4th July 2002
Focus on Countries of Origin,
says UN Refugee Chief
The
solution to many of Europe's migration and asylum problems lies
in the countries and regions of origin, UN High Commissioner of
Refugees Ruud Lubbers said today on a visit to the UK.
Mr
Lubbers held meetings with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Home Secretary
David Blunkett and Development Secretary Clare Short, where he discussed
how UNHCR may be able to assist in responding to the asylum issues
facing the UK and other European countries.
"Europe's
asylum and migration problems cannot be addressed in Europe alone,
" Mr. Lubbers said. "It is in the regions of origin that
the real solutions begin. UNHCR is ready to help, both at source
as well as here in the UK and Europe, to find long-term solutions.
"Creating
conditions where refugees feel safe and are willing to return home,
and stay home, is not only the long-term solution, it is the cost-effective
solution," he added. "It seems folly to spend millions
on reinforcing borders, deterrence measures, custody and detention
centres, when with far greater effect, the money could be spent
responding to the needs of refugees in the regions they are coming
from."
Lubbers
cited Afghanistan as a good example of how refugees want to go home
when the opportunity presents itself.
"UNHCR
now estimates that 2 million Afghans will return home this year,"
Mr. Lubbers said. "We have already assisted more than 1 million
since March. But if there is nothing safe and sustainable to return
to, they will again join the asylum trail of hardship, danger and
people-smuggling."
Unfortunately,
UNHCR and its partners, including the World Food Programme, are
not receiving funding commensurate with the rapid pace of the returns.
Lubbers noted that returnees need immediate assistance to start
rebuilding their lives and "we need the support of governments,
including the UK, in order for us to ensure that we can support
those returning."
For
those who nevertheless arrive at the borders of the European Union,
there is a need to ensure that they have access to fair and effective
asylum procedures. Those found not to be in need of protection should
be sent back.
This
will require comprehensive reform of European asylum and refugee
policy, as well as action at the source. There is a need to effectively
harmonise asylum policies across the European Union, together with
a European immigration policy. UNHCR is helping in this process,
but there is still a long way to go.
Mr.
Lubbers emphasised how refugees can make a major contribution to
their host countries, whether in the industrialised world or the
developing nations which host most of the world's refugees. There,
given the resources and support, refugees can be valued "agents
of development" by bringing skills and productive capacity
to underdeveloped areas.
"Let
us remember that refugees can enrich our societites, as many have
done in the past," Mr Lubbers said. "A number of today's
world leaders were themselves refugees at one point in their lives.
Rather than marginalising refugees, therefore, our challenge is
to find way of empowering them, so that each of them can contribute
positively to the societies in which they live - whether this be
in countries of asylum, countries that they return to, or countries
of resettlement."
Ends
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