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BANGKOK,
Aug 23 (IPS) - Refugees' rights may be marginalised in the final
document to come out of a U.N. conference against racism this month
in Durban, South Africa, say human rights activists .
Asian
countries like Iran, Pakistan and China have been identified among
those who ''oppose strong language'' on refugee rights, activists
say. They want no mention of the 1951 Refugee Convention in the
conference document, says Rachael Reilly, refugee policy director
at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights lobby.
''They
argue that as they are not signatories to the convention, they should
not be bound by it under the WCAR,'' she adds, referring to World
Conference Against Racism from Aug. 31-Sep. 7.
''Refugee
rights in Asia cannot be ignored in Durban,'' Anne Makome, legal
officer at the Bangkok-based regional centre of the Jesuit Refugee
Service, a Catholic humanitarian body. ''It is a shame that Asian
governments are attempting to marginalise this issue.''
For
Makome, this opposition to discussion of refugees' rights sends
the message that governments want to mask the level of abuse endured
by refugees in the region.
''The
victims may not be able to tell an international gathering on racism
about the discrimination and xenophobia they endure,'' she says.
Yet,
Reilly says, refugees in Asia have long experienced ''widespread''
discrimination. This is so whether for the four million Afghans
in Pakistan and Iran, the 100,000 Bhutanese in Nepal who fled in
the eighties after Thimpu expelled them to preserve its Buddhist
character, or the more than 100,000 Burmese in Thailand.
The
biggest problem refugees face is a lack of legal status, and hence
formal protection, Reilly says. ''Refugees are at constant risk
of arbitrary arrest, detention and deportation. They are also discriminated
against in access to basic social and economic rights (including
health care and education).'' The Rohingyas, who have fled their
homes in Burma for refuge in Malaysia and Bangladesh, are among
the ill-treated, according to Human Rights Watch.
In
Malaysia, Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers are often detained
for months in immigration camps where they "suffer malnutrition"
and live in unsanitary conditions before "being pushed over
the border into Thailand''.
The
Rohingyas, an indigenous group and mainly Muslim, were forced to
flee Burma due to persecution by the military junta. In 1991, a
quarter million of them escaped into Bangladesh.
The
Chinese government, on the other hand, was taken to task this month
by a U.N. human rights body, the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, for its policy toward refugees and asylum
seekers from famine-stricken North Korea.
According
to the U.N. panel, North Koreans were ''systematically refused asylum
and returned even in cases when they have been considered to be
refugees by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).''
Earlier
this year, however, Beijing allowed a North Korean family to go
to South Korea and seek asylum under international pressure and
just before the Chinese capital won the bid to host the 2008 Olympics.
Afghans
fleeing civil conflict and drought in their country also find they
are not no longer welcome in neighbouring countries, like Pakistan
and Iran.
Since
November last year, the Pakistani government has been tiring of
two million Afghans who have fled the civil war in their country
and before that, the Soviet invasion in the eighties.
The
UNHCR has been talking to Islamabad about what has been called ''hellish''
conditions in the Jallozai camp. Pakistan also has plans for closing
the Nasir Bagh camp and turning it into a housing project.
Anti-Afghan
feelings have been reported in Iranian cities, including a message
on the walls in a Teheran suburb that reads, 'Death to the Afghans',
according to the Washington-based Refugees International.
What
prevails in Asia stems from many countries not being signatories
to the refugee convention, says Indrika Ratwatte, a senior official
for UNHCR here. ''They do not have the obligations under international
law to live up to the standards outlined in the convention.''
This
has led to many countries not differentiating between ''economic
migrants and refugees,'' adds Ratwatte. Reilly says this has led
to the regular violation of an essential principle in international
refugee law -- non-refoulement, which prohibits the expulsion of
a refugee to a place where life and freedom would be threatened.
Refugees
also suffer nationality and citizenship problems. Due to a common
practise in most Asian countries, where citizenship is granted by
''descent,'' many refugee children born in countries of refuge ''are
unable to obtain the citizenship of their country of birth,'' adds
Reilly.
Asian
states, including India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia,
Singapore, make up the majority of countries who have not signed
the refugee convention, which marked its 50th anniversary in July.
Asia
also does not have a regional refugee instrument, unlike Africa
and the Americas.
The
matter of refugees is also a touchy one for Asian governments, especially
those worried about security problems from hosting large numbers
of people from another country for a long time and about the resources
needed to give them shelter.
Such
fears have led to governments frowning on organisations, particularly
those with foreign links, championing refugee rights.
One
activist here, for instance, agreed to talk only on condition of
anonymity, fearing that any criticism of the Thai government on
its record on Burmese refugees could lead to ''our office being
shut'.' She admitted that the government ''treats us with suspicion.
Hostility exists.'' Such tension was evident this week when Khajadpai
Buruspatana, Thailand's national security council chief, accused
the UNHCR of trying to delay Thailand's deportation of non-refugees
back to Burma.
''The
UNHCR wants these people to be refugees so that it can take care
of them. Despite the fact that the war (in Burma) is over, they
want to make them stay here on grounds that these people may be
affected by the ramifications of the war,'' Khajadpai told the English-language
daily 'The Nation'.
''If
we toe the agency's line,'' he added, ''thousands of Shan people
may flood into Thailand.''
Thailand
has come under fire from the UNHCR for the poor conditions of refugee
camps along its border with Burma. It technically considers the
Burmese 'displaced people' and 'illegal immigrants', but Thai analysts
point out that Bangkok has not forcibly returned them en masse to
Burma. Still, a foreign ministry official has been quoted as saying
that Bangkok fears that if it signs the refugee convention, it ''would
encourage more refugees to come to Thailand''.
The
U.N. agency has also been trying to get Rangoon to accept the return
of these refugees, which include people displaced by fighting between
Burmese troops and ethnic rebels, but Rangoon says they are agitators.
Governments
like Pakistan also say they cannot take on large populations from
neighbouring countries with humanitarian assistance from the international
community drying up. U.N. agencies have been hard pressed to raise
the funds needed to help displaced Afghans.
Many
governments have gone on the record to classify those who claim
refugee status as economic migrants or ''illegals''.
But
Reilly says that by violating refugee rights, governments reveal
that they have a ''disregard for fundamental principles of international
law and that they are not fully committed to providing satisfactory
and durable solutions to refugee crises''.
In
such circumstances, she declares, refugees in Asia will always be
viewed as ''second-class citizens who are not entitled to the fundamental
rights accorded to nationals''. (END)
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