made it to America ... where instead of plain what it is like to be counted like cattle every day, finding safety, I’d found a jail cell... I had been beaten, to eat when you were told to eat, to sleep when you tear-gassed, kept in isolation until I nearly lost my were told to sleep? How could I explain the mind- mind, trussed up in chains like a dangerous animal, numbing, soul-deadening feeling… day after day, week strip-searched repeatedly, and forced to live with crimi- after week, month after month? nals, even murderers… How could I explain… to any- —FAUZIYA KASSINDJA, a Togolese asylum seeker fleeing forced genital mutilation, one who has never experienced them, the daily indigni- from her book ‘Do They Hear You ties and humiliations of prison life?… How could I ex- When You Cry?’

I first toured a U.S. Immigration and tion alone. B Disseminate rights materials and provide Naturalization Service (INS) detention Approximately 5% of detainees are for rights presentations for all INS de- center in the 1980s when our country asylum seekers, or an estimated 9,100 an- tainees. had just begun to build up its culture of nually. Too many of them suffer in the INS headquarters has been receptive detention and deterrence. Our govern- ways Ms. Kassindja described. As re- to some of these recommendations. For ment guide explained that the agency’s cently as March, the INS removed 65 de- example, the INS Commissioner re- mission could be described by the four tainees from a New Hampshire county peatedly stated that asylum seekers “D’s”: “detect, detain, deter, deport.” The jail in the wake of repeated allegations should be released if not a flight risk or missing verb was “protect.” of sexual abuse, inadequate medical treat- danger. She commissioned the Appear- The fastest growing prison system in ment, and two unexplained detainee ance Assistance Project of the Vera In- the United States is not one for crimi- deaths. stitute of Justice in New York City to con- nals. It is one for immigrants and asy- Following the 1996 law and ongoing duct an alternative to detention pilot pro- lum seekers like Ms. Kassindja. The U.S. detention abuses, the NGO community gram for the INS. Ninety-one percent of Congress passed draconian legislation in formed the U.S. Detention Watch Net- pilot participants appeared for their im- 1996 making detention the keystone of work (DWN). It now includes over 100 migration hearings. immigration enforcement policy. Sub- legal, social, medical, and pastoral ser- Unfortunately, despite the Commis- sequently, the vice NGOs, religious groups, and human sioner’s clear statement of national pa- INS nearly dou- and civil rights advocacy groups. We urge role policy, many of the 33 local INS dis- “The fastest bled its bed space these more humane and cost effective tricts appear to have local no-parole prac- in three years to means of achieving fair and efficient pro- tice. This apparent disregard of national growing over 16,000 beds, cessing and community safety: policy demonstrates the deep roots in the or an estimated B Avoid the use of detention whenever field of the 4-D culture of “detect, detain, prison system 182,000 occu- possible. deter, deport.” in the United pancy spaces an- B If detention is used, it should be in the U.S. detention practice stands in stark nually. least restrictive manner and setting. contrast to U.S. leadership in protecting States is not Just over 40% B Develop and implement alternatives to refugees worldwide. As the 50th an- of detainees are detention, including release, reasonable niversary of the Refugee Convention ap- one for located in 17 fed- bond, supervised release accompanied proaches, we urge the U.S. community— criminals.” erally run or by comprehensive legal, social and inte- the public, Congress and INS—to protect prison industry gration services, and use of group hous- asylum seekers fleeing to our shores. The sites. The other ing/shelters/loving foster care. first step is to stop building immigrant 60% are in often B Release vulnerable populations, includ- prisons and to replace “mind-numbing, remote, rented cells in an estimated 800 ing but not limited to asylum seekers, soul-deadening” detention with more jails nationwide. By 2001, INS projects survivors of torture, children, women, humane, cost-effective alternatives. the number of beds will be almost the mentally and physically ill, gays and 24,000, or over 270,000 spaces annually. lesbians, and victims of domestic vio- U.S. taxpayers pay an average of $58 per lence. Matthew Wilch is Director of day per detainee. In 1998, the INS spent B Strictly comply with humane standards Asylum and Immigration Concerns, $692 million on detention and deporta- governing detention conditions. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

14 REFUGEES à 1996 law, they face an uncertain future. The One facility refused INS doubled bed space in its own facilities to allow as ‘unaccept- “The pendulum is constantly in motion to 16,000, but around 60 percent of de- able’ literature on the tainees are housed in regular county jails or Universal Declara- in Canada between enforcement of the other facilities where the immigration au- tion of Human law and the protection of asylum thorities have little direct influence on con- Rights and another ditions. cancelled Bible seekers. Everyone wants to do right, but These are where abuses occur, human- classes for detainees. no one really knows what ‘right’ is.” itarian workers claim.Vulnerable women In a scathing 1999 and as many as 1,000 unaccompanied mi- report, Amnesty In- nors last year were put in these jails. “De- ternational said: tention in these circumstances is an unde- “Asylum seekers have often been treated ted to the asylum procedure. served punishment that is costly to the like criminals, stripped and searched, Joseph Langlois, acting director of the United States government and can be shackled and chained, sometimes verbally INS asylum division said the immigration avoided with appropriate alternatives,” or physically abused. Many are denied ac- service had tried to create a “safety net that UNHCR’s Karen AbuZayd said. cess to their families, lawyers and NGOs. no one falls through” in which applicants Asylum seekers are often housed with Such treatment violates international have the opportunity to appeal not only criminals solely as a matter of convenience, treaties and U.N. standards.” through immigration courts, but also in but once inside the deliberate jail policy is “We all harbor our deepest suspicions federal court and, in extremis, the U.S. to ‘treat everyone the same.’ Detainees can about detention and the process of expe- Supreme Court. be transferred across the country from one dited removal, something we are not able facility to another, at a moment’s notice and to observe,” said Kathleen Newland of the ASYLUM CLAIMS SLUMP without informing an applicant’s lawyer. Carnegie Foundation. “But we have to also In addition to developing a more pro- One advocate said he did not even know keep the numbers in perspective.” For in- fessional corps of asylum officers, Com- his client had died until the man’s wife, liv- stance, she said, nearly 96 percent of ar- missioner Doris Meissner and her officers ing in Canada, telephoned to tell him so. rivals claiming ‘credible fear’ were admit- said reforms in the last five years led to a à Turn to page 18 MAKE THEM LAUGH, MAKE THEM LAUGH

wo of the worst problems in refugee camps are Tboredom and depression. Once sites have been created, shelter, food and medical facilities provided, newly arrived civilians have little to do except wait—perhaps for weeks or even years as someone else decides their fate. During the height of the Kosovo crisis, New York film producer Caroline Baron wondered how her profession could fill that gap. Film Aid International was born. Actors such as Robert de Niro, Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormond joined its founding committee. Contributions including movies, screens, projectors, volunteer technicians and air transport were donated by Miramax, Universal Studios, Warner

Brothers, Tower Air, actor Tom FILM AID INTERNATIONAL / C. BARON Hanks, director Steven Soderbergh and the George from the side of a truck. mines and later, highlight the house in an impoverished Soros Open Society The group plans to take its plight of refugees among the southern church the audience is Foundation. show on the road again soon, film community and the general laughing at a cartoon. One A travelling picture show touring West African camps public. Caroline Baron recalled character says: “There’s a lot to toured camps in Macedonia and where team members will help one of the inspirations for her be said for making people followed the refugees home to train local technicians, idea of Film Aid International laugh. Did you know that’s all Kosovo, showing cartoons and disseminate information on came from a scene in an old some people have?” Most movie classics on a screen slung such issues as health and land movie. In a makeshift movie refugees would agree.

REFUGEES 15 | COVER STORY | The Americas “How refugees from Kosovo with, say, those in Guinea,

JULIA TAFT has worked in humanitarian affairs for more than a quarter century. Currently, she is the senior United States official for refugee issues in her position as Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. She recently sat down with REFUGEES in her Washington office to discuss domestic and international humanitarian challenges.

Refugees Magazine: us that from day one of a crisis, the devel- NGOs. In 1998 there were about 25 inter- What are the major opment agencies must be on the ground at national organizations working inside challenges as this the same time as relief agencies. The plan- Kosovo. During the return in 1999 there new millennium be- ning for different stages of a crisis will take were 300 NGOs. This is unbelievable. I’m gins for America’s different periods of time, but you’ve got to very respectful of the contributions NGOs domestic asylum get started at the same time to produce a can make. But where you get a situation and international more seamless transition. where the international community needs refugee policies? so much assistance just for them to func- Julia Taft: My hope is Q. What did you and your Bureau learn tion that you drain the capacity of the in- that we will develop from the Kosovo crisis? digenous ministries to help the refugees— a broader international conscience and ca- A. Even though I have been in this field craziness. We need to do a post mortem pability to receive people, even on a tem- for more than 25 years, I never could have among NGOs to think how we can help porary basis, who are in really bad situa- predicted how rapid the exodus would be them organize in a more efficient way. tions —that we do more burden sharing as and how rapid the return has been. I got it happened with the Kosovar Albanians. My all wrong, so it’s been a humbling experi- Q. The plight of the world’s internally second hope is that we will be able to study ence. Trying to provide relief in an envi- displaced persons (IDPs) and how to more more conditions in countries of origin ronment such as effectively help which produce refugees and work with de- Kosovo where there them has recently velopment agencies, banks and others to is very little infras- become an issue. get at the root causes of crises. This takes tructure, we have to “From day one What is the United political will, diplomatic involvement provide more tech- States’ position? within the U.N. and within governments. nical support for the development agencies A. We are (still) We’ve got to find more and better ways to local population and struggling with this. work together to tackle these root causes. government. In must be on the ground The basic problem Macedonia the gov- at the same time as has been the lack of Q. A persistent problem in international ernment wasn’t sure real institutional crises is the so-called gap, the void between what it was sup- relief agencies.” backbone to carve the end of emergency assistance to refugees posed to do or how it out how various and the start of long-term development aid. was supposed to agencies should re- How can this problem be tackled? cope with the influx spond to IDPs and A. All donors until now have invested that came. We need a cadre of senior ad- we’ve (all) been running around trying to heavily in the ‘front end’ of a crisis, helping visers who can be deployed to work with figure out what we’re doing. There are two in emergency relief. We’ve never really had the ministries. I have recommended this main elements: defining which internally a system of coordinated aid when it comes to UNHCR. displaced persons are of concern to the in- to putting the pieces back together again ternational community and looking at the in a country. We need to pinpoint which Q. What about when refugees return core competencies of various agencies— agencies have the expertise in specific ar- home as they did so quickly in Kosovo? what does the Red Cross do universally, eas — water, sanitation, demobilization, jus- A. We need to make sure that our ‘fol- where is there overlap with refugees in sim- tice — to help countries rebuild shattered low-on’ systems actually follow the lead of ilar situations? What are the protection and infrastructures. From lessons learned in what these people want. We have to con- assistance requirements? What are the in- Kosovo and East Timor we should have sult better and develop much leaner re- ternational community’s requirements of very good road maps that will probably tell sponse mechanisms, particularly among countries which generate IDPs and are un-

16 REFUGEES were treated compared is totally unacceptable…”

able or unwilling to protect these people? consider a more forward leaning immi- to do more, it should be mainstreamed, no This is a political issue that needs to be re- gration policy. question. The other way we have ap- ferred to the Security Council and I do not proached the issue is to have special believe it is going to be solved by any one Q. The United States has the world’s women’s initiatives such as we have U.N. agency being designated as the ‘lead largest resettlement program for refugees, launched in Bosnia, Timor and Kosovo. agency’ on this issue. but figures have been falling in recent years. Q. But all of this takes extra money at a Q. There is criticism of America’s do- A. You cannot judge the program on time of reduced budgets. mestic asylum policies. What are your numbers alone. comments on the immigration system and When the num- how this criticism affects the country’s in- bers were very ternational role in refugee issues? high we had hun- A. It is quite striking how proportion- dreds of thou- ately few refugees we take in compared to sands of boat peo- our normal immigrations—around 85,000 ple from South- annually or eight percent. Some of the crit- East Asia and icisms of our immigration law are about then evangelicals the treatment of people who are summar- and Jews from ily deported for or who have the former Soviet not been able to have asylum claims dealt Union. These with quickly. Most of the problems with large caseloads the law have been identified and the ad- have been declin- ministration is trying to do amendments ing. What we

which would soften the provisions of the have today are UNHCR / P. DELOCHE 1996 Act which we think are overdue. But many more na- American soldiers establish a water pumping station by Lake I don’t sense that our country is ungenerous tionalities in- Kivu during the 1994 Rwandan exodus. in its immigration, asylum or refugee ad- volved, for in- missions. Maybe that’s because the econ- stance something omy is so good. Now if the economy tanks, like 24 different African nationalities from A. The dichotomy of how refugees were there will probably be a backlash. over 40 countries. We’re being more selec- treated in, say, Guinea, versus how those tive, working with UNHCR and others to from Kosovo were treated was totally un- Q. But what about overseas backlash? find people who are really at risk who need acceptable to all of us; unacceptable to The perception that Washington may be to be moved more quickly. But it’s more dif- spend less than $20 million on 500,000 preaching to others about fairness, but its ficult to have a network that processes refugees from Sierra Leone and then ask own house is not in order? refugees from so many different locations for $240 million for an equivalent number A. I think this comes up with the than one that just processes from two or of refugees in Kosovo. It is not fair and it’s Cubans and Haitians (the more generous three areas. not right. If necessary, the donors should policy the United States has adopted to- be the bad guys—UNHCR ought to tell us wards Cubans than people from Haiti). We Q. You are passionately involved in the what is really needed and force the donors still have some problems here. We don’t try plight of refugee women. to say ‘we can’t afford that’ rather than set- to preach to Europe, but it is quite striking A. I once did a study on refugee women ting the standard to what you think donors if you look at the number of refugees we which absolutely blew my mind because will be willing to give. brought in last year and this year, includ- all of a sudden I realised that refugees are ing quite a lot of Bosnians and Croatians (overwhelmingly) women and children. I Q. But isn’t that just reality? In Africa from Germany. It does seem odd that this sometimes think our refugee programs even many of these ‘reduced’ demands are wonderful country of Germany is having should be for women and then we can have not even met. us process some of their refugees, but we a satellite program for men and a special A. I think there will be more funding if believe our immigration policies have cre- coordinator for men. But the mainstream we (the donors) are sure the funding is ac- ated a dynamic environment here. We just should be for women and children. I still tually buying a level of assistance that is think they’re missing out and they ought to believe this! We keep prodding UNHCR adequate. B

REFUGEES 17 | COVER STORY | The Americas A multi-billion dollar trade in humans

Countries try to stem the global trafficking and smuggling of people desperately seeking a new life Illegal Chinese immigrants in Seattle.

by Judith Kumin the continent, several thousand miles to NUMBER OF REFUGEES RESETTLED the east, Ontario police picked up 10 IN CANADA AND IN THE USA BY YEAR hen the Liberian-registered cargo Chinese teenage girls from the back of a Wship California Jupiter docked van en route to an Indian reservation Year CANADA* USA** unexpectedly in the Canadian city of from where they hoped to make their way Vancouver a few days into the new mil- to the United States. 1990 31,889 122,066 lennium, 25 Chinese stowaways were dis- Those were only a few of many recent 1991 24,998 113,389 covered hidden in a 12-meter container. incidents which helped turn the spotlight 1992 14,726 132,531 That same week, a dozen dazed Chinese on the burgeoning international traffick- 1993 11,527 119,448 men were found wandering around the ing trade in humans and sparked heated 1994 10,105 112,981 American port of Seattle 170 kilometers debates in both the U.S. and Canada on how 1995 10,919 99,974 to the south, after crossing the Pacific those countries could or should respond to 1996 10,609 76,403 Ocean on another cargo ship. And across what some officials and media headlines 1997 10,193 70,488 1998 8,698 77,080 1999 17,077* 85,006 TOTAL 150,741 1,009,366 Ã *The 1999 figure for Canada includes 9,777 drop of 26 percent to around 341,600 in the tively a deterrent to persons seeking quick refugees resettled under the annual program, and backlog of pending cases. There was a and easy employment in the United States. 7,300 Kosovars admitted under UNHCR’s modest increase to 38.2 percent of the num- Thus while Canada and European coun- Humanitarian Evacuation Program from the ber of cases approved by INS officers and, tries grant either work eligibility or assis- FYR of Macedonia (5,051 persons) or under most dramatically, a 75 percent decline in tance, asylum seekers in America receive Canada’s special needs and the number of persons applying for asy- neither government welfare nor have the program for Kosovars (2,249 persons). lum since 1993 to 41,860 last year. ability to support themselves by working ** For the USA, the year means the fiscal year, That sharp drop was partly attributable legally. “While you wait for asylum, Amer- 1 October - 30 September. to removing the right for asylum seekers to ica says ‘We won’t give you food, or shelter, work immediately upon arrival—effec- or a lawyer or let you earn money to pay

18 REFUGEES described as a veritable flood of Smugglers feed off humanitarian crises. foreign border officials to detect false doc- people seeking new lives here. In 1999 they opened a lucrative route be- uments and combat trafficking. To be sure, trafficking is hardly tween Indonesia and for desper- But as countries around the world con- a new phenomenon, but experts ate Afghans and Iraqis fleeing chaos in their tinue to tighten access to their territories believe it has ballooned into a $7 countries and in evident need of protection. and their asylum policies, refugees may in- billion annual global business with Other rings offered Kosovar refugees in Al- creasingly be forced to resort to traffickers, links to the worldwide arms trade, bania and Macedonia trips to Western Eu- smugglers and other illegal means to reach drugs, prostitution and child rope for the equivalent of around $1,000. safety. The United Nations High Commis- abuse. The poor, the vulnerable, U.N. High Commissioner for Human sioner for Refugees (UNHCR) fears that refugees and asylum seekers are Rights Mary Robinson said this trade in hu- many persons genuinely in need of assis- all targeted, both by hardline ‘traf- man misery “is (still) conducted with a tance, may already be falling through the fickers’ who often recruit and frightening level of cracks. move victims across national impunity” despite ef- Some refugee boundaries and then coerce them forts to stamp it out. advocacy groups into activities which amount to lit- At the international believe that the tle more than modern-day slav- level, the Organiza- Trafficking new American ery, or by somewhat more benign tion for Security and of human beings has and Canadian leg- ‘smugglers’ who promise to trans- Cooperation in Eu- islation could inad- port desperate ‘clients’ into an- rope (OSCE) has a ballooned into vertently punish other country for a simple cash Proposed Action well-meaning per- payment. Plan 2000 for Activ- a $7 billion annual sons trying to help ities to Combat Traf- global business. family members ENFORCED LABOR ficking in Human escape persecution Traffickers abduct victims or Beings. A U.N. spon- and insist that ef- recruit them through bogus mar- sored committee on forts to curb traf- riage and employment agencies, the Elaboration of a Convention Against ficking should not in themselves become promising them good jobs or Transnational Organized Crime is dis- new obstacles in thwarting people trying schooling, before selling them into cussing two draft Protocols concerning mi- to claim refugee protection or reuniting enforced labor. A recent U.S. gov- grant smuggling and trafficking. families. ernment report estimated 50,000 Other organizations are attempting to Asian, Latin American and East TOUGHER LAWS build safeguards into pending legislation.

KEYSTONE / H. SOLTES European women and children The United States and Canada are both UNHCR has insisted that the principle are trafficked into that country considering new, tougher legislation to bol- of non-refoulement, or forcible return to each year to work as prostitutes, ster existing efforts to stem the illegal flows. a country of origin, must be preserved in all servants or in the garment industry. The U.S. Congress is considering a Traf- new U.N. protocols on the issue. Involved But America is only one of many other ficking Victims Protection Act and a draft agencies said human rights considerations destinations. The number of women and Immigration and Refugee Protection Act must be included in the elaboration of children entering Western Europe may be in Canada proposes steep penalties—fines the U.N. Convention Against Transnational three times as high as the U.S. figures. In of up to C$1 million and life in prison—for Organized Crime and its Protocols. the late 1990s, Mexican police smashed a traffickers. And the International Organization for crime ring which had lured 1,200 Mexican Canada already stations ‘migration con- Migration (IOM) which helps uprooted women into prostitution in Japan in little trol’ officers in several overseas countries peoples move to safe areas, said the ‘three more than one year. NATO peacekeepers to check documents and stop would-be mi- P’s’ must be employed to help stamp out in Kosovo uncovered a sex-slave ring in- grants, including asylum seekers, before trafficking and smuggling: prevention, pro- volving women from Moldova, Ukraine they board aircraft. The U.S. Immigration tection of the victims and prosecution of and other countries. and Naturalization Service has helped train the perpetrators. B

for those things yourself,’” Kenneth Best, cial’s intuition and ‘gut’ feeling. A docu- “How do you decide (without any firm an asylum seeker from Liberia told one re- mentary film released recently in the evidence) when someone is telling the cent asylum symposium. United States called Well-Founded Fear, truth or not?” asks one INS official plain- Even the INS’ most vocal critics say for the first time went behind the scenes tively. “It’s not simple and you’re never there has been a major improvement in to record these life and death decisions in sure.” The facts “stay fuzzy forever and we the quality of adjudications since the cre- the making and chronicled the soul search- still have to make a decision based on fuzzi- ation of the asylum corps in 1990. Some ing and often tortuous route by which a ness,” another adds. cases, however, can still be decided not only decision is reached on whether a person “After you’ve done this for a while you by the available evidence and accumulated will be allowed to stay in the United States become much more critical and you be- expertise of an officer, but also by the offi- or be deported. come very aware of inconsistencies,” an- Ã Turn to page 21

REFUGEES 19 | COVER STORY | The Americas

“We have to do even more than our share, because we have so much more…”

When Japanese troops overran the British colony of Hong this year ADRIENNE CLARKSON was sworn in as the 26th Kong during World War II, a middle-class Chinese couple governor general of Canada, the representative of Britain’s and their infant daughter attempted to make their escape. Queen Elizabeth II. She was the first refugee to be named By sheer luck and bluff they boarded a ship bound for to the vice-regal post. She recently sat down with REFUGEES Canada via Mozambique, South Africa and even in the official governor general’s residence in Ottawa to though at that time the country did not accept Chinese im- discuss her own experience and Canada’s role with respect migrants. The daughter became a broadcaster and earlier to refugees today.

REFUGEES: How cieties.’ What did you mean by this? Can Q. What advice would you give to a did the refugee generosity spark a backlash in Canada? newly arrived refugee? experience shape A. Ours is a society which has evolved A. To get an education. Education is your life? and changed very much. My family almost the key to life here. It means the refugee Answer: Being didn’t get on the boat because we were Chi- will have choices. It is the key to a soci- uprooted and nese. But people don’t look at color or eth- ety which has decided to take in immi- coming to Cana- nicity in that way any more. There may grants. Refugees are usually very aware of da was the single be atavistic ideas which still rush out pe- this. most important riodically, but you can deal with this Q. Do you think the global refugee influence on my through public education. Any country problem will get worse?

A. MAC NAUGHTAN life. My first 30 that understands itself will be able to deal A. If we continue to have this very pro- years were driven by the experience of with periodic outbursts. There is a gen- found imbalance between very, very rich coming here at age three with one suit- erosity (in Canada) which comes from countries and very poor countries, very case, almost stateless, of coming to a coun- never having had a totalitarian regime, healthy countries and countries ravaged try which was ‘racially challenged’, which and from living in large spaces. by disease, it won’t be a pretty picture. had a law against Chinese immigration, Q. As commander-in-chief of the Canada has a great track record for giv- and which was about to intern its citizens Canadian Armed Forces, how do they make ing, and I would like us to continue to be of Japanese origin. My parents felt that a difference in U.N. peacekeeping and committed to it forever, the way the Scan- the most important thing was that we humanitarian operations? dinavians are. I think we have to do even should enter the mainstream of Canadian A. What they bring to any situation is a more than our share, because we have so life. completely open mind. That’s something much more. Q. The emphasis in Canada today always to be cultivated. seems to be both on becoming ‘Canadian’ We can have a moderat- but also retaining ethnic links —as opposed ing influence, giving to the melting pot concept in the United people the tools for an States. equal start. Our soldiers A. We have to be very careful. Our tend to see things from downtown areas reflect the whole world. the Canadian point of (But) If you say to people, “We are so di- view, where solutions verse we don’t really have a culture in can be found and where Canada” that’s very dangerous. If we don’t change occurs quickly. In believe in our own way of life, then peo- the Balkans, where I re- ple who come here will bring their own cently visited our forces, values from other places and say, “Maybe it is different. This is

we can substitute those.” I think here we hard for our peacekeep- UNHCR / S. COLVEY do try to get the best of both (worlds). ers, not knowing if the A recently arrived Sikh woman and child approved for Q. In your installation speech you talked change they work to resettlement meet with her Canadian lawyer and about ‘punishing societies’ and ‘forgiving so- bring about will last. translator.

20 REFUGEES NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA

Some early arrivals in Canada are taught the duties of being good citizens.

à other asylum officer said. “I hope that’s ticket?” the second man what it is. It could be that you’re just very responds. While you wait for asylum jaded. How do you know where one begins The climate may and the other ends? If I admitted I was slowly be changing. Hu- America says ‘We won’t give you jaded I shouldn’t be doing this job anymore, manitarian activists food, or shelter, or a lawyer or let so I say I have a more acute understanding formed a nationwide Fix of credibility issues.” ’96 Campaign seeking you earn money to pay for those One official noted that most people ar- changes in the 1996 im- things yourself.’ riving from a specific area are rejected and migration law. A Refugee he asks a colleague, “What’s the point of Protection Act of 1999 has them even coming here?” The colleague been introduced into replies, “Because if they don’t come, they Congress which would limit the use of ex- Kathleen Newland said, “What people can’t get anything. If they do come here pedited removal to immigration emer- respond negatively to is being taken for a they might get something.” gencies. Democratic Senator Edward fool and the abuse of a country’s asylum sys- “But they know it’s a lottery and the Kennedy and others have explored mea- tem. But there’s tremendous support in the odds are stacked,” said the first. “Right, sures providing safeguards to asylum seek- United States for the very pure concept of but have you ever bought a lottery ers held in detention. a sanctuary for the truly oppressed.” B

REFUGEES 21 | COVER STORY | The Americas

THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE’S WORST HUMANITARIAN

22 REFUGEES UNHCR / R. WILKINSON

by Ray Wilkinson

Luxury he Colombian city of Cartagena is one of the hotels world’s historical jewels. Centuries-old buildings and slums adorned with ornate wooden balconies and side by side painted in pastels, vivid blues and reds, conjure up in old the port’s colorful history of treasure galleons and Cartagena. Tthe buccaneers who terrorized the Spanish Main. Gleaming multi-decked liners glide into the bay nowadays, disgorging day trippers from Miami eager to snap up bargains of gold and emeralds while high-rise hotels serve fresh lobster dinners and fine wines. Latin American governments, perhaps in- spired by the city’s swashbuckling past and its ability to survive wars and invasion, signed a ground-breaking accord here in Colombia struggles 1984 which offered refugees fleeing regional conflicts greater help and protection than they had received in the past. The to end nearly four decades politicians called it the Cartagena Declaration. of conflict and help Seventy-three-year-old Eugenio Martinez Laguna has had no time to enjoy Cartagena’s beauty, wealth or indeed its Dec- hundreds of thousands laration. He lives virtually in the shadow of the old San Fe- lipe Spanish fortress whose rusting cannon symbolically pro- of uprooted civilians. tects the city. But while tourists gambol on nearby beaches, when a recent visitor called, Laguna was nailing together his home, a three-sided shack of tin sheeting, wood slats and torn black plastic sheeting. His wife, Isidora, and six other family members share three rickety beds, a single battered wooden cupboard and a couple of pots in which they boil rice and pota- toes, and occasionally fish, on an outside stone oven. A nearby canal reeks with the thick slime of industrial and CRISIS…. human waste, discarded plastic bottles, toys and rusting bed- frames. When it rains, the baked mud floors turn to ankle- deep sludge, the nearby waters of the bay inundate the region

UNHCR / R. WILKINSON and sweep away all the shacks in the shantytown. Ã

REFUGEES 23 | COVER STORY | The Americas

COLOMBIA AT A GLANCE

In 1819 Simon Bolivar won the independence of Greater Colombia from Spain which had colonized the region in the 16th century. It included what are today Panama, Venezuela and Ecuador, the latter two countries breaking away in 1830 and Panama becoming independent in 1903. The country is located in the northwest corner of South America bordering the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. With an area of 1.1 million square kilometers (440,000 square miles), it is roughly the size of , Germany and Italy combined and encompasses hot coastal plains, equatorial forests, pampas and the northern fringes of the Andes mountain chain. Colombia has a population of nearly 38 million people of mainly Spanish and Indian descent. Catholicism is its major religion. It is rich in mineral resources, especially oil and coffee, and is the world’s major source for platinum and emeralds. It is also today the world’s major center for cocaine. Colombia has ’s oldest functioning democracy, but nevertheless has been wracked by internal strife virtually since independence. The latest round of conflict has continued unabated for more than 40 years. It involves the civilian government, the country’s military, several left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries fighting for territory, wealth and power. Police investigate a murderous ambush south of the capital of Bogota in which 15 person An estimated 200,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict and as many as 2 million may have been internally displaced since 1985, though the government insists son in front of him. “They gave no reason. celerated the destruction of the (country’s) these figures are too high. They just killed them,” he said. The gun- social fabric and has contributed to the im- Latin American governments signed the men rampaged through the village killing poverishment of the population, the dis- Cartagena Declaration in the historic other men and forcing everyone to flee, as integration of the family, malnutrition, Colombian city of the same name in 1984 they had intended. Many of the terrified sickness, alcoholism, drug addiction, school promising to extend help to refugees fleeing conflict in the region. Its provisions do not villagers made their way to Cartagena absenteeism and common crime.” cover most of Colombia’s own ‘internal’ where they established their own little Violence has wracked the region virtu- victims of war. community on the outskirts of the city. ally since it wrestled independence from In 1997 the government invited UNHCR to Spain in 1819 and the modern state of establish a presence in the country to help A FLOOD OF HUMAN DEBRIS Colombia was born. The latest round of vi- IDPs and refugees who fled to neighboring The Laguna family became members olence has lasted more than 40 years in- states. The organization has offices in the of a huge tide of human debris which has volving government forces, entrenched capital, Bogota, and the towns of Apartado engulfed Colombia, producing the worst landowning elites, extreme right-wing and Barrancabermeja. humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemi- paramilitary forces and Marxist guerrillas sphere. Since 1985, according to one esti- fighting for territory, wealth and power. mate, nearly two million people have been Underpinning the conflict, and thriving uprooted, around 600,000 in 1998-99 alone. in the resultant chaos, is Colombia’s drug à “We have no money, almost no food and The government said that figure was too trade, the world’s largest, which bankrolls the floods will come again one day,” the high, and that many civilians had already both the paramilitaries and the guerrillas. weather-beaten farmer says. “But we are permanently relocated in other parts of Caught squarely in the cross hairs of the happy here. Why? Because we are secure.” Colombia and started new lives. conflict are Colombia’s peasants and any- Until 1997 Laguna farmed a family plot Whatever the exact number is, the In- one who dares to speak out against either south of Cartagena. Then gunmen invaded ter-American Commission on Human side—journalists, teachers, trade union lead- his village. They shot his son and grand- Rights said the huge displacement had “ac- ers and human rights activists. While the

24 REFUGEES HCR office in Colombia Washington, alarmed by the deterio- said, “Until recently this has rating situation inside Colombia and the been an almost invisible cri- ever-expanding narcotics industry—80 per- sis. People left their homes cent of the cocaine imported into the U.S. in ones and twos or small comes from Colombia—considered a $1.6 groups. They drifted to the billion aid package as part of the overall cities where they became plan. European states were being canvassed virtually indistinguishable for contributions. from the urban poor al- Meanwhile, neighboring states such as ready there.” Fearing addi- Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama worried tional reprisals, many dis- that the Colombian disease would eventu- placed persons preferred to ally ‘go regional’ and involve major popu- remain anonymous in these lation movements into their territories. ‘belts of misery’ they cre- UNHCR has adopted a two-pronged re- ated around the cities. gional approach to the conflict. In sur- rounding countries, the agency is helping TACKLING THE CRISIS strengthen asylum procedures in antici- Gradually, Bogota and pation of any future large-scale exodus the international commu- from Colombia. In Venezuela, experts are nity recognized the gravity providing advice to the legislative assem- of the crisis. In 1997, the bly for a which will be incor- same year the government porated into a new constitution and train- invited UNHCR to open an ing army units in human rights and office here, Colombia refugee law. adopted National Law N° It recently opened a liaison office in 387, which for the first time Ecuador, and in Panama it is promoting the included measures to di- adoption of amendments to current refugee rectly assist, protect and legislation which allow people seeking sanc- seek solutions for the in- tuary a maximum stay of two months. ternally displaced. Ironi- In addition to its office in Bogota, UN- cally, though Colombia was HCR opened two field offices in the north- the host for the signing of ern towns of Apartado and Barrancaber-

KEYSTONE the Cartagena Declaration, meja. As its budget increases from $1.8 mil- ns were killed. that document covered lion this year to $4 million in 2001, it will only refugees—people seek- open additional offices in the country, in- ing sanctuary in another cluding in the southern town of Putumayo. gunmen rarely confront each other any- country—and did not apply to persons try- Its programs include providing technical more, an estimated 200,000 mainly civil- ing to escape violence in their own coun- help to the government with advice on hu- ian victims have been killed in the conflict. tries. (Partially as a result of the Colombia manitarian assistance, seminars for the An almost equal number of people moved crisis, U.N. member states have begun a military and contingency planning for to surrounding countries, though very few vigorous debate on the very different cir- emergencies, coordinate U.N. agencies of them sought asylum as refugees. cumstances of re- working with the The vast majority simply become up- fugees and IDPs displaced and in- rooted inside Colombia itself, so-called in- and how to better creasingly search ternally displaced persons (IDPs) in the par- assist all displaced Violence has wracked for lasting solu- lance of the international humanitarian persons. See Colombia virtually tions for the vic- community. REFUGEES Maga- tims. “There are 40,000 insurgents (paramil- zine n° 117). since it wrestled itaries and guerrillas) who are holding 40 The govern- independence A FORBIDDING million Colombians hostage,” said the ment designated a LANDSCAPE country’s Ombudsman Dr. José Ferando single national or- from Spain in 1819. Colombia’s Castro. “There is one massacre a day here, ganization, the Red northern border but the men with guns are not killing each de Solidaridad So- with Panama is a other. They are killing only the children cial (RSS) to over- forbidding place. It of the country. This must stop.” see IDP issues and drew up an ambitious is an unending landscape of swamp bi- The crisis simmered for many years, un- $7.5 billion blueprint—Plan Colombia—to sected by deep rivers and inlets. There are noticed and of little interest to the outside tackle the country’s major problems, rang- no roads here. The northern tip of the An- world, partly because it was an ‘internal’ ing from helping the hundreds of thou- des mountains, which run the entire west- conflict. Large scale massacres were re- sands of displaced civilians to an expanded ern length of South America, start where ported, but as Leila Lima, head of the UN- war on the drug trade. the swamp ends. The area is sparsely pop- Ã

REFUGEES 25 | COVER STORY | The Americas

à ulated, but strategically important, sitting astride the Panamanian frontier, straddling both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. There has been talk of driving a sec- ond Panama Canal through the region which is also rich in natural resources such as timber and minerals. Colombia’s major guerrilla faction, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) controlled the region, but in a ter- ror campaign designed to challenge the Marxists supremacy, paramilitaries indis- criminately killed civilians and drove thou- sands of others like the Laguna family from their homes in late 1996-97. Some civilians have cautiously begun returning to the region, participating in a series of projects designed to try to call the bluff of the insurgents. Supported by such institutions as the church, the Interna- tional Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other groups and with names such as ‘Communities of Life’ and ‘Peace Commu- nity of San Fran- cisco de Asis’, the villagers have ef- “Like the fectively declared their neutrality intellectual, the in the conflict and challenged reporter, the the paramili- human rights taries and guer- rillas to leave activist, the them alone and the government displaced to provide the as- person, it is my sistance neces- sary to restart turn to have to their lives. The village of abandon my Limon, tucked native soil, my away deep in the swamp, is one life, my soul, such experiment. my country.” When church and UNHCR field personnel visited the area recently, they first had to travel for several hours by fast river boat and then hack for two hours through thick foliage and ankle deep mud. During the rainy season, the en- tire area floods, primitive trails turn into thigh-deep rivers of mud and homes are inundated. Villagers take the floods in stride, moving to the top third of their one- UNHCR and church officials wade through coastal swamps storey wooden homes and perching there to reach an isolated village and till the waters recede. check the progress of More than 100 people returned initially displaced civilians who to Limon, moving into the clapboard decided to return home.

26 homes other civil- ians had abandoned. They have cleared the bush to con-

struct new homes UNHCR / R. WILKINSON for hundreds more civilians expected to follow shortly. Crops have been planted. Children splash hap- pily in a small muddy stream. “We just want the men with guns to leave us alone,” said 50-year-old Evan- gelina, whose brother and nephew Recently returned villagers rebuilding their destroyed were killed in the at- homes and attending classes in a simple wooden tacks four years ago schoolhouse. by the paramilitaries. “We hope this will all work, but in the end Villagers in the peace communities also only God knows. If they want to enter and complain of broken government promises kill again, nothing will stop them.” To try and the lack of assistance for their com- to prevent that, a representative from the munities. Ambushes, abductions and mur- national Ombudsman’s office and two mem- ders are everyday events and targetted in- bers of the International Peace Brigades or- dividuals continue to flee Colombia. “I am ganization live with the villagers, acting as one more,” wrote Francisco Santos, news observers and ‘moral deterrents’ by their editor of the country’s leading newspaper, presence to further armed attacks. “So far, El Tiempo, as he fled to the United States. so good,” said one during the recent UN- “Like the intellectual, the reporter, the hu- HCR visit. “For the moment at least, ev- man rights activist, the displaced person, erything is peaceful.” it’s my turn to have to abandon my native soil, my life, my soul, my country.” OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez There are other signs of optimism. The de Soto insisted recently, “Before, we used government is involved in lengthy and tor- to tackle the issue of the internally dis- tuous peace negotiations with the FARC placed in the way one would put out a small guerrillas and is trying to start a similar fire. Now we intend to do it in a compre- process with the second largest group, the hensive manner.” ELN. U.N. and international organizations Humanitarian groups give the govern- as well as powerful nations like the United ment high marks for its intentions, but ef- States, have become more involved in fective implementation is another matter. searching for solutions. National Law 387 is one of the most com- But success is far from assured. Many prehensive documents of its kind any- observers believe the conflict will inten- where in the world, at least on paper, but sify even as the talks progress, with the too little practical help is reaching the dis- guerrillas and paramilitaries seizing as placed. much territory as possible to strengthen President Andres Pastrana launched the their bargaining positions. peace process when he took office, but is While some civilians have begun mov- under no illusions about the difficulties ing back into areas of northern Colombia, ahead. Peace talks, he said, “will be ex- human rights monitors say others are leav- tremely complex and could take years.” ing, fearing renewed conflict. In the ‘peace The country is watching and waiting, village’ of Domingodo guerrillas recently unclear which way events will swing. Two executed a village leader, accusing him of large billboards en route to the capital’s air- collaborating with the paramilitaries—a port sum up the uncertainty. One reads, clear indication the gunmen on both sides “Don’t go away. Things are getting better.” will tolerate the non-violent movement The second one says, “The last one to leave

UNHCR / R. WILKINSON only at their convenience. turns off the lights.” B

REFUGEES 27 B Nearly 2,000 Guatemalan B Secretary-General Kofi Annan refugees received naturalization asked member countries to sign SHORT TAKES documents in a springtime cere- all treaties reflecting U.N. core mony in Mexico’s Quintana Roo principles at a September summit. state. Seekingasylum RWANDA MEXICO Reliving the horror Joining the club Mexico has acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, the two

cornerstones of international © S. SALGADO protection. It became the 139th signatory to the Convention. It also acceded to the 1954 Convention on . During civil conflict in Guatemala in the early 1980s an estimated 46,000 civilians fled to Mexico. Many have since gone home but an estimated 22,000 people have stayed and the government offered them full nationality. Such actions reflected Mexico’s “long tradition of asylum,” according to High Commissioner Sadako Ogata.

UNITED STATES Caribbean experiment How does an organization with limited human and material resources cover 12 island nations scattered over Rwanda, the stuff of nightmares. tens of thousands of square miles of ocean? UNHCR’s Washington office decided earing them die at the end of the used deterrence, instead of offensive. The other the answer was to create phone because I decided not to send frustration was – I think I maybe wasn’t convinc- Honorary Liaison positions in troops to reinforce them, because ing enough. Maybe I should have gone to New each of the states in the “H Caribbean where it needed a the risk of them going there was too high to even York and argued right there on the ground, ear- presence. The officers have be able to accomplish that. Yet at the end of the ly on.” been drawn primarily from phone, they were screaming for help. And I es- Some major powers who had extensive first the ranks of community lead- sentially am saying no.” The nightmare still hand information, the general said, “were play- ers in non-governmental haunts Romeo Dallaire six years after genocide ing with the U.N., toying with the U.N., using organizations, academia and in the central African country of Rwanda began. the U.N. as a cover; demonstrating a will on one the private sector. Dallaire had arrived in that country the previ- side through the U.N., but ultimately really not Immigration issues in these ous year, a general in the Canadian army and wanting to play on the other side.” He added, “But diverse nations are often head of a nearly 2,000-strong United Nations the real crux of it is when it actually happened, controversial and politically force trying to monitor a fragile truce between a the reactions during those three to nearly four sensitive. Not all of these states have signed interna- government dominated by the majority Hutu months. That’s where the cold heart of lack of tional refugee treaties or tribe and rebels of the minority Tutsis. Months humanism actually came to the fore in spades.” even have immigration agen- before the killings started, Dallaire tried to warn He added, “When I’m asked, why did you stay, cies and asylum officers. his superiors and major nations, but was ig- why didn’t you pack it in? I said if we can save Despite that, they have nored. He was virtually powerless to intervene one Rwandan, at least morally, we’ve attempted offered sanctuary to Haitian when the slaughter began. He recently an- to stymie the debacle that was going on.” Dal- and Cuban refugees as well nounced his retirement from the army because laire left Rwanda in 1994. He told his television as people from as far away as of continuing ill health following the nightmare audience he had attempted suicide “a couple of Burundi, Sri Lanka, China, of Rwanda. In a subsequent Canadian television times. There were many days in the past, less so Nigeria, Sierra Leone and interview he revealed many of his thoughts at now, where I wish I had died there. I think the Chechnya. the time… and since. “I will remain frustrated at ultimate solace will be maybe some day, of not the non-intervention,” of the U.N. and major sensing that suffering and all that pain. But the powers he said in the interview. “I would have Rwandans paid a hell of a bigger price.”

28 REFUGEES B A volunteer corps, the U.N. B Targeting of civilians is a B Up to 16 million people in B International donors pledged Information Technology Service, threat to international peace and northeast Africa are threatened $2.3 billion in economic aid to will help people in developing security, a Security Council reso- by starvation because of crop stabilize the volatile Balkan countries to use new technology. lution said. failure and displacement. region.

CENTRAL AMERICA Seeking Lessons learned asylum ARGENTINA hen civil conflict First of its kind gripped Guatemala The Foundation ‘Argentina for ACNUR’ has been in the early 1980s, an established to help UNHCR

W UNHCR / B. PRESS estimated 1.3 million people promote refugee issues and were uprooted from their help raise funds. It is the first homes and some 46,000 civil- organization of its kind in ians fled to Mexico as refugees. Latin America and is While many eventually re- modelled on similar national turned home, around 22,000 committees in other parts of Guatemalans—about half of the world and reflects an them born in refugee camps— increasing South American stayed and the Mexican gov- interest in humanitarian issues. ernment offered them full na- tionality. A ‘lessons learned’ SOUTH AMERICA seminar was held in Geneva to Winds of change examine the results of the ‘Gua- A Guatemalan returnee near Cantabel uses an ‘improved’ While some Latin American temala experience.’ UNHCR stove for the family meal. governments continue to Assistant High Commissioner struggle with the legacies of Soren Jessen-Petersen said the agency pioneered quick impact and visibility in the political military dictatorship, a whole of Central America had projects (QIPs) in Nicaragua— process, stimulated donor in- growing awareness of become a ‘laboratory for solu- small-scale projects designed to terest in funding the repatria- refugees and asylum is playing a part in the tions’ during this period. In bridge the gap between the im- tion project. Participants agreed transition toward complete 1984, 10 Latin American gov- mediate and long-term needs that a ‘generous’ democracy. Recent cases ernments adopted the Carta- of returning refugees which package was vital to the pro- underline the trend. gena Declaration which ex- UNHCR subsequently intro- gram’s success. There were also Argentina granted a Chilean panded protection and assis- duced in other trouble spots. failures. Humanitarian coordi- civilian refugee status tance to Central American For the first time since UN- nation in initial reintegration because of the continued use victims of armed conflict and HCR became involved with assistance was patchy as was of military courts to try human rights abuses. The 1989 repatriation, refugees them- the linkage between the quick civilians in that country. International Conference on selves largely negotiated the impact projects and later, Argentina also granted a Central American Refugees terms of their return, in par- longer-term development pro- previously rejected Peruvian asylum seeker sanctuary (CIREFCA) helped UNHCR ticular access to land and they grams. Also, there were no because of the continued use promote long-term solutions in then helped shape a formal clear guidelines on the nature of torture and a biased addition to more immediate as- 1996 peace agreement in the of UNHCR’s protection role in judicial system in Peru. In sistance programs. And the country. Refugee participation a country of origin. Brazil, senior government ministers apologized and defended refugee rights CUBA following charges by both the police and press that Angolan refugees had been responsible for a gang war in Thanks for the help Rio de Janeiro in which six persons were killed. adako Ogata paid the first ever visit by a cluding sup- High Commissioner to Cuba in May and port for those CANADA after reviewing the organization’s activ- needing special S UNHCR / D. GOLDBERG Going home ities there, thanked the government for help- care because of Canada has staged its largest ing refugees. “Cuba has a very important tra- the severe ever mass deportation of dition of giving asylum and protection to physical scars left by war.” Since gaining power rejected asylum seekers by refugees from many parts of the world,” she in 1959, Cuban President Fidel Castro, whom returning 90 ‘boat people’ said in a speech at Havana University. “I would Mrs. Ogata met during her visit, has provided who entered the country like to acknowledge and praise its openness refuge to many opponents of right-wing Latin illegally from China. They were among nearly 600 Chin- and generosity” particularly allowing American dictatorships as well as victims of ese who arrived last summer “refugees to have access to public services, in- conflicts in Africa. on Canada’s west coast.

REFUGEES 29 | PEOPLE AND PLACES |

Auguste R. Lindt High Commissioner 1956-1960

uguste R. Lindt was elected by the His earlier training as a journal- AU.N. General Assembly on December ist, humanitarian delegate and Swiss 10, 1956, as the new head of the organiza- diplomat helped him during one of tion’s refugee agency. Within days he was the most hectic periods of his life. plunged into a crisis which would help After studying law in Geneva and shape the image and future of the still Bern, Lindt had served as a special fledgling UNHCR—overseeing an assis- correspondent for several European tance program for 200,000 people who newspapers in Asia, Europe and fled to Austria and Yugoslavia from the So- Africa. After Swiss army service viet repression in Hungary, an event which from 1940-45 he became a special helped define the cold war era. delegate for the International Red Africa was the next problem. Even as Cross in Berlin and then Swiss ob-

the crisis in the heart of Europe contin- server at the U.N. from 1953-56. Af- UNHCR ARCHIVES ued, Lindt and his team turned their at- ter leaving UNHCR, he served as tention to the conflict in Algeria and in Swiss Ambassador in the United States, the 1957 he launched an assistance program to Soviet Union, Mongolia, India and Nepal. help civilians who had fled to neighboring He was 94 when he died in his sleep in Morocco and Tunisia. April.

Poul Hartling High Commissioner 1978-1985

oul Hartling served as High Hartling received on behalf of UNHCR PCommissioner for seven years its second Nobel Peace Prize in 1981 for after a distinguished career in the helping to tackle what the Nobel commit- church and Danish parliament. Af- tee called a “veritable flood of human catas- ter graduating from the University trophe.” In response, the High Commis- of Copenhagen with a degree in sioner said the award was “a statement to theology, he became the Lutheran the world’s refugees that you are not for- curate of Frederiksberg Church gotten.” during the war years, 1941-45. In addition to his work for UNHCR, He was elected to parliament in Hartling continued his humanitarian in- 1957 and served first as foreign min- volvement, serving as a member of the ister between 1968-71 and then as Board of Directors of the Danish Inter- prime minister from 1973 to 1975. Church Aid and was one of the founders His tenure as head of UNHCR of the Danish . coincided with the height of the “With steadfast courage and commit- UNHCR ARCHIVES cold war and refugee crises around ment, he helped ease the suffering of mil- the world including Viet Nam, lions uprooted from their homes,” High Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Cen- Commissioner Sadako Ogata said at the an- tral America. nouncement of his death, at the age of 85.

30 REFUGEES | QUOTE UNQUOTE |

FFF

“Cuba has a very important tradition of giving asylum and protection to refugees. By allowing so many to stay in their country, Cubans have given the world a pow- erful message of solidarity and understanding.” High Commissioner Sadako Ogata on a recent visit to Havana. FFF

“Some of us are worrying about whether the stock market will crash… while more than half our fellow men and women have much more basic worries, such as where their children’s next meal is coming from.” Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his millennium “I am one more. Like the intellectual, the report to U.N. member states. reporter, the human rights activist, the FFF “Sometimes the obstacle (to displaced person, it’s my turn to have to assisting internally dis- placed people) can be abandon my native soil, my life, my soul, summed up in one word: sovereignty. But sovereignty my country.” is not a license for irrespon- sibility. States cannot be al- Francisco Santos, the news editor of Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper, on his decision to leave lowed to use sovereignty to the country after death threats. justify the abuse of their people.” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Richard Holbrooke, on the “The Immigration Service is rates of prolonged and un- Citizenship and Immigration current difficulties in trying to far more professional than necessary detention and im- Elinor Caplan. help millions of internally dis- just a few years ago, han- mediate deportation with- placed persons. dling applications faster, out hearing… two major fail- FFF more equitably and more ures to uphold international FFF humanely than at any other standards of refugee pro- “I think there will be more time.” tection.” funding if we (the donors) “We have to do even more Doris Meissner, Commissioner A recent editorial in Newsday. are sure the funding is buy- than our share, because we of the U.S. Immigration and FFF ing an adequate level of as- have so much more.” Naturalization Service. sistance.” Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s “Closing the back door to U.S. Assistant Secretary governor general and herself a FFF those who would abuse the of State Julia Taft arguing former refugee, on that coun- system allows us to ensure that humanitarian agencies try’s role in helping refugees. “The United States has no that the front door will re- such as UNHCR should cause to be smug. Grave main open to genuine sharply increase their demands FFF flaws in this country’s asy- refugees and immigrants.” for funds for such areas lum laws have led to high Canadian Minister of as Africa.

REFUGEES 31