Introductions
UNHCR was established on 1950, after World War II, to address the refugee issues generated by the war crimes. On 1951, high-level diplomatic conference Refugee convention, formed the legal obligatory documents to obliges the international states to manage the refugees in the world.
Article 1 of the conventions puts forward the conditions and legal grounds under which the status of refugee can be granted or denied to a person. Under Article 1 ( A) para 2 , refugee/s is/are any person owing to well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religions, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or owing to such fear is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country, or who not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or owing to such fear is unwilling to return it.
According to UNHCR report, (Global Trends Forced Displacement, UNHCR report, 2019) 79. 5 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide, and 85 % of world’s refugees are hosted by developing countries, while concerning aspects of these figures, is also the fact among all the refugees, 68% came from the just five countries, majority of which is developing countries. (Myanmar, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela). The report also highlights very less portion of refugee return cases to their home origin, suggesting concerns for the challenges of prolong management of refugee crisis in the host country. The statement expressed by Commissioner of UN High commissioner for Refugees , Filippo Grandi, over forced displacement indicates the important concern over phenomenon of refugee , for it becoming no longer a short term and a temporary phenomenon, indicating towards a much long-term and permanent refugee problem, the whole international community will have to face.( We are witnessing a changed reality in that forced displacement nowadays is not only vastly more widespread but is simply no longer a short term and temporary phenomenon, Filippo Grande, UN High commissioner for Refugees ) .Here, what we also need to understand is the dual challenges of the developing countries, i.e., managing refugee immigrants, as well as managing their own country’s development, so as not be the source of refugee immigrants due to various unstable livelihood situations.
Non-derogation of core human rights:
As per UN declaration of human rights, the core human rights are non deragable, hence, it is duty of states and international community to protect, provide and fulfil the core human rights of the refugee, until there is a durable solution found to legally reintegrate refugees in their new homes.
All member states of United Nations are obliged to respect , protect and fulfil the core human rights, within/in extra territorial situations, this aspect of human rights demands for regional as well as multilateral cooperation between states, to protect and fulfil the core human rights of refugees, if any of the country in the world is being overwhelmed due to massive influx of refugees , especially to those developing countries which is already struggling for maintaining basic socioeconomic situations of its people within the country. In the comprehensive management of refugee problem of the world, refugee is the matter of concern for the whole world and no single country should be left with overburden in managing the refugee crisis. The neighboring countries and the international states and communities thus needs to work together, for sharing the burdens and the pressure through international cooperation.
Impacts, challenges and contributions of Refugees to the host country:
From the report of UNHCR, it is observant that developing countries are immensely in pressure in managing the refugee crisis on humanitarian grounds as well on the various international obligations. However, existence of refugees in developing countries, cannot simply be seen through the lens of perceptions only. The discourse, here I assume should be directed to the deeper understanding of effects of refugees/migrants to the host country, and thus requires the critical country specific analysis, based on data, experiences and evidences; rather than on the general perceptions. The impact of refugee/immigrants to the host country can be analyzed through their overall contribution to the public services, socio -economic conditions, social security and overall GDP contributions.
Refugee can be a huge source of manpower to the host country for many of its development works, as human rights law as well as Refugee convention (Article 17) states for the refugees’ rights to engage in wage earning employment.
Article 2 para. 4 of Statement by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on Duties of States towards refugees and migrants under the international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, does grant the state hosting the refugees for the “progressive realization” of the socio-economic and cultural rights of the refugees, ( except for the core obligatory human rights ) to its maximum available resources and each state is left with certain margin of appreciation to decide which measures it adopts for progressive realization of the rights under the covenant ( Article 2 , para . 5) . In this regard, the host country can use its proper comprehensive policy planning for the integration of refugees to its development policy without compromising their human rights and country’s socio-economic equilibrium.
Para 6. Statement by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights states that access to education and employment is the important channels for integration to the host country and thus help in reducing the dependency. If host country can adopt strong governance tools and framework laws for linking refugees with their development strategy, it can help the host country in generating positive development outputs, one of the development sectors being the labor markets, through skill-based trainings and capacity buildings.
As in case of Uganda, as a host country for hosting refugees within the African regions mainly from South-Sudan, DRC and Rwanda, the country’s adoption of Self Reliance Strategy, through Refugee aid and development approach for protracted refugees has been well applauded by global UNHCR team. (UNHCR ,2004b). Though, Meyer, 2006, in his paper argues the process might in the other hand undermine the obligatory role of donors/ states to protect human rights. However, the government of Uganda has favored for the policy of repatriation to their original homeland as ultimate long-term solutions of the refugees.
While in the other hand the case of Bangladesh in managing the Rohingya refugee crises exposes other different on ground realities of struggle of developing countries in managing refugees, in situations where refugees’ populations are likely to overcome the local ethnic populations. (Kudrat-E-Khuda (Babu) | (2020)
Article 2 Part II, para.3 , of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966,has allowed the developing countries with exception to determine the limitation of economic rights they can guarantee to the non-nationals. (developing countries, with due regard to human rights and their national economy, may determine to what extent they would guarantee the economic rights recognized in the present Covenant to non- nationals). This article has provided developing countries with certain flexibility and relief for providing economic rights to the refugees.
The world community would/should not desire for the situation of refugee, so among many other aspects of refugee crisis, the major aspects would be to protect people from being statelessness through resolving and preventing the situation from occurring, though in some cases the situation can neither be predicted or protected. The international community should work together to maintain human rights law and order in each state of the world community, so that the possibility of refugee generations, is minimized as much as possible. In case of situation where civilians are forced to leave the country and be stateless, the comprehensive approach of planning this humanitarian situation should focus more on sustainable rehabilitations of each refugee through the process of normalization. Personally, I do agree that hosting refugee situation to any country should be temporary and short term as much as possible.
References
- UNHCR. (2019). Global Trends Forced Displacement.
- United Nations. (2017) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Duties of States towards refugees and migrants under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Statement by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right.
- (1951). Refugee Convention , 1951.
- Meyer, S. ( 2006). The ‘refugee aid and development’ approach in Uganda: empowerment and self-reliance of refugees in practice. University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
- Kudrat-E-Khuda (Babu) (2020) The impacts and challenges to host country Bangladesh due to sheltering the Rohingya refugees, Cogent Social Sciences, 6:1, 1770943
- Unite Nations. (1966). International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
- UNHCR (2004b). “Economic and Social Impact of Massive Refugee Populations on Host Developing Countries, as well as other countries.
(Originally the article was submitted to University of Louvain, for the partial fulfillment of the micro master’s course on International human rights Law.)
Brinda Shrestha, Architect/Urban planner, Nepal.