Politics of Rehabilitation

Source: IPCS Pakistan Alert, Article no.18; 2005

Seema Sridhar in her article "Earthquake in NWFP: Politics of Rehabilitation" highlights the exacerbated plight of the NWFP in Pakistan as it braves nature and an apathetic administration after the 8 October earthquake. Seema is a Research Officer at IPCS.

The 8 October earthquake has charted a new course in improving the cooperation between regional actors. It has implications not only for the Indo-Pak bilateral relations, but also for inter-provincial relations in Pakistan. The North Western Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan has a history of alienation and lopsided development. It has been severely affected by the disaster. A section feels that the province received secondary treatment in terms of rehabilitation efforts. What measures are the provincial and federal government taking for relief and rehabilitation in NWFP? Are there any implications for the future of federal-provincial relations in this context?

Abbottabad, Manshera, Battagram and Kohistan are the worst affected areas in NWFP. According to government figures reveal that over 10,000 have lost their lives, with more than 15,000 injured and over 2,00,000 people rendered homeless. However, the opposition and the international organizations contest these figures. Towns like Balakot, Alie, Garhi Habib Ullah and Batal are the worst affected with more than 50 per cent of material damages. Children in particular are the most vulnerable; 93 per cent of the educational institutions are destroyed. Several volunteer groups played a key role in rescue and relief when both the provincial and federal governments were initially paralysed after the quake. The local administration and army formations are coordinating relief efforts with army helicopters surveying quake-hit areas in order to assess damage and identify areas that have been inaccessible. However, coordination with elected representatives has proved to be tougher. The provincial assembly indulged in irrelevant discussions during the crucial debate on how to tackle the catastrophe by focusing on Major-General Shaukat Sultan having breakfast at the time of the quake during Ramzan. The ruthless cold weather in Kaghan, Patan, Batgram and the neighbouring locations has hindered relief operations. Political groups like the MMA vociferously opposed the NWFP Chief Minister attending the National Security Council meeting specially convened to discuss quake rehabilitation. This only reiterates how parties have tried to put relief measures on the backburner for scoring political points.

The provincial discontent over the federal government was apparent when the NWFP Assembly unanimously passed a resolution demanding that the latter transfer all foreign and domestic donations to the former for relief work. The Assembly, in its resolution also asked the federal government to write off outstanding loans against people in the earthquake-hit areas. The federal government released Rs 500 mn and has pledged an additional Rs 1000 mn for the dead and wounded in NWFP. The provincial government has projected Rs 20 bn to build new homes and Rs 12 bn towards infrastructural reconstruction.

Many foreign rescue teams operating in NWFP include WHO, UNICEP, and teams from Iran, Jordan, China, Poland, Philippines, France and Italy. Substantial aid has been provided by the US, the World Bank and other foreign donors, but it has not reached the people in the province. Though the services of local, national and international NGOs, donor countries and common people are being lauded for their humanitarian work, the indolent attitude of the federal government has been condemned. Frustration over being marginalized in comparison to the relief efforts in Azad Kashmir and Northern areas has been quietly building up as international media attention has also been more focused on the latter area owing to the region's obvious strategic importance as a conflict area. The implications for the ongoing Indo-Pak peace process vis-à-vis movement along and across the Line of Control (LoC) and cooperation in relief operations has concentrated international attention mostly on Kashmir, though all affected regions have been facing similar obstacles.

A Provincial Disaster Management Cell has been set up to regulate relief activities in health sector in the earthquake-hit areas of the province. To get a fair share for the province is a crucial task and politicization of this key aspect could only make the inter-provincial divide in Pakistan sharper. The frontier province has been fighting for its share in the National Finance Commission (NFC) award for financial allocation, Indus River System Authority IRSA) for water distribution among other things. The federal government needs to wake up to this call and make use of this opportunity to win over the confidence of the frontier people with timely and equitable relief allocation. Disaster management needs to rise above provincial politics and apathy towards the province.

USCRI Anti-Warehousing Campaign

Merrill Smith, Editor,

World Refugee Survey,

U. S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants

1. Egyptian Rights Groups Call for Investigation of Refugee Massacre
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR), along with more than 44 opposition and independent Members of Parliament, other civic groups, and former UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Adel Imam, called for an investigation into the pre-dawn police riot December 30 that left some 30 or more Sudanese demonstrators dead, half of them children, which the government rejected. The UNHCR itself, however, which had reportedly called for the authorities to disperse the refugees, has not joined in. The Government still holds nearly 500 of the demonstrators in detention, although it has backed away from earlier threats to deport them. A government spokesman said UNHCR would have three months to review the cases of the remaining detainees. Police in Yemen broke up a similar demonstration earlier in the month, killing at least one.

Many of the refugees were seeking third country resettlement—an option available to less than one-half of one percent of the world’s refugees—but those in Yemen also asked UNHCR to register them so that they would be allowed to work and to send their children to school and those in Egypt sought refugee status determinations which UNHCR had ceased in 2004. Egypt and Yemen are both parties to the 1951 Refugee Convention but neither has implemented it with legislation. EOHR called upon the legislature to pass such legislation and to amend the restrictive 2003 employment law that makes it virtually impossible for refugees to get work permits.

2. Thailand to Educate Refugees; Might Allow Work
Thailand’s education ministry decided in mid-December to provide education including Thai, English, and vocational skills, to 140,000 refugees from Myanmar confined to the country’s nine camps along the western border beginning in 2006. The Thai office of the Non-formal Education Commission will also provide computers, textbooks, and TV. Until now, vocational training has been restricted to activities such as candle- and soap-making, weaving, sewing, and agricultural projects.According to UNHCR. This new Thai initiative may also help with prospects of employment for refugees as they wait for the situation to improve in Myanmar and return home. Currently, refugees are not allowed to work in Thailand, which is a source of frustration for an energetic refugee population. However, as government is now reconsidering this policy, refugees with Thai language and vocational skills would be able to contribute to the growth of the Thai economy should working restrictions be eased.

3. “Abuse without end: Burmese refugee women and children at risk of trafficking”
Excerpts from the January 6, 2006 report from the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children:

Refugee camps are referred to as "temporary shelters" although many refugees, such as the ethnic Karens and Karennis, have been warehoused in border camps for decades. The majority of Burmese who have not been designated as refugees under that narrow interpretation are deemed "illegal" by the Thai government, regardless of the person's reason for entering Thailand. …

Regardless of their status, moreover, the vast majority of Burmese residing in Thailand have extremely limited means to support themselves and their families. … They live in fear of detection by the Thai authorities, not only because they are vulnerable to deportation back to Burma but also because the authorities will often exploit their lack of status to extort bribes from them.

Refugees who live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border also face specific risks. … [Thai policy] requires prior written approval to enter or leave the camps, people leave surreptitiously to work on nearby farms for less than the wages paid to Thais; many simply abandon the camps permanently to seek relatively better wage labour in urban or semi-urban areas. Refugees who leave the camps are vulnerable to arrest, harassment, extortion and trafficking.

Forced into an underground existence by their lack of status and precarious living conditions, Burmese in Thailand are at strong risk of being trafficked. …

[T]he fear of deportation haunts people living without status. Even workers who were registered for employment with the Thai government stated that some employers held on to their registration cards despite Thai law stating the workers must keep the card with them at all times. … [T]he capacity to report abuses they experience is an inseparable issue from their insecure status in Thailand. …
The long-term stay of refugees in camps exposes an at-risk population to further exploitation… Traffickers take advantage of the lack of viable income generation options for refugees in the camps.
4. Unregistered refugees, untapped potential in Kenya
Dann Okoth and Maore Ithula’s “The pains and gains of hosting refugees” ran in the January 8, 2006 Standard. Excerpts:
The presumption is that every refugee involved in business in Kenya is registered and therefore liable to pay taxes — but this may not necessarily be so. …
Agatha Munyaka of Domestic Income Department at [Kenya Revenue Authority] … says that for a refugee to legally be involved in business, they would have to hold a Kenyan Identity card. That is only when they would be able to acquire a PIN number, which qualifies them to pay taxes.
Last May … [the] Refugee Consortium of Kenya … claimed that the more than 60,000 refugees in urban areas did not rely on any institution for their upkeep and instead relied on small and medium-scale businesses worth millions of shillings as well as lots of money remitted from abroad without the exchequer levying any taxes.
The foregoing brings into focus the issue of regulating the refugees in order to tap into their potential. The pending Refugee Bill would be a good starting point. If passed, the bill would enable asylum seekers to have employment opportunities including engaging freely in trade and other income generating activities. … Until the Bill is made law, most efforts the authorities are making are geared towards herding all refugees into the camps in the north.
5. ECRE: Warehousing is not “Effective Protection”
In its December publication, “Guarding Refugee Protection Standards in Regions of Origin”, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles finds that “Many [refugees] are ‘warehoused’ for many years in unsuitable camps or struggle to maintain an impossible existence on the margins of society in their host country” and declares that “Any state restricting the economic rights of refugees is not providing them with protection that is effective.” It cautions European powers against using minimalist conceptions of protection to justify forcible readmission or transfer of asylum seekers and recommends they share responsibility more equitably.
Other findings and recommendations include:
In order to address the issue of lack of political will within host countries, capacity-building actions need to include training in public education and advocacy.
European states should undertake concrete measures to help refugee hosting countries provide a better quality of protection to refugees.
European governments should ensure adequate funding is available to NGOs to enable them to support the strengthening of protection capacity in refugee hosting countries. [and]
[T]hey should ensure increased and better targeted development funding for host countries. This funding should facilitate the integration of refugees into the host societies, when this is a dignified and appropriate solution, and refugees’ self-reliance, independently of the availability of any durable solution.
6. “UNHCR as Catalyst Rather than Sovereign - Host Governments as Primary Agents of Protection Rather than ‘Implementing Partners’”
"Excerpts from Amy Slaughter’s Ending Refugee Warehousing” in the latest EMM [Episcopal Migration Ministries] Messenger (Winter 2005, No. 8; originally submitted to the North-South Civil Society Conference on Refugee Warehousing):

Breathing life into the Convention in terms of actual state practice requires political will and sufficient resources and infrastructure. Whether the rights in question ask that states actively provide something or refrain from certain actions (so-called “positive” vs. “negative” rights), there are clearly both political and financial costs for the host states that must be acknowledged, without backing off of advocacy for a fuller deployment of refugee rights.…

[A] paradigm shift is needed, namely a return to an emphasis on the host state as the primary agent of protection. This is not to back away from burden-sharing, but rather to more clearly identify what role each party can most productively play, among the host state, donor states and UNHCR. Particularly muddled is the division of responsibility between host states and UNHCR in many refugee-hosting areas.

Therefore, as a precursor to any approach to end refugee warehousing, it is necessary to strike a better balance between UNHCR and host state responsibility. This would involve reversing the trend that has placed UNHCR in the role traditionally played by host states as the primary agent of protection, and has cast host states in an increasingly minor supporting role. …
The presence of UNHCR in countries of first asylum, though vitally important and often indispensable, can inadvertently serve to buffer refugees from a direct experience of their local hosts, allowing misunderstanding and mistrust to foment between the two. Ultimately, this can hinder integration opportunities, as refugees and their hosts view one another with suspicion rather than finding commonalities and converging interests. …

When refugees can avoid dealing with their host government directly, they often will, for many reasons, both political and of convenience. This undermines possibilities for local integration and keeps refugees segregated during their stay in exile. If instead refugees were encouraged to learn the local language and customs, it is likely that options outside of the refugee camps would organically present themselves. …

[A]mong other factors, warehousing is both a result and symptom of UNHCR’s increasing protection role in many host states, and the move away from state responsibility and national ownership (to borrow a development term). In order to reverse this trend, the incentive structures will need to be revised, as the current incentives clearly perpetuate the status quo: namely, protracted camp-based protection.

7. Refugee Voices
Nepal: Bhutanese Women Organize
After 15 years in exile, a group of Bhutanese women refugees in Nepal have formed an organization called Voices for Change to share their stories.
Excerpt from Ganga’s story:
When I was a student, I had high hopes to become a great person. The aims of my life have been scattered. Just because of being a refugee, opportunities never knock at our door. When we go around looking for opportunity, many doors remain closed.

Life in the camp is very difficult particularly for women. Life is so uncertain that we have to live each day as it comes. Day by day the problem is getting more complex. Fifteen years have passed now since the problem began. …

When I see people of my age making a significant contribution for the community, I get inspired and try to make my mind to do the same. But as a refugee, I have come across so many limitations and restrictions to implement the ideas into reality. Slowly the spirit vanishes and I loose hope and give up. I have to look forward for others to do. …

I along with my friends are striving to look for a practical solution for all of us. We also want to live and progress in life. We intend to work together for finding practical solution (relief package) the people need now and want to contribute something to our society as a whole. We do not want to be burden to other people. We have formed a small working team named as “Voice for Change”.
Message to all the human rights activists around the world I strongly feel that the refugee camp is not a place to live all our lives. Human rights should be made accessible to all.
Excerpt from Pingala's story:
Personal perspective on the impact of long stay in the refugee Camp;
It is no good at all to keep human beings in the refugee camps for so long. Due to the prolonged nature of our problem the people are divided and loose faith on each other. The development process of life is decreasing. People forget to desire for better life. …
The innocent people keep dying everyday due to the lack of fundamental rights, while the stakeholders of the human rights keep themselves busy organizing human rights program and seminars. We are always made experimental tools. When we hear of human rights it sounds so good but it only reflects on paper for us. Our hope rises up when people talk of rights but at the same time it becomes difficult to convince us when it is not realized in practice. …
Meetings with leaders
I started meeting our leaders personally and expressed interest to contribute/get involved in the movement. Some encouraged, some discouraged and while some expressed to have legal background. I felt doubly discriminated, first being a challenge in a male dominated society and second being a refugee. All my freedoms are severely restricted…
Platform
I started searching for a platform for women like me to raise our voice and to extend support in searching solution to the problem. I attended many meetings with senior leaders and listened [to]them. It has become clear to me that they talked only about politics, i.e. democracy and human rights in Bhutan but they never talk on the day-to-day problem we are facing. Humanitarian problem[s have] no place in their agenda and are largely ignored.
My friend Ganga also had similar opinion and we agreed to share our idea with others friends. Friends like Uma and Rupa were very encouraging. We all felt an urgent need of a platform to highlight our day-to-day problem and seek for practical solution to the peoples’ problem. Therefore we agreed to form Voice for Change with a vision “to lend strength to the search for a solution to our problem”.
Recent visit to the camps in 2005
Recently during the festival, I visited many of our organizations and their heads and even went around the camps meeting our friends and relatives. I talked and listened to what they feel now, after fifteen years in the camp. The people are so frustrated and desperate with the situation that they feel very difficult to express their problems as they now feel that nothing will happen even if they share. The young boys and girls are really at risk without any opportunity at hand. The dormant nature of our movement has further annoyed the people. There are no opportunities to the people. The old people are seen praying for their early death.
UK: "We don't want support from the state, we want to be given the chance to work for ourselves"
Asylum seekers from Zimbabwe are not allowed to work in the United Kingdom, despite a court ruling that it is unsafe for any of them to return. Several testified before Parliament December 14, 2005, as reported by the British Refugee Council. Maeve Sherlock, Chief Executive of the Refugee Council backed the call for the right to work saying "It is inexcusable that we are still forcing vulnerable people into destitution." For more on Council's campaign against destitution and for the right to work. Following are excerpts from the asylum seekers' resumes:

Tendai Williard Chinhanhu

One day I would hope to return to Zimbabwe with the experience I have gained from British coaches. I also wish I could help train young British athletes, and the young runners from my club (Poole Runners) in Dorset are already reaping the benefits from having trained together with me, but when I was released from detention on 7th July 2005 I was given a letter telling me I was not allowed to work or volunteer. I would love to be able to earn my living as a carpenter.

Nkosinathi Ndlovu

As a doctor I feel it is my duty is to save lives and to help the sick to recover. Also I would like to carry out research in the field of cancer and would like to be a positive influence to young children my volunteering my time in community projects.

Harris Nyatsanza
As a teacher I would like a chance to contribute to the society in a positive and meaningful way. I would like to take back to Zimbabwe the skills that I will get from working inside the British education system.

8. JRS Surveys Detention of Refugees in Commonwealth Countries
Jesuit Refugee Service presented the results of their survey on “ Detention of Asylum-Seekers and Refugees in Commonwealth Countries” in November 2005. Excerpts:
All refugees in Zambia are required to reside in one of 5 refugee camps or settlements, unless they have got a work or study permit, a self employment permit, or have been given permission to stay in an urban area on medical or security grounds. For a refugee to obtain a self-employment permit, he/she must have US $25,000 in assets. A work permit costs US $400 and a study permit is US $100. It is quite obvious that most refugees cannot afford to pay these amounts of money. Consequently, most refugees who move out of the camps into a city are technically living there illegally (without authorisation from the government) and are at risk of being arrested and detained. It is easy to see that the system is open to being abused by immigration and police officers who frequently round up and detain refugees and asylum seekers for unspecified periods of time. Cases of these officers soliciting bribes from their victims are very common.
The vast majority of the refugees and asylum seekers who end up in detention in Zambia are not there because they have committed criminal offences, but simply because they have violated the administrative requirement that they remain in designated areas. …
In Tanzania, there is a strict policy of encampment. The refugees are required at all times to be in their camp; otherwise they risk being arrested. JRS Tanzania reports that in the Ngara area refugees are regularly arrested for being outside the camp without a travel permit; often just for collecting firewood outside the designated areas. They need to collect firewood in order to cook their food, so they are being criminalised for fulfilling their survival needs. … Once the refugees are released from the prisons, which are very far from the camps, they are required to return to the camps on foot. In many cases they again get rearrested by the police during their long walk back to their camp and get charged again with being outside the camps…a vicious circle.
In Nairobi in Kenya, again most of the refugees in detention are people arrested for lack of valid documents and being illegally in the country.
JRS Uganda reports that in practice Uganda does not detain asylum seekers while their status is being determined. This is mainly due to the intense training on refugee issues of immigration officers and the police throughout the country by an NGO called the Refugee Law Project.
However JRS Uganda reports that there are incidents where refugees in Uganda have been unjustifiably arrested and even tortured. And there is a problem with the distribution of asylum seekers’ identification papers. In Kampala, these are usually given to the head of the family. This means that children are left without any kind of identification, and they live in constant fear of being arrested for “being idle and disorderly” (a major cause for arrests) and for illegal entry - since they are foreigners without documentation. Both men and women are supposed to be given ID documents, but in practice only the men are given them. Many refugee women in Uganda are in business that involves them in traveling long distances selling items like clothes, and this leaves them vulnerable to unjustifiable arrests when they cannot prove their identity. It is particularly hard for them to explain themselves to the police when they don’t speak the language, as is the case for so many refugees around the world.
Refugees in Uganda are provided with settlement areas less restrictive than the refugee camps in many other African countries but their freedom of movement is still restricted to these settlement areas if they do not have a permit. …
There’s more on detention of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia, Jamaica, India, South Africa, and Sri Lanka in the full document.
9. Warehousing in the New Yorker
John Lahr’s review of Ariene Mnouchkine’s play about refugees in the August 1, 2005 New Yorker refers to warehousing. Excerpts:
In hide-and-seek, it's a tragedy if you are not found: this turns out to be the existential predicament of the refugees who populate Ariane Mnouchkine's pageant of the uprooted, "Le Dernier Caravanserail (Odyssees)." … Set in notorious detention camps in France, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia, the story is played out by thirty-six actors onstage, and, around the world, by the twelve million people who are trapped in a ghost life of detention centers and legal rigmarole. … Mnouchkine improvised the piece in six months from stories that she and two of her actors had collected from refugees between 1999 and 2002. … Through the caprice of history, these emigres find themselves with no rights, no voice, no place. (Half of the world's refugees are under the age of eighteen, and, as Caroline Moorehead writes, in "Human Cargo," "almost five per cent of these are unaccompanied minors, travelling the world on their own." Another seven million refugees have been, according to the World Refugee Survey, "warehoused for ten years or more.") … Most of the action takes place in a sort of Rubic's Cube that Mnouchkine has devised to give isolation angularity and insight: from almost every angle, the refugees are caged…

Time for the United States to Honor International Standards in Emergencies

Roberta Cohen, Co-Director

The Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement

The Brookings Institution, September 09, 2005

The Congressional Black Caucus is right. The more than one million Americans so painfully uprooted by Hurricane Katrina are not refugees as the media often mistakenly call them. Rather, they are internally displaced persons? IDPs for short. A refugee is someone who flees across borders because of persecution, and once over the border, benefits from a well-established international system of protection and assistance. For those displaced internally, their governments have the main responsibility to assure their well being and security.The Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, introduced into the United Nations in 1998, are international standards for persons forcibly uprooted from their homes by conflict and natural disaster who remain within their own countries. Given the disastrously inadequate initial performance in dealing with this catastrophe, our government would do well to become familiar with these guidelines both for the current rescue effort and for future emergencies.

The guidelines, in the words of the UN Secretary-General, are "the basic international norm for protection" of internally displaced persons. Although not a binding treaty, UN resolutions regularly call them a standard." The US Agency for International Development calls them "auseful tool and framework" in its 2004 policy on assistance to internally displaced persons in foreign countries.

It is now time for the U.S. government to apply these standards to displaced Americans here at home. The UN Secretary-General's Representative on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, Walter Kalin, is available to advise governments on how best to put the guidelines into practice. To begin with, governments have a responsibility to prevent or mitigate the conditions that lead to displacement. In natural disasters, this means heeding early warnings, developing adequately funded and effective disaster preparedness plans at the local, state and national levels, ensuring that there are means to carry out the response, and evacuating people who cannot leave on their own and are inharm's way. Such steps should be seen as the fundamental right of populations living in high-risk areas. When public officials fail to take reasonable measures to protect them, claims for compensation need to be considered.

In distributing aid, fairness is essential. Discrimination on the basis of race, color, national, ethnic or social origin, social status, political opinion, disability or similar criteria must be prohibited. This means that the poor, who in the Gulf Coast are mainly black and Hispanic, should also have received help in being evacuated, while the most vulnerable? Children, expectant mothers, the disabled, sick, and elderly? Should have been attended to with the least possible delay. A review process should be set up to hear charges of discriminatory treatment and ensure remedial action.

The guidelines also address protecting and assisting the victims of disasters. Those uprooted have the right to expect to receive humanitarian aid in the form of essential food, potable water, clothing, medical services, sanitation, and basic shelter and housing as well as assistance later in rebuilding their lives. They are to be protected from acts ofviolence, rape, and lawlessness. When governments are not able to fulfil these responsibilities, they must promptly call upon the international community for assistance. In extreme situations, if governments refuse outside help yet fail to fulfill their commitments; the international community has the responsibility to intercede.

Consultation with the displaced is of cardinal importance. It may not be practical in the immediate aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but in the recovery and reconstruction phases, when people begin to decide whether to return to ravaged Gulf Coast areas or resettle, and homes, businesses and local economies begin to be rebuilt, consultative mechanisms are essential. Exclusion from the decisions that affect their lives will not only heighten helplessness but undermine the effectiveness of the aid provided. The government must also help the displaced to recover, where possible, their property and possessions or provide or assist the persons in obtaining compensation or some form of reparation.The UN guidelines are a valuable tool for federal, state, and local government officials. They are being adopted in one form or another by a growing number of countries. Were the United States to follow the guidelines, it would find itself on firmer ground for reacting to the current emergency and planning for future ones.

Barbara Harrell-Bond talks to Aditi Bhaduri

Dr Barbara Harrell-Bond, American University in Cairo (AUC), Distinguished Adjunct Professor and Advisor to FMRS, is credited with being one of the architects of the field of forced migration studies. Since founding the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University in 1982, Dr. Harrell-Bond has been working ceaselessly in advocating for the rights and needs of refugees and forced migrants, helping to establish legal aid programs for refugees, including Africa Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) in Cairo. Dr. Harrell- Bond combined her advocacy with scholarly research and prolific writing, much of it focused on holding governments and inter-governmental agencies accountable for fulfilling their responsibilities towards forced migrants. Her book Imposing Aid broke new ground by providing critical analysis of the refugee aid regime. Her most recent co-authored book, Rights in Exile, has just been published. In June this year she was awarded title of Officer of Order of the British Empire (OBE) in rightful recognition of her many years of service to refugees.A few days before that, in Cairo, she shared with Aditi Bhaduri some reflections on.

How she got interested in refugee studies:

I got interested in refugee studies. In 1981 I was writing about the war in the Western Sahara and I went to Algeria and visited the Saharan refugee settlements and I was so impressed with how they were managing in unbelievably hostile environment, very cold in winter and very hot in summer. So when I came back I talked to Oxfam, which was the agency that sent me. And I asked how come the Sahara refugees are so well organized - they do not have any NGOs helping them and they are so different from other refugees that you assist. Because I had read some literature and someone said, "Oh, we're so busy saving life in emergencies that when we get around to help I think its too late, we make too many mistakes." So I just got curious how humanitarian agencies operated in the midst of emergency. So I got a fellowship from a college in Oxford and so went to study an emergency and the emergency that I found was Ugandans coming across the border into Sudan where they started coming and settling down when Idi Amin was overthrown and when the military launched the war against the north. So that was the emergency that I studied and then the college suggested that I start a refugee centre and so that's how it happened.The refugee studies centers that she got started.

I was the resident Director of our program in Oxford; it was to stimulate academic programs in other countries that have refugee situations. So over time a lot of programs got started - there was the Masters Program in South Africa, a Refugee Study Centre in Tanzania, in Kenya, in Uganda and also one in Bangladesh. I was never successful, while I was directing the Refugee Studies Centre, to get the Indians interested but during that time UNHCR also gave some funding in India. I think Calcutta was one of the places that got started and they came to a conference in Bangladesh and we encouraged them to start off a multi-disciplinary program, because the course's appeal is multi-disciplinary - the laws, psychology, social sciences, politics etc. In the meantime there was also a program at York University in Canada in 1982. But it dealt with re-settlement and since that time there were programs at Tafts University, at Columbia, on health and forced migration and I think it spread to a lot of places in the world. We have a list. And in lots of places they were teaching Refugee Studies but before 1982 it had never been seen as an academic subject. There were people who had written books and articles but they were scattered around the world so if you visit Oxford you will see the library where we tried to put together all this material from all the disciplines, historical this material as well as books. In the beginning we had a hard time spending our budget on books because there were not so many books but now of course its hard to keep up with the literature because so much is coming out.On what brought about this change....

Well, it was obviously the right idea for the time because in Oxford we started with almost no money and I realized that no one would fund an idea, they needed to have real things going on. So we started lots of activities including an academic course and so people came from far and wide and also London was a good base for people who came from the field. People from UNHCR, people from humanitarian agencies so they could always come and in the beginning I couldn't have started it growing unless I closed the doors because people were so concerned that there was no place where people thought about these issues. People went out and did humanitarian work whether they knew anything about it or not. There was a real need that people underwent training so we started a summer school. So I think we were good advertisers for this field as well as the fact that people were hungry for an academic program.

On an increase of forced migrants

Yes of course, unfortunately the numbers have vastly increased and the big issue of migration as the world gets more unequal and as populations grow, and as unfortunately wars increase. I don't like the phrase low intensity conflict because I think if somebody is bombing your house it doesn't feel very low intensity. But these kinds of wars have greatly increased since we began the program in Oxford. Of course there are more.Regarding the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), of course there are a huge number of IDPS, particularly in India, from development project, people who are forcibly displaced. And so although we were saying that we are going to work ourselves out of business with a better world where there was no persecution, unfortunately that world does not seem to be very much on the horizon.

On UNHCR's work: With refugees and IDPs...

I for one do not believe that UNHCR should be involved at all with IDPs. I think it dilutes the concept of a refugee for which it has provision in international law and UNHCR's mandate is specifically about people seeking refuge from persecution and its my view that IDPs are a problem for other agencies. If we had a strong UN organisation on human rights it should be definitely involved in the IDP issue It should be criticizing governments for how they are treating IDPs, the Red Cross should be involved with victims of war inside and outside countries, UNDP should be involved in terms of funding projects which would allow people to go home or re establish themselves. It's not an UNHR job, but unfortunately the UNHCR is an inter-governmental body and it has to respond or feels it has to respond to the pressures from governments. Of course pressure from governments would make asylum go out the window and make UNHCR into the world's largest welfare agency, which unfortunately it has become with its emphasis on repatriation and not on protection and integration. And I think it's a terrible mistake in the direction that UNHCR has taken and Mrs. Ogata's recent book is a reflection of that. So I feel very strongly that we should protect the institution of asylum. There are always going to be people who are persecuted by their governments so they should be protected.

UNHCR has done commendable work with regard to IDPs in some places like in Sri Lanka but there was really no need for it to be involved. Some other institution could also have done that. There was no reason for UNHCR to be involved. UNHCR was involved in some very dubious repatriation of Sri Lankans and that’s the problem. The problem the pressure from the donors, the pressure from governments, that make up the majority of UNHCR's contributors to its budget are all concerned about keeping refugees in and of course Bosnia became the worst case scenario where UNHCR had messed it up with the right not to be uprooted. But what that meant for the Bosnians was the right to stay where they would be killed by the snipers and of course Serebrenica all showed what an absolute failure that policy was. Southern Sudan is another case in point where all kinds of agencies led by UNHCR are doing the operation likewise in Sudan, which forces the refugees to stay in the country. And in my view when there is a civil war the best thing for all to do is get out because civilians are used to feed the war and the humanitarian aid is used to feed the war and wars keep going because humanitarian aid is there to supply soldiers inadvertently, or purposely. What I mean for example in Sudan the SPLA demanded that the agencies pay them for being there, food is diverted to the military, so we keep wars going with humanitarian aid.

On ensuring "protection"...

UNHCR does not adequately protect refugees who are outside their countries - I mean we have just written a book "Rights in Exile: Janus-faced Humanitarianism" which I wrote with the lawyer Guglielmo Verdirame. UNHCR does not protect refugees adequately, so it cannot protect IDPs, where it has to confront the Government directly. What's forgotten is that there are usually human rights organizations in these countries, for example in India, you have many very strong human rights organizations trying to protect the rights of internally displaced people uprooted by dams and development projects. There should be much more funding to strengthen these organizations. UNHCR always argues that feeding people, setting up camps etc. is part of their protection but in fact that argument falls because camps are not ways to protect people - camps become seedbeds for political ferment. For example, in Uganda, where I am going to go this afternoon, there is a recruiting officer from SPLA in every camp and every refugee who came to us in Uganda was fleeing the SPLA and not fleeing the Khartoum government, because of the grossly bad human rights record of the SPLA. So to think that you can protect them in camps is ridiculous when you have recruiting officers entering them, when the Ugandan government was sometimes actively, sometimes tacitly supporting the SPLA against the Sudan government. So it's a very complicated situation but UNHCR should concentrate on the protection of refugees in my view.

On repatriation

And in my view also, which is controversial, UNHCR should not be involved in repatriation. If you look at the (Refugee) Convention, it does not even mention repatriation except that host governments are bound not to refoul. However, the General Assembly allowed UNHCR to become involved in repatriation. For example how can UNHCR protect me, an Afghan in Pakistan when it’s inside Afghanistan helping so-called "returnees"? How can it agrees with me that it’s not safe for me to go back to Afghanistan? It's a contradiction in roles and the temptation has been to become the largest welfare organisation in the world, not the protection agency. And again if you look at the 1950 statute its very clear that UNHCR was supposed to lean on NGOs to do the necessary emergency feeding and so on and not do itself. Of course it does not do itself in theory because it has been implementing partners, but the emphasis is on relief.

There is another huge structural problem for UNHCR, for every agency, and that's the relief budgets, the emergency budgets are always easier to get than development. So you can get the emergency money with hardly any trouble. Development funds are much more difficult to get. So, the temptation is to keep everyone in a perpetual emergency situation rather than to work towards their integration and I think that the contrary example of a good government policy is again India with its policy towards the Tibetans in which they are allowed autonomy in the country and they are not forced to go to camps by the government. Its another question whether they are encouraged to live in Tibetan villages by the Tibetan government but that's another matter. But they are free to make a life for themselves and where the funding has been for education, for development, rather than for some kind of emergency rations for some camp.

On the UN Convention on Refugees...

(Smiles) One would hope that India would sign that convention though one of the Indian professors, Prof. Chimni argues that India should not sign the convention, but he argues in a very coherent way about the failure of UNHCR to uphold the convention. So, I'll let him comment on that issue but the big problem in India is for the refugees who are not Tibetans and I will hope that he has read the studies done on refugees in Delhi, which must be true of refugees all over India. Of course, India has great poverty, it will be very difficult for the Indian govt. to devote funds to these refugees but that's what the international assistance should support the Indian govt. to expand its health, social services and so on and of course India should protect these refugees from refoulement and give them some kind of a legal status in India.

There was an attempt to modify the convention by adding Article 2 to the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention and with the Carthagena declaration which talks about massive human rights abuses and the OAU convention which talks about civil disorder as aresult of foreign occupation. The UNHCR in the 1970s was trying to push the OAU definition of a refugee on to the convention for the whole world to recognise and they were moderately successful. For example in Europe there has been what's called a B status or class II refugees but the point is that it makes absolute sense that refugees flee for all kinds of reasons.

On what Governments need to do…

For example, Europe is aging so it needs workers so how ridiculous it is to spend millions to keep people out. I think Spain's recent act is a good one of giving amnesty to groups who come in anyway. And the USA has done that on a regular basis, they have given Guatemalans amnesty for example, and allowed them to stay and legalise them. I think that's the direction in which we should go because as I said if there were free movement eventually we wouldn't be swamped. For example, Britain, which has put up its barriers as high as possible but has to accept others from new European countries, and is accepting thousands and thousands of Poles for example. But somehow these Polish people are finding jobs which the British could not do and their economy is thriving, though Britain is one of the most expensive places to live in and I know because I lived there for some time but nevertheless it needs these people so why it is so restrictive of refugees? Amongst the Afghans it discovered so many who are doctors and at the same time Britain is going around in the so called third world scooping up doctors and teachers that it needs in its schools. Amongst the Zimbabwean refugees it wants to send back there are many teachers. I mean how ridiculous not to use the talent that comes into your country and give these people an opportunity to retrain if necessary, which is what they did with Afghan doctors and let them work. There are all these niches in the market.

If you look at Egypt, Egypt does not give the refugees automatic right to work, but we recently had someone do a study about Sadat City, and Sadat City which wasbuilt for a million and a half people but only has a hundred thousand but nevertheless there are many factories, training course and the whole agro-business around it and they longed to have the refugees come in and take these jobs. Unfortunately, its 70 miles from UNHCR so refugees have no idea about how to get there but if someone managed their migration to a part of the country where there is employment and where they need employment how much better it would be for the country and for the refugees. I don't think people think enough so instead of recommending any policy every country has to really review its own policy and see what needs to be done for itself, but guided always by the rights of refugees under the convention.

When I talk about bogus asylum seekers, well maybe there are lots of them but that's because the door for immigration is so closed like in a country like Britain, there are countries like Spain that cannot escape people getting in because people can keep trying, sometimes drowning to get across the Mediterranean so they get in and of course Spain realizes that it needs them.

Ireland, which is always thought of as a country of out-migration, has benefited greatly from the fact that it received refugees and other migrants. There is a book called "More People, More Trees" about Kenya, a particular place that was almost desert and for some reason ppl started migrating there and they reclaimed all the land. Its amazing what more people can do in a desertified area if they are given more rights.

On Imposed AID

My first book on refugees was on "Imposing Aid"...India has been quite good in warding off but of course aid is imposed. The aid policy of UNHCR in Southern Sudan and its partner NGOs was an imposed one. The camp policy was an imposed one.On Darfur…

Darfur problem has been going on for hundreds of years it has its roots. The government, of Khartoum is not constrained and I think we have a situation of that horrible word called ethnic cleansing. I am given to understand that as they uproot the farmers who also happen to be black Africans they are also importing Chadeans to take over the land. Because it is a customary land situation - people without written titles of land and so on - it's a horrific situation and I don't see it being resolved.

It has been brought to light now because journalists went. Journalists went, you are key to any situation being covered but you don't go to Bangladesh for example, where there are Rohingyas pouring out of Burma and there have been three attempts to repatriate them with great loss of lives and they are still coming but UNHCR is not registering them and journalists don't go so in Bangladesh. Dr. Abrar Chowdhury is head of the migration program there and all his efforts to get UNHCR to take notice of Rohingyas go unnoticed because there is no press there. And we are so dependent on journalists and unfortunately not too many journalists do their homework before they go to a situation but at least when they do go and there is some kind of press coverage then people know. But unfortunately there are many emergencies where journalists don't go for example; we hardly have any coverage of the Congo crisis, which is just immense.

I don't really know why journalists suddenly descended on Sudan, perhaps we don't have many journalists or freelancers and of course politics has to do with it. Perhaps these (allegations about highlighting Darfur to distract attention from Palestine and Iraq) are true. Of course it would be very hard to ensure that every emergency was covered. I remember Southern Sudan in 1982 - it was an emergency that you cannot imagine, the scale of it. The Ugandans wanted to stay home, they moved a little further from their homes to protect themselves, a little further, they would think that they can go back and they stayed in the bush unless there were literally thousands starving. It was a horrific situation and the UNHCR Programme Officer with whom I was working was doing his best to get journalists there and that's against the rules of UNHCR - you are never supposed to contact a journalist. But he was trying to get someone there to cover the situation. I finally got so angry and I wrote a letter to my husband in oxford to get in contact with the British Refugee Council and to do something about it and unfortunately my telex got leaked. But in fact UNHCR came (they don't like any negative press coverage) and when they saw what was happening, heads rolled, planeloads of supplies came in and that's unfortunately how the process works. If there is no witness on the ground to make international coverage of a situation it just doesn't happen.

On bringing the condition of bad roads in Sierra Leone to the notice of its Government....That was a pretty different but good situation. That was a village in Sierra Leone where the village built a road and linked it with the main road. But the best lesson of that incident was to ask people what they really need and then to deliver what they really need.On "good practices" of states regarding refugees…

Regarding refugees, I'll talk about Malawi. Malawi had a good UNHCR official who went there when UNHCR was finally allowed into Malawi and said lets do it differently. He proposed that the money be put through the Ministry of Health and the Govt. decided to put it through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and they didn't confine refugees to camps in the beginning, it was only in the extreme when they had a million Mozambicans in a country of 4 million that some camps were established. But mostly people were freely settled amongst the locals.

'Don't Forget Us': The Education And Gender-Based Violence Protection Needs Of Adolescent Girls From Darfur In Chad

By H. Heninger and M. McKenna,

Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children, July 2005

This document examines the conditions in a number of refugee camps for people from Darfur in Chad, focusing on education needs and protection from gender-based violence for adolescent girls.

The findings include:

• all refugee camps had education programmes. In most camps this included primary grades 1-6, some adult literacy classes, and some preschool
• however, at the time of the study UNICEF had not provided adequate shelters for schools, school supplies or guidance to teachers or camp management due to a number of contingencies
• a major problem is the inadequate incentives given to teachers by the UNHCR. School headmasters lost teachers who left their jobs to make more money in other ways, such as selling firewood. The few women teachers in the camps teach only the lowest grades.
• thousands of girls and women have been raped and/or beaten in Darfur and in Chad. In most camps there were reports of women who had been raped by the members of the janjaweed militia
• in some camps programmes were being developed with refugee communities to integrate and support mothers and their children born as a result of rape. However, very little psychosocial assistance was available to girls and women victims of gender-based violence

Recommendations from the study include:

• NGOs and United Nations agencies need to keep pushing for girls and young women to take part in decision-making in camp management, youth committees, women's groups, and in schools
• all health care providers should immediately establish and implement care for the survivors of violence following established protocols
• semi-permanent classrooms need to be built to protect students from heat, wind, rain and sandstorms
• a programme of providing incentives to parents so they send girls to school should be developed and implemented
• literacy classes should be available for all refugees regardless of age or gender

Bhutanese refugees call for UN intervention

Source: www.nepalnews.com, September 09, 2005

Bhutanese refugees have renewed their call upon the United Nations (UN) to intervene immediately to resolve the 15-year-old refugee saga.
In a petition sent to UN Secertary General Kofi Annan through UN office system in Kathmandu on Thursday, the refugees have urged Mr. Annan to take note of the unresolved and prolonged human rights situation and initiate urgent actions to resolve the crisis before it goes out of hand.
In the petition, Peoples' Forum for Human Rights and Development (PFHRD) - an organisation floated by Bhutanese refugees has urged the UN Secretary General to "ensure uninterrupted and adequate relief assistance to the Bhutanese refugees until the problem is resolved, and they return home with dignity and guarantee their human rights."
"The state of statelessness of over 100,000 Bhutanese refugees must end now," the organisation said.
Meanwhile, Bhutanese refugee groups in eastern Nepal have warned the Nepal government not to fall into trap of Bhutanese government and raise the refugee issue at the forthcoming general assembly of the United Nations.
Referring to the telephone conversation between Bhutan's Foreign Minister Khandu Wangchuk and his Nepalese counterpart Ramesh Nath Pandey, spokesperson for the Bhutan Peoples' Party, Gopal Gurung, said: "Bhutan has expressed willingness to seek an amicable solution to the refugee problem keeping in mind the upcoming 60th UN General Assembly, and there is no way it can be trusted given its past behaviour." Refugee leaders have asserted that the problem could no more be resolved through ministerial-level talks and that intervention from the international community is a must.

Destitute of Development

Nandini Basistha

Development is an inalienable comprehensive economic, social, cultural and political process, which aims at the constant improvement of the well being of the entire population. (‘Declaration on the Right to Development’, adopted by General Assembly Resolution (41/128 of 4 Dec 1986) from the book, The Right to Development: A Primer, by Centre for Development and Human Right, Sage Publications, 2004, p 253.)But the governments of most of the third world countries put stress on the process of industrialization and modernization as means of development. For helping such process, governments generally manifest developmental projects, like building of dams, expressways, highways, canals, airports and new towns. Every developmental project requires land. So governments generally encroaches lands from the local inhabitants. The segment of population that is ‘developed’ by the development projects is different from the segment that is ‘displaced’. (An EPW DISCUSSION ON ‘Linking Development to Displacement’, by M. Bharati and R.S. Rao.) Displacement provides a grim scenario of landlessness, homelessness, lack of food, loss of common resources, marginalisation and breakdown of social networks. Sometimes the directly displaced people, who have inhabited the project-sides for generations, get meager amount of compensation from the government. But indirectly displaced, who losses the control over natural and environmental resources, thereby deprives of the traditional means of livelihood, are the forgotten people of governmental rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) policy. Thus the ‘Displaced’ has to bear the price of development in the larger interest of ‘Nation’. (Globalization, State Policies and Sustainability of Rights, by Madhuresh Kumar, MCRG, 2005,P1.) They are the ‘Destitutes of Development’. (The phrese ‘Destitute of Development’ was quated from a letter to the EPW Edittor on March 6, 2004.)
All of the countries of South Asia (viz. India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Srilanka, Bangladesh and Maldives) are developing countries. So displacement of communities from their ancestral lands has been integral to the developing economics of South Asia. (Quoted from an essay of Atta ur Rehman Sheikh, ‘Pakistan: Development and Disaster’, from the book ‘Internal Displacement in South Asia’, edited by PaulaBanergee, Sabyasachi Basu Roy Choudhury andSamir Kumar Das, Sage Publications, 2005,p63) The heavy emphasis on large scale projects for infrastructure development of the country has laid to the displacement of millions in South Asia. (Ibid, p 63) But the R&R programme of the displaced persons are marginalized in project plans for many reasons.
Firstly, being low-income countries, South Asian states have to accept loans from different international organizations (like World Bank, Asian Development Bank etc.) for fulfilling monetary requirements of the developmental projects. (As stated in World Bank Report, 2000) These large, foreign funded projects had too many aid related conditions, attached by funding agencies. (Development: World Commition on Dams holds South Asia hearing, http://www.sunsonline.org) In most of the cases, there are no recommendations rehabilitation policy.
Secondly, no Govt of South Asia has concrete policy for rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced people. Even they do not follow the international principles on IDPs and human rights.
Thirdly, sometimes the govt. tries to follow comprehensive rehabilitation and resettlement policy. But for corruption and malpractices of the authorities this good will cannot transform into good effort. According to Dr. Paula Banerjee, "States have rarely produced well thought out policies on relief and rehabilitation of the IDPs and have failed to carry out measures with a long perspective. Whatever has happened as relief measures has been the product of ad hoc steps taken by the state." (‘Internal Displacement in South Asia’, ibid, p16)
For all these reasons, for sake of 'development', thousands of families are displaced and threw in the path of uncertainty. The brunt of displacement sweeps away the separate identities of people. According to one observer, 'When people are uprooted because their land is wanted for economic reasons usually associated with visions of national development, their multiple identities tend to disappear; they become engendered, uprooted.'(ibid, p297)
As in any other kind of displacement women and children are also particularly vulnerable in development - induced displacement. (ibid, p297) Women as marginalized entities within marginalized communities are of ten forced to shoulder the on deal of displacement far more intensely. (ibid, p297) But gender disaggregated data are seldom available in any developmental project involving displacement. (ibid, p297) Women are marginalized even in compensation policy in many ways.
Firstly, as women generally do not own land, they do not get any compensation. But, they have lost their means of livelihood for developmental projects. So they are affected economically.
Secondly, the cash compensation generally disempowers women, just because women do not handle cash or for that matter have control over financial resource within the family. (ibid, p85) Therefore, the decision to spend the money lies with the men of the family. (ibid, p85) In many cases, the male member spent the money for their own amusement, not for the family.
Thirdly, the disintegration of social network of the displaced communities and loss of land and common resources compels the women to do domestic work or other jobs for survival. All of these severely impacts on the health and nutrition of women, as well as on their children, who remain without education in most of the cases. (ibid, p85)
Fourthly, even women face severe problems in resettlement sites. These problems start from something as apparently small as no separate toilets for women to bigger problems such as refusal to give women headed households the status of PAF. (ibid, p85)
Now, I like to cite the example of some countries of South Asia, in which development brings disaster for the displaced people.
Pakistan
From the eve of independence in 1947, the government of Pakistan have been considering industrialization and modernization as the panacea of development, as the mere dependence on agriculture produce would not make the state viable and stable. (ibid, p300) Apart from dam building, numerous other projects have been planned, like expressways, highways, roads, canals, water reservoirs and new towns. For these developments it is included among the Newly Industrializing Countries and its growth rate has increased. But this development is not holistic development. Because concern for resettlement of uprooted communities has always been secondary in project plans and the experience has shown that the implementation of resettlement action plans continued to be faulty and poor. (ibid, p63) As a result, Pakistan's record on the scoreboard of forced eviction of the people, lack of comprehensive plans for resettlement and rehabilitation of livelihood, undervalued compensation, delayed payment, relocations and problems of integration of dislocated communities is quite dismal. (ibid, p64) If we critically analyze some developmental projects it can be bitterly understood that development often led to displacement.
Case Studies: Ghazi - Barotha Dam
Large dams have been declared the bedrock of Pakistan's agricultural economy and industrial base from the early decades of its national policy and planning. (ibid, p65) But there dam projects had evolved many controversies as these had ignored community participation and R & R policy.(ibid, p65-66) So, the government of Pakistan cam up with the Ghazi - Barotha Hydropower Project with a comprehensive resettlement plan and minimal environmental and resettlement impacts. (ibid, p69) It was tried to avoid displacement through site selection. But, in spite of that this project affected 21653 persons. (ibid, p70) They include 3412 persons who would loss all of their land. (ibid, p70) It was expected that impact of land acquisition would largely be mitigated by the provision of irrigated land on the spoil banks and by measures of fair and prompt compensation. (ibid, p70) The other 1778 persons that did not own the Regional Development Plan, which would ensure that the project affected families, assured any land but loss livelihood for this project would have a standard of living. At least equal to that which they had before the project.(ibid, p70)
For implementing these proposals, WAPDA has provided Rs. 100 million as seed money with assurance of providing an additional amount of Rs. 176 million. (ibid, p70)A project non-governmental organization (PNGO) would be assist the Environmental and Social Division of the Ghazi-Barotha Project Organization (GBPO) for in monitoring the social aspects of the resettlement action plan including land acquisition and compensation, formation of tube-well users' association and allocation of developed spoil bank. (ibid, p70) Transparency of compensation process, resettlement housing, employment, training and credit schemes and environmental protection under the integrated rural development programme was implemented. (ibid, p70)
This well thought policies cannot be materialized for the irregularities and malpractices of WAPDA officials and landowners. So, the investigators - the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Regional Accountability Bureau (NWFP) termed it as the biggest 'Land Acquisition Scam' in South Asia. (ibid, p71) With the connivance of Land Valuation Assessment Committees, Land Acquisition Collectors, officials of Agriculture Development and land owners of the area, the payment of compensation was made at highly inflated rates for low category of land, non-existing facilities, infrastructure and orchards. Investigation is under way and 200 affected people, including 80 women, have been accused of receiving excessive land compensation. (ibid, p71)
Without going into the debate of maltreatment of the Ghazi-Barotha Project, I can clearly say that this type of humanitarian consideration about the destitute of displacement have ushered a new hope for future in which development projects will bring holistic development for all segments of people.
Besides the Ghazi-Barotha Hydropower Project, the government of Pakistan have completed Mangla Dam, Tarbela Dam, Islamabad Capital Territory, National Motorway Lyari Expressway, Cholistan Dam and Gawadar Port in which millions of people plan displaced. Now, without having a comprehensive plan for development of rehabilitation and resettlement, the government of Pakistan has launched another controversial and ambitions hydropower project named "Vision 2025', which is likely to add to the number of displaced in the country. (ibid, p65) Being aware of the cost of development, now many civil society organizations and political parties are now protesting united these projects. So, the government of Pakistan needs to develop comprehensive plans for R & R of the displaced before initiating other developmental projects.
India
India has one of the highest development-induced displacements in the world. (ibid, p297) As a result of the developmental projects like mines, dams, industries, wildlife sanctuaries and others about 21 million people were internally displaced in India. (ibid, p116)
Table – 1
Statistics of Displaced Persons (DPs) and Project Affected Persons (PAPs) for some Developmental Projects

Source for 1 – 19: Ministry of Home Affair,s 1985: 18 – 19 ; Subrata De 1998 : 145; CWC 1996.
Source for 20: The essay of Subir Bhawmik, ‘India’s Northeast: Nobody ‘s People in No – Man’s – Land’ in the book, “Internal Displacement in South Asia, ibid, p147.
Source for 21: The essay of Samir Kumar Das, ‘India: Homelessness at Home’ in the book, ‘Internal Displacement in South Asia’, ibid, p.137.
With 4300 dams in place, India is one world's major dam building countries for which about 37500 square kilometer areas was submerged and at least 42 million people have displaced. (International River Network, http://www.irn.org/programs/India) In the Indian context, it is of interest to note that most of the developmental projects are located in the most backward areas and populated by various small nationalities - otherwise called tribals. (Globalization, State Policies and Sustainability of Rights, by Madhuresh Kumar, MCRG, 2005, P26) While the tribal form only 7 percent of the country's population, they account for almost 40 percent of the country's displaced population. (Internal Displacement in South Asia’, ibid, p138)

Case Study: The Narmada Valley Development Project
The Narmada Valley Development Project (NVDP) is supposed to be the most ambitions river valley development project in the world. (ibid, p299)It envisages building 3200 dams that will reconstitute the Narmada and her 419 tributaries into a series of step-reservoirs. (ibid, p299) Two of them the Sardar. Sarovar in Gujarat and the Bargi dam in Madhya Pradesh have already been built. This project is important for many reasons.
Firstly, the NVDP was described as ‘The world’s greatest planned environmental disaster’. (ibid, p116) According to one report, ‘the Narmada Valley Development Project will affect the lives of 25 million people who live in the valley and will alter the ecology of an entire river basin. (ibid, p299)
Secondly, the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), which was spearheaded by a women activist. Medha Patkar, revealed systematically for the first time how building dams can result in total dislocation of tribal societies. (ibid, p297) The Sardar Sarovar Project, often described as one of the most flawed projects, displaced largely the Tadvis, Vasavas, Bhils and the Bhilalas, but very few caste Hindus. (ibid, p15) Whereas the beneficiaries of the dam are meant to be large landowners, tribal people are paying the price.
Thirdly, the official figure has not counted people who will lose their livelihood as a result of the NVDP as project-affected families (PAFs). (ibid, p299)
Fourthly, the women from the affected tribal communities are the worst affected. The governmental relief programmes tend to overlook women’s crucial roles as producers, providers and organizers and have delivered assistance directly to male heads of households, whether it is food, seeds and tools or training. (ibid, p297) The reduces women’s influence over areas previously controlled by them such as the production and provision of food-undermining their position within the household and the community. (ibid, p297)In Sardar Sarovar Project women with land titles (Patta) were not given land for land. (ibid, p297)
Fifthly, Govt. of India had shown extreme negligence in time of rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced in NVDP.
Thus, the catchall promises of development in India hide a shuffling mass of hundreds of thousands of families displaced by the inexorable engines of progress. (Pawns in the Development, by Walter Fernandes) Studies indicate that development – induced displacement has been one of the major causes of deprival of livelihood of the people in India. (Why Displaced Persons Reject Project Resettlement Colonies, by Mohammad Asif) According to one of the Indian leader,” If displacement is bad, not creating storage to avoid displacement of tribal communities is worse.” This is said by Reddy,quoted from http://www.sunsonline.org) However, I am not against development. But, as a human being, I want holistic development for the entire population. For this, government of India must manifest R&R policy fully and properly.
Nepal
Nepal seemed to be lesser affected by the problem of development-induced displacement. Moreover, the absence of the records of the displacement helped in hiding the exact feature. However, there are displacement due to road construction, irrigation projects, airports, promulgation of national parks and watershed management projects. (‘Internal Displacement in South Asia’, ibid, p237) For example, I can refer to three projects-viz. Rara National Park, Kulekheni Hydroelectric Project and Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Project-which had displaced a number of peoples –viz. 331, 450 and 222 households. (ibid, p238-239)
Unlike other South Asian states, displaced people of Nepal got proper R&R. The affected people of Rara National Park project were compensated with land in Terrain plains in the south and additionally provided with facilities like food for a certain period, timber for construction of houses and there were provisions for tube wells and schools. (ibid, p238) Even after leaving the resettlement site, the displaced people got governmental support. In 1989 Harka Gurung found that those displaced from the area around the Rara Lake were better off economically at their new location with multisectoral governmental support. (ibid, p238)
However, government of Nepal cannot hold this good will in later projects. It gave the option of cash or land compensation in the Kulekhani Hydroelectric Project. (ibid, p238) But the affected households had become poorer than before even after getting compensation because the compensation was not at prevailing market price nor was the permanent loss of potential resources and the loss of production taken into consideration ((ibid, p238). Though the Govt. of Nepal had given compensation close to the market price in the Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Project, the majority of affected remain unaware of their legal right. (ibid, p238) Even the recommendations of the project consultants – like 15 percent disturbance allowance, special assistance to hardship cases, priority for employment on the project work and assistance to increase production on remaining land-was never implemented. (ibid, p239)
Nepal has a big potential for water resource development, for which development-related displacement is and will be a regular feature in the country. (ibid, p194) So the Govt. of Nepal must retains its good will and effort for the displaced with proper R&R policy in the future.
Bangladesh
The country of Bangladesh is very remarkable in development-induced displacement. Though the Govt. of Bangladesh has not started any major developmental project, here we see some distinguish features of displacement.
Firstly, Bangladesh is a classic example of economic displacement. With the assistance of government, Bangladesh is gradually succumbing to monoculture of shrimp cultivation. (ibid, p194) As the shrimp cultivators do not use local labour for their farms, the indigenous people lost their livelihood. (ibid, p194) All of these are affecting not only the poor in the region, but more specially the women. (ibid, p201-203)
Secondly, here we see how the areas of developmental displacement can converted into the areas of conflict. The displacement of indigenous people from the CHT has been started from the construction of the Kaptai dam. But now CHT have become the volatile area of conflict between the Bengalees and indigenous people. Now, to minimize the power of the local people, government has been wooing the Bengalisation process as part of ‘development’ programme.
Thirdly, now the Govt. of Bangladesh is thinking to clean the urban areas. So it has started to evict the slums and the brothels. For example, I can refer to the forced eviction of the slums of Agargoan and brothels of Tanbazaar and Nimtoli.
As these developmental activities are not proper projects, the Govt. of Bangladesh is not giving R&R to the affected peoples. But the trauma and economic instability of the affected peoples is not lesser than those who are displaced by developmental projects. If Govt. of Bangladesh can understand this, it will be better for all Bangladeshis.
Conclusion
Thus we see how development often led to displacement in these South Asian countries. There are no records on development-induced displacement in other countries. But, surprisingly, there are developmental projects in all South Asian states. Academics of South Asia must research on that. All the states must develop proper R&R policy to give a better life to the displaced people. In next SAARC meetings if all the South Asian states develop a principle (like the Guiding Principles), which will give proper direction for the R&R policy for the displaced, it will be better for all South Asians.
[This paper was originally written as term paper assignment for the Third CRG Annual Winter Course on Forced Migration]

Forced Migration, immigration, racism and xenophobia in North East India

Inaotomba Thongbam
Literally, all the four key words in the title of the MCRG’s third winter course on forced migration - forced migration, immigration, racism and Xenophobia are either correlated or synonymous. The first two relates with movement of people owing to various factors in which racism is one of most important one. Racism induced people to flee their original or habitual place of settlement within or across the border thereby creating fear (xenophobia) amongst those receiving the displaced people.
The concern is growing over issue of displacement throughout the world. Several millions of people in every nooks and corners around the globe have been uprooted either by conflict, human rights violations, natural disasters and development projects which forced these uprooted people to take refuge within or across the borders. Taking refuge within borders of a particular country are termed Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and those across the borders - Refugees.
To begin with it will be worthwhile to define who the displaced persons are and the difference thereof between the IDPs and the refugees. There has been no internationally agreed upon definition of who an internally displaced persons are, yet, the United Nation’s current working definition holds internally displaced persons as those who have been forced to flee their homes suddenly in unexpectedly large numbers, as a results of armed conflict, internal strife, systematic violations of human rights and natural or man made disasters but continue to reside within the territory of their own country. This definition however is considered inappropriate and the IDPs have been aptly defined as persons or groups of persons who have been or are being forced to flee or leave their homes or places of habitual residences as a result of armed conflict, internal strife and systematic violation of human rights as well as natural or man-made disasters involving one or more of these elements, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized borders.
There are currently 25 million internally displaced persons uprooted by conflict and human rights violations worldwide. More millions of people have been uprooted either by natural disasters and development projects. Internal displacement is one of the more pressing humanitarian, human rights and security problems confronting the international community. Unlike refugees who cross national borders and benefited from an establish system of international protection and assistance, those forcibly uprooted people within their own countries lack predictable support. While primary responsibility for safeguarding security and welfare of the IDPs rests with their own governments, international community has an obligation to step in when government are unable to or unwilling to fulfill that responsibility.
Displacement has been and had been occurring too in north-eastern states of India where various tribes or ethnic communities having different cultures, customs and traditions settled from time immemorial. The region is ethnically diverse as out of 635 tribals categorized tribes in India, some 213 are found to be living in this predominantly hilly region. Though Hinduism, Christianity and Islam are practised extensively by people inhabiting in this region, large numbers of tribes still adhere to their animistic beliefs even as many of the tribes have been converted to major religions as did by the Meitei in Manipur to Sanamahi. Each of these tribes or indigenous communities have their own imagined homelands and tense situation often arise between battling ethnicity for demands of imagined homelands. Though the hills of the region were largely protected from large scale influx of outsiders, Assam and later Tripura were not and both the states were subjected to continuous influx from erstwhile East Bengal (Bangladesh). The influx people from East Bengal had already come to constitute as majority community in Tripura, the homeland of the indigenous Tripuris, who have become minority. Hindus and Muslims of Bengali decent account for more than 40 percent of the Assam 2.6 crore people (2001 census). A sizeable numbers of Nepalis, Bhutanese and others have also moved in to other states in the region.
The NE region is also marked with ethnic clashes and secessionist movements and counter insurgency operations thereof by government forces have led to substantial internal displacement in this region particularly in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Other factors like development projects, natural disasters like floods and takeover of land by migrating communities have also led to large-scale displacement in this part of the country.
Manipur has witnessed substantial internal displacement and ethnic relocation in the wake of the Naga-Kuki and Kuki-Paite feuds in the 1990s that led to nearly 2000 deaths and rendering more than 30,000 homeless. Latest case of internal displacement due to ethnic strife is being witnessed in Karbi Anglong district in Assam where ethnic feuds between the Karbis and Dimasas have led thousands of people to flee conflict zone.
Large scale influx of Bengali speaking migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan to the north eastern region of India particularly in Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya have led to considerable xenophobia amongst original settlers of the region. Bengali migrants from erstwhile Bangladesh have reduced Tripuris in Tripura to a minority and similar is the case in Assam where almost 40 percent of the state’s 2 crore people are Bengali speaking migrants from Bangladesh. In search of economic activities and livelihood these migrants communities are spreading to other state of the region invisible. This has created much apprehension amongst indigenous communities inhabiting in the region.
Racism has been one of the main factors influencing force displacement as it had been and has been witnessing in different countries around the world. With its vague ideology of national building based on discriminatory, suppressive or racism based on racial origin has been the main factor enhancing displacement of people, both within the borders of a country and across the borders.
Racism can be defined as the belief that each race has certain qualities or abilities, giving rise to the belief that certain races are better than the others. It can also be defined as discrimination against or hostility towards other races or groups. In short race is a group of people or things with a common feature. Thus, racism can be defined as a prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races. It can also be defined as a discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race.
Racism or ideology of nationalism is the root cause of construction of a nation based on the common character of a group of people. Almost all the modern state in the world had evolved either through the route of racism or nationalism. The presently continuing process of nation-building as being waging across the world are based on the ideology of nationalism or racism. The emergence of Pakistan and Bangladesh marked by the large-scale displacement were products of nationalism based on religion. The continuing nation building process by the Nagas under the initiative of the NSCN(IM) in north east India is also based on racist design which had led to large scale forced displacement in Manipur during early part of 1990s till end the end of the last decade. Manipur is inhabited by around 33 different communities with different racial origins though most of them of mongoloid stock some of them have close affinity. One by tenth of the total geographical area of Manipur is comprised of hills and it is inhabited by tribes which can be broadly categorized as Nagas and Kuki-Chin-Mizo groups, the valley portion in the state is inhabited by the majority Meiteis and the Manipuri Muslim (Meitei Pangal). The Nagas and Meitei claimed to be original settlers of the present day Manipur and they have some similarities in customs, traditions and life-styles though majority of the people both the communities have adopted different religions. Before Hinduism and Christianity swept through valley and hills respectively, both the Meitei communities and many of subgroups of Nagas namely Kabuis, Tangkhuls etc were following animistic religion of Sanamahi, which is still predominantly practised by the Meiteis even as they have turned to Hinduism. Many folk based stories about relation between the Meiteis, Tangkhul and Kabuis are also found.
On the other hand the Kuki-Chin-Mizo groups are believed to have originated from the hills of Burma (Myanmar) and its surrounding hills and later migrated to neighboring hills and some finds their way to hills of Manipur and spread to other areas in the state. This particular groups is also said to be nomadic in nature and in due course of time these people migrated to the hills of Manipur in search of cultivable lands and other economic activities. However, both the Nagas and the Kuki-Chin groups practised Jhuming or shifting cultivation and they have similarities in mode of cultivation though they belong to entirely different racial stocks. People belonging to both the communities have been living together as neighbors before the NSCN(IM) started the movement for naga integration based on racist design. When the Naga integration movement in the line of nation building ideology move forward and visible, the Nagas under the initiative of the NSCN(IM) started attacking Kuki villages. At the same time, the Kukis too were in the process of launching a movement for a separate homeland and they too retaliated thereby leading to serious conflict between the communities during initial months of 1992. The ethnic feud continued till the last few years of the last century thereby leading to serious bloodbath and large-scale displacement of people of both the communities. An estimated figure of around 2000 people belonging to both the community loss their lives and as many as 30,000 of them were either shifted or relocated. Thus when we look back to root causes of conflict it is revealed that the ideology racism based on ethnic line had led to large-scale displacement of people.
The intense Naga-Kuki ethnic conflict in Manipur and one between the Kukis and Zomis in 1997, involving both armed underground groups and common people, though resolved at different levels with the efforts of nonpartisan communities and understanding amongst the underground outfits have serious repercussion leading to large scale displacement, forcing common people to flee their original place of settlement and moved to safer and economically viable areas. As a result, large number of people affected by ethnic clashes moved to villages and towns where there is sense of security and more economic opportunities, leading to marked demographic changes in hill districts of the state. The decadal variation of population in these districts showed marked variation as per 1991 and 2001 census. Population of state’s least populated district, Chandel was only 71,014 as per 1991 census but it had jumped to 1,18,327 in 2001, showing marked increase of 47,313. Decadal variation of population in Chandel district was 14,570 in 1981-1991. Four other hill districts of the state namely Senapati, Churachandpur, Ukhrul and Tamenglong also showed the same trend, while it is more or less normal in all the four valley districts, where Naga-Kuki or Kuki-Paite ethnic strife could gave any impact.
The growing concentration of communities based on tribe and clan line is also one direct repercussion of the ethnic clash, which has given severe impact to adult franchise as witnessed in the last Manipur Legislative Assembly election held in 2002. In the Parliamentary election of 2004, a candidate belonging to the Nagas snatch victory in the lone Outer Manipur seat, which was held earlier by Kuki candidates for two successive terms.
Relief and rehabilitation measures taken up by state government for the victims and resettlement of displaced villagers are far from satisfactory. During the intense Naga-Kuki clash in 1992, altogether 12167 families of both the communities were displaced but government provided assistance for construction of houses to only 2180 families and same is the case for the displaced victims of Kuki-Paite ethnic clash.
The increasing lack of economic opportunities, commercialization of life-styles, soaring prices of essential commodities and the widening gap between the rich and the poor, people all over the world have been grabbing every opportunities for earnings livelihood. Coupled with persistent financial crisis, people displaced by ethnic clashes in Manipur moved to towns and cities in search food and survival prompting them to adopt to various kinds of labour and physical jobs. Sudden increase of rickshaw puller in state’s capital, Imphal and its periphery, the increasing numbers of children working in hotels and restaurants in state capital and other towns are repercussions of these ethnic conflicts.
As per the Imphal Municipal Council source, there were some 2000 registered Rickshaw pullers in Imphal area in 1999-2000 however it jumped to over 10,000 in 2005. One main factor responsible for this abnormal increase is due to influx displaced people from hill area to the valley where there is more economic opportunities, security, better means of livelihood. Most of them are the Kukis hailing from interior areas of Manipur’s southern district of Churachandpur.
Similar is the case for children working in hotels and restaurants who have lost their relatives during the ethnic clashes. In the aftermath of the Naga-Kuki and Kuki-Paite ethnic clashes, a numbers of children home came up in the state housing those children uprooted by the ethnic strife.
The question of prostitution & AIDS and displaced person is the area, which has rarely been touched while discussing the issue of displacement. However, this particular issue has become one alarming problem being faced by contemporary Manipuri society where prostitution is socially unacceptable and prohibited. No specific area can be identified where this particular group of people are concentrated in Imphal area, but a voluntary women group identified 1172 such person in 2004-2005, which incidentally is said to be only 375 in 1999-2000. One main factor responsible this quantum jump is involvement in this trade by poverty stricken homeless young girls and women hailing from the hill area affected by the ethnic clashes. Addicted to drugs, alcohol and other psychotropic substances, most of these women are also vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. This is a growing concern in the state where HIV/AIDS prevalence cases are said to be highest in the country and the menace is threatening to engulf the Manipuri society.
The syllabus and reading material provided to participants of the CRG winter course on forced migration - 2005 have highlighted numerous cases of displacement happened and as happening in different in almost every nooks and corners of South Asia with relevant data and backgrounds. However, the core issue of providing relief and rehabilitation to the displaced people and the serious repercussion thereof brought about by displacement to the receiving society have rarely been highlighted or discussed.
[This paper was originally written as term paper assignment for the Third CRG Annual Winter Course on Forced Migration]