Fifty million people in the world today are uprooted. This large number, a clear indication of current global tensions, includes people who have been forced to leave their homes for political reasons or as a result of natural disasters. In 2011 more than 35 million people received assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They include 10.4 million

Fifty million people in the world today are uprooted. This large number, a clear indication of current global tensions, includes people who have been forced to leave their homes for political reasons or as a result of natural disasters. In 2011 more than 35 million people received assistance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They include 10.4 million (1) refugees, more than 7 million of whom live in protracted exile without any hope of a lasting solution; the “internally displaced” (14.7 million in 25 countries who are displaced in their own countries and received UNHCR assistance in 2011); and lastly 837,500 asylum seekers.

When the UNHCR was established in 1950, its mandate was simply to protect and assist refugees. That need is greater than ever today, with 80% of forced migration occurring in developing countries (2), which cannot meet refugees’ everyday needs. After the second world war the UNHCR mainly worked in Europe and was supported by the handful of industrialised nations directly concerned. Its budget comes from annual contributions from UN member states in response to increasingly urgent appeals. That budget has risen from $300,000 in 1951 to $1.8bn in 2011, the highest annual figure in 60 years but still insufficient to meet growing demand.

The UNHCR must above all ensure that countries keep their borders open to guarantee the freedom of movement stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and meet basic needs such as food, medical care, housing and education, either directly or with assistance from local or international organisations. Originally only refugees (people forced to leave their countries) and stateless persons (see A person of no fixed abode) were entitled to international protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention (3) and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. However, since the 1990s the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) has exceeded other forced migrations. Faced with one humanitarian crisis after another, the UN has explicitly extended the UNHCR’s field of action to protect displaced people (in collaboration with other agencies), in addition to helping refugees and stateless persons.

The agency also deals with the challenge of “mixed migration”, involving refugees fleeing conflict or persecution and economic or environmental migrants. According to the UNHCR there were approximately 42 million people displaced by natural disasters in 2011, but their legal status is very vague. “We offer our help when the resources at our disposal permit it,” explained Philippe Leclerc, UNHCR representative in France. “We intervened after the Pakistan earthquake and the floods in the Philippines. In both those cases it was also a matter of solidarity towards countries that had accepted refugees in the past.”

The cluster approach

In 1992 the UN introduced a “cluster” approach and set up the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, which allows several of its agencies to carry out joint actions, including with humanitarian, non-governmental organisations within the “strategic framework” of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In 2011, the UNHCR used this approach to launch 21 campaigns for displaced people, the largest of them in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Yemen.

With just 6,500 staff deployed in the field, the UNHCR has both to deal with emergencies and find long-term solutions. For instance, it assists 2.7 million Afghans in Pakistan and Iran where there have been major conflicts for more than 30 years. But since early 2012, the emphasis has been on the Sahel. Early in May, there were 130,000 displaced people and 140,000 Malian refugees (4) scattered over Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger, all poor countries that UNHCR sources say have “generously welcomed” these neighbours in distress. The UNHCR is also concerned about the tensions between the two Sudans and the fate of 100,000 refugees from South Kordofan and Blue Nile State in the south. The UNHCR is registering and profiling South Sudanese residents in the Republic of Sudan, especially the 107,000 who want to return to their newly independent country. Meanwhile Ethiopia, already overwhelmed by incoming Somalis, has taken in 32,000 refugees from Sudan.

The many humanitarian disasters in 2011, such as the post-election crisis in Côte d’Ivoire (200,000 refugees in Liberia and Ghana; 500,000 IDPs); the surge of Somali refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia fleeing violence and famine; and the war in Libya which forced thousands to flee, mostly foreign immigrant workers, and created 1.2 million refugees, the largest flows since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. On 21 September 2011, the UNHCR rapidly launched an operation to repatriate some 740,000 African workers. This massive operation was carried out with the help of the International Organisation for Migration and the refugees’ countries of origin. Reception zones were set up for the 133,000 Libyans who had fled to Tunisia and Egypt as well as the thousands of sub-Saharan Africans who could not return home (notably Somalis and Eritreans); and a Global Resettlement Solidarity Initiative was launched for them. Despite warnings in the European media of an “invasion” of these refugees, only 20,000 attempted to reach Europe out of the 1.2 million who fled Libya. This sensationalism reflected the unwillingness of northern Mediterranean countries to assist shipwrecked refugees (of whom at least 1,500 died according to the UNHCR).

In 2011, the countries around the Horn of Africa took in 250,000 Somali refugees: their flight led to one of the largest humanitarian crises in a sub-region already hit by famine and climatic disasters, such as the December 2004 tsunami. For nearly 30 years Somalia has been ravaged by a civil war led by armed militia and, since the 2000s, Islamist al-Shabab rebels. The conflict acquired an international dimension with intervention from neighbouring Ethiopia and the presence of the UN-backed African Union peacekeeping force. After al-Shabab’s attacks on Kenyan soil, on 16 October 2011, the Kenyan government decided for the first time in its history to launch a military offensive on Somali territory. This stopped the migratory flow to Kenya, as well as to Ethiopia.

A quarter of all Somalis uprooted

For months on end, around 1,300 Somalis had been crossing each day into neighbouring countries, especially Kenya and Ethiopia, fleeing famine and violence; they arrived exhausted after weeks of walking, destitute, undernourished and traumatised. A total of 917,000 refugees were registered with the UNHCR in October 2011, some of whom have had refugee status for 20 years or were born in UN camps in countries such as Kenya. “With a displaced population estimated at 1.4 million, it means that one quarter of all Somalis have been uprooted,” said Volker Turk, director of the UNHCR’s Division of International Protection. “That is the worst situation imaginable. And as if war weren’t enough, there is also drought, climate change and famine.” Since the camps are located in regions that are unfavourable to agriculture, especially those in Ethiopia, the refugees cannot hope to achieve self-sufficiency, which is one of the objectives set by the UNHCR to make life in camps more tolerable and less dependent on outside assistance.

In Kenya, the presence of 600,000 refugees, including 500,000 Somalis, has triggered xenophobic reactions and some politicians have called for the closure of the camps and expulsion of foreigners. Aware of these tensions, the UNHCR is making every effort to extend the same assistance to neighbouring populations as to the refugees — such as access to water, medical care and primary school education. “Over the past few years, support to the local communities receiving refugees has become a priority,” explained George Okoth-Obbo, in charge of UNHCR’s Regional Bureau for Africa. “Host countries leave their borders open when they know that international solidarity will play its role.”

In 2011, emergency situations on the African continent drained most of UNHCR’s resources and delayed the voluntary repatriation of 300,000 Africans (including 131,000 Angolans, 60,000 Liberians and 100,000 Rwandans), which had been planned for a number of years since peace and stability has been restored in their respective countries.

On average, only 10% of refugees succeed in integrating into their local society (for instance, by obtaining work permits). Tanzania is an exception. In November 2011, its government granted citizenship to long-term refugees from Burundi on its soil, for the third time in its history. This affected particularly the 162,000 Burundi who had fled ethnic persecution in the Great Lakes region. But this generous gesture came with a condition: there was an authoritarian dispersal of the refugees around the country, designed to avoid the formation of a “Burundian enclave” in Tanzania. In the absence of a proper information campaign or adequate preparation, the local communities who were required to take in the refugees opposed the measure, encouraged by some demagogic local politicians. The Burundi refugees, some of whom were economically independent and helping to develop local agriculture, have now stopped working as they await their fate. “They are in a legal and political limbo that has completely paralysed them and ultimately will make them dependent on international aid again,” said Okoth-Obbo. In Iran, by contrast, millions of refugees living in urban areas have obtained the right to work and consequently have access to housing, healthcare and education.

Asia and beyond

In Asia, where there are 10.6 million refugees and displaced persons (roughly a third of the total number under UNHCR protection), several countries have shown solidarity and assisted with local integration. Although they did not sign the Refugee Convention, Malaysia and India are the two countries that have taken in the greatest numbers of refugees in urban areas. Many Muslims from the north of Rakhine State in Burma, and some 11,000 refugees from Aceh in Indonesia who fled after the 2004 tsunami, were granted asylum by Malaysia, and permission to work.

Nations from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are coping with 50% of the world’s refugees. Though most of them are not signatories to the convention, last May they met the UNHCR at ministerial level in Turkmenistan to assess the situation of refugees in Muslim countries. They also discussed Syria and the former Iraqi refugees living there, as well as Afghanistan’s 5.7 million refugees (long-term for the most part). “In 2010 voluntary return flows were the lowest in 20 years. Only 200,000 refugees chose to return to their countries, whereas the average in the past two decades was more than a million per year,” said Volker Turk.

For the seven million refugees in the world with no prospects for returning to their countries, local integration or resettlement in a third country are the only possible solutions. That was the case in 2011 for 45,000 refugees from Bhutan (out of 108,000), who had lived in Nepal for years and benefitted from a resettlement programme in a third country. Now 25 countries accept refugees (5), far more than in the past. But even so, less than half of the 172,000 resettlement requests submitted by the UNHCR in 2011 were accepted.

While Europe is further restricting the conditions for granting asylum (in 2011 only 2% of refugees from Libya were taken in), sub-Saharan Africa is facing a sharp increase in demands. In 2011, there were more than 100,000 applications to South Africa alone (compared with 50,000 to France), and 180,000 the previous year (10,083 of which were accepted). South Africa may offer better chances for applicants to get a fair hearing. But a strict implementation of one of the clauses in its immigration law reveals that apparent generosity to be rather more restrictive: this allows for asylum seekers to be sent back to the last country through which they transited before reaching the South African border. That does not affect the millions of Zimbabweans fleeing Robert Mugabe’s regime but it does block entry to refugees from the Horn of Africa or central Africa. And other countries in the sub-region apply the same rule. Mozambique for instance, sends refugees returned to them by South Africa to Tanzania. South Africa justifies tightening its policy by its fear of xenophobic attacks, such as those in the shantytowns in 2009 which left hundreds dead.

The uncertainties resulting from the economic and social crises, high unemployment, growing inequalities (within society and between societies) and the many other challenges of the present day (environmental degradation, the effects of climate change, demographic growth and arms trafficking) mean that the many people living on the fringes of society (refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons) are an easy prey for tabloids and demagogues.

Solidarity is not always expressed with the same degrees of willingness. Media coverage of the Costa Concordia shipwreck off Tuscany and the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic contrasts with the scant coverage of shipwrecks of frail craft loaded with anonymous refugees from the southern shores of the Mediterranean, notes the UNHCR. And the debate in Europe is on how to prevent the entry of people who risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean, rather than how to provide their countries with the political and economic support they need.