REFUGEES: Internally Displaced Outnumber Refugees Worldwide

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jul 29 1998 (IPS) - The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world in 1997 surpassed the number of refugees who fled their homelands across international borders, according the latest in a series of annual surveys by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR).

The Committee’s ‘World Refugee Survey 1998’ estimated the number of IDPs, who generally do not enjoy the protections provided to refugees, at greater than 17 million, more than 25 percent of whom were found in Sudan alone. By contrast, USCR said there were an estimated 13.6 million refugees and asylum-seekers during 1997, the lowest number in the past decade, and down from the most recent high of 17.6 million people living outside their homelands in 1992.

The increase in IDPs was due primarily to unrest and civil conflict in many countries, especially in Sudan, Congo- Brazzaville, and Congo-Kinshasa, Uganda, Cambodia, and Burma.

The 250-page report also blamed the domino effect of tighter asylum laws and practices in rich countries, especially in the European Union (EU), as nations along their periphery have increasingly become “vast dumping grounds” for refugees.

“The sound of doors closing to asylum seekers reverberates throughout the developing world,” according to Roger Winter, USCR’s executive director.”In 1997, the barriers that neighbouring states placed in the path (of would-be refugees) were a significant factor in some internal displacement.”

In addition to Sudan, tens of thousands of newly uprooted people joined hundreds of thousands of IDPs in Afghanistan, Angola, Burma, Burundi, Colombia, Iraq and Sierra Leone, according to the report. It also notes that the escalation of “wholesale butchery” in Algeria undoubtedly has forced thousands to leave their homes but, because the government there refused until very recently to permit international monitors to assess the situation, the scale of displacement remains unknown.

Despite the reduction in the overall number of refugees during 1997, the report stressed the steady rise of IDPs, the continuing erosion of the principle of asylum worldwide, and shortfalls in funding for major refugee agencies, including the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which often deals with internal displacement.

Donor governments provided only 320 million dollars for the UNCHR’s general programme budget in 1997 – a drop of 31 million dollars from 1996 and 65 million dollars below the agency’s projected requirements.

“In refugee lives, this meant: reducing basic medical care and other assistance to urban refugees in Egypt and India, where they are not permitted to work; not building a school for Afghan girls in Pakistan where most existing schools are for boys only; not providing housing material for Guatemalan refugees in Mexico; hindering local integration; not building a medical clinic in the Fugnido camp for Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, where health conditions are abysmal,” the report said. “We expect this to get worse.”

The largest groups of refugees in the world remained Palestinian (3.7 million), about 1.3 million of whom currently live on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and Afghani (2.6 million), about half of whom live in Iran. The next largest groups are Bosnians (557,000), Iraqis (526,000), Somalis (486,000), Liberians (475,000), Sudanese (353,000), Croatians (335,000), and Eritreans (323,000).

Sudan led the world in the number of IDPs with four million, followed by 1.2 million in Angola; between 1.0 to 1.5 million in Afghanistan; 1.0 million in Colombia; 900,000 in Iraq; and 800,000 in Bosnia and Sri Lanka. The report notes, however, that there could be as many as two million internally displaced in Turkey and one million in Burma. In some cases, the displacement has been temporary.

About half-a-million people have been displaced in each of five other countries: Burundi, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, and Russia, according to the report.

IDPs generally differ very little from refugees, except that they are not protected under international refugee law because they remain inside their own countries, often subject to attack by their own government.

That especially applied in the case of Sudan which Winter called a “case study in the dangers that can come from having a high number of internally displaced persons.” Some 2.6 million people are considered at risk of dying from famine, particularly in the south and the Nuba Mountain area. “The current famine conditions in Sudan are directly related to the displacement of over four million civilians,” Winter said.

The reduction in the number of refugees during 1997 was due in part to large-scale voluntary repatriations from Pakistan and Iran to Afghanistan (83,000); from other European countries to Bosnia (110,000); and from Congo/Kinshasa and neighbouring countries to Rwanda (200,000) and Angola (53,000).

Forcible returns, which are not permitted under international refugee law, also took place. About 13,000 refugees from Burundi and Rwanda were expelled by Tanzania, while another 10,000 were returned from Bangladesh to Burma.

While most of the large refugee movements took place in the developing world, the report strongly criticises rich countries for much of the current situation, especially the continuing erosion of the right of asylum.

With its adoption of the Dublin Convention, the EU member states have reinforced barriers to refugees and made it clear to prospective members in Eastern Europe that they too will have to tighten their border controls. “The effect has been to move the walls of ‘Fortress Europe’ one step farther to the East,” the report said.

A new, more restrictive asylum law also took effect in the United States in 1997.

These steps have been echoed elsewhere, with Thailand closing off its borders to fleeing Cambodians and Burmese; Iran taking a much harder line towards Afghan refugees; and Tanzania and Congo- Kinshasa forcibly returning reugees.