Introduction
The migration of people from one place to another has been a common phenomenon not only in the twenty-first century but also during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are many reasons that make people migrate from their country of origin to other countries which are inclusive but not limited to, conflicts, wars, and natural disasters as well as looking for employment opportunities. While some people migrate voluntarily, others are forced by different situations and circumstances to leave their country of origin. Such people are known as forcibly displaced persons and may include asylum seekers as well as people who involuntarily leave their places of origin due to natural disasters such as drought, floods, tsunamis, and conflicts that cause violence and persecution as studies by Turton (pp. 7) illustrate. Additionally, people who are displaced by different development projects are also classified as forced immigrants. Due to the growing trend of forced immigration, the issue has turned out to be a concern globally, more so because of its political and social implications.
Forcibly displaced persons face many problems which include insecurity, lack of humanitarian support and discrimination, to name just a few. It is then imperative for the government and different humanitarian agencies to ensure that refugees are able to access humanitarian aid and enjoy basic human rights as other citizens. As a matter of fact, in the twentieth and the twenty-first century, various state governments and non-governmental organizations have increased their concern towards protecting such persons. However, there are various challenges and obstacles that hinder the maximum protection of forcibly displaced persons. With that background in mind, this paper shall discuss the main obstacles in ensuring the protection of forcibly displaced persons.
Background Information
Though forced migration has always been in existence as highlighted in the introductory part, it has increased to a large extent in the last three decades. The situation has been greatly influenced by the ever-increasing wars, and social as well as political conflicts in places like Southern Sudan, Iraq, Indonesia, Philippines, Afghanistan and Thailand, to mention just a few. Conflicts in such and many other places increase the number of forcibly displaced persons. Consequently, the governments have recognized the need of differentiating between forced immigrants and economic immigrants. In most cases, forced immigrants are also referred to as refugees but it is important to note that the legal definition of a refugee may exclude some groups of forcibly displaced persons.
United Nations defines a refugee as a person who is outside his or her country of origin, who may not be willing or not in a position to return to the country of origin due to a valid fear of persecution based on someone’s religion, race, and gender, political or even social opinion (Castles pp. 2). However, as mentioned earlier, the definition leaves out some of the forced immigrants and it becomes difficult for them to enjoy the necessary protection. For instance, failure to have crossed the international borders limits some people although the recent, modification of the refugee act has got a provision for people who may be fleeing from war.
Groups of Forcibly Displaced Persons
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offers protection and assistance to convectional refugees, returnees, asylum seekers as well as internally displaced persons. Asylum seekers are defined as people who may have crossed an international border but are not confirmed as conventional refugees (Castles pp. 2). UNHCR offers them protection and assistance bearing in mind that the procedure taken during the verification process is usually long and may take quite some time.
The internally displaced people are defined as people who have been forced to leave their usual places of origin due to conflicts and persecution but resettle still in their country of origin. It is quite unfortunate that internally displaced persons are supposed to be protected by their governments which more often than not may have contributed greatly to their problems. Development displaces are yet another group of forcibly displaced persons. According to the estimates of the World Bank, ten million people are displaced annually by projects. It is worse in countries such as India which is believed to have around twenty-two million development displaces. In most cases, such people end up becoming marginalized especially economically in absence of the appropriate protection and assistance. Worse still, the group is much larger than the refugees who are recognized officially as such. Environmental displaces include all those people who are displaced by environmental changes, manmade disasters and natural disasters. Studies of Castles (pp.4) indicate that by the year 1995, there were about twenty-five million refugees as a result of environmental factors. Disaster displaces include the refugees as a result of natural disasters. Lastly, people trafficking is also a form of forced immigration since people are forced to migrate from their country of origin for the purpose of exploitation.
Main Obstacles towards Protection of Forcibly Displaced Persons
A Large number of the Refugees
As highlighted in the introductory part, the number of forcibly displaced persons is on the increase owing to internal conflicts and civil wars. Many countries in the world are experiencing political unrest and worse still, most civil wars extend for a long time. For instance, conflicts in places like Somali, Congo and Afghanistan have been prolonged for quite some time. In addition, resolving the conflicts takes quite some time and may continue to recur after some time. As a result, it becomes difficult for refugees to return back to their county of origin. A lot of states are also collapsing while there are others that are being invaded by more powerful states in the case of Iraq. Due to such cases, the number of refugees is on the increase and it becomes hard for nongovernmental organizations and governments to offer protection.
Climate Change
The change of climate especially in the current century has been a challenge to many sectors in the national and the international community. Major changes that may affect the community directly and indirectly as predicted by the International Panel on Climate Change are draughts, storms and floods as well as the rising sea level. Such changes in the weather conditions pose a threat to the human community and force them to migrate to other places in search of security and other basic needs. As much as the issue of whether climate change can lead to an increase in forcibly displaced persons is a disputed issue among maximalists and minimalists, it does not require much evidence to note that changes in weather can lead to an increase of forcibly displaced persons. Moreover, even scholars who maintain that environmental factors do not necessarily lead to migration point out that it can result in the same in very extreme situations.
More often than not, people displaced by environmental factors such as the Tsunami end up crossing the international border in search of security although they are not recognized as refugees by the international law of refugees. However, in most cases, they are a people of concern to bodies like UNHCR which is required to offer protection to the refugees. In such cases, it is clear that such people end up adding to the already existing pressure and it becomes increasingly difficult to offer the required assistance to the displaced persons due to the constraint of the resources. As highlighted earlier, the procedure of determining legal refugees is long and an increase of forcibly displaced persons adds to the complexity of the same.
The Refugee Law
The narrow definition of a refugee is an important challenge in the protection of forcibly displaced persons. Studies by Hall (pp. 4) indicate that a refugee is a person “with a well-founded fear of persecution, based for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside his country of nationality and owing to that fear is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country” (pp. 4). Due to such a definition, a large number of forcibly displaced persons are not recognized by the law. For instance, people displaced by various climatic conditions are not included therein. In addition, some refugees are excluded on the basis of having not crossed an international border. Although the UNHCR takes care of the refugees who may be fleeing from war and have not qualified to be treated as refugees, such people cannot be accorded the full benefits of a refugee. Even if due to the recent modifications UNHCR has started to offer protection to internally displaced people by some natural causes, the agency has not yet developed reliable policies to cater to the same group.
Lack of Enough Funds
Lack of enough funds is an obstacle in most projects that take place at the international and national levels. More often than not, the governments and various civil society organizations mandated at taking care of refugees run out of funds not only due to a large number of refugees which is ever-increasing but also due to the high costs of living. In addition, money that is supposed to be channeled to the refugees at a time is channeled elsewhere and such a problem worsens the situation even further. Due to a lack of enough funding, food rationing in camps becomes a problem. Other necessities also become a major problem putting the health of the refugees at stake. Donor fatigue is an important obstacle to refugee protection since lack of enough funds incapacitates various institutions and they are unable to carry out their duties effectively. Apart from not being in a position to acquire enough necessities, it also becomes hard to employ enough personnel to offer services to the forcibly displaced persons.
International Security
The current state of international security is a major challenge facing the global protection of forcibly displaced persons. Although the problem has persisted for some time, it worsened after the events of 11th September 2001 in the United States. Following the attack on the United States by the Al Qaida terrorists, refugees from the Arab countries are viewed as a threat not only to national but also to international security. More specifically, they are viewed as the basis of armed terror. As much as there are many genuine refugees, criminals can also pose as refugees, a situation that can cause a lot of problems. By so doing, criminals can not only gain access to a foreign country but are also in a position to plan their criminal activities more easily (Newman and van Selm pp.18).
Refugees in the whole world are supposed to enjoy their human rights and to be treated without any prejudice whatsoever. However, protecting refugees becomes a major challenge when they are viewed as a source of instability. Moreover, unnecessary rules and regulations may be imposed on refugees from countries that are linked with terrorist attacks. As a result, it may prove quite difficult to deal with such refugees. In such a case, it is explicit that the issue of national, regional as well international security, which is an issue of concern globally, hampers the protection of forcibly displaced persons and can be termed as the main challenge.
Since the protection of the forcibly displaced persons involves human security, the state or the central government plays a major role in the same. The problem worsens when the central government is already weak or when it may have already collapsed. Despite the fact that there are non-governmental organizations that provide protection to the citizens, the central government has got a vital responsibility of providing security to its citizens. In situations where the central government is non-existence, the human rights non-governmental organizations do have a major role to play since the United Nations Agencies are not well developed to carry out the role effectively (Castles pp. 4).
Without negating the fact that terrorism has been linked with refugees, it is also clear that the issue has been politicized in most countries; the United States included. As a result, various policies regarding refugees have been tightened with an aim of not only limiting the overall number of refugees but also minimizing the risks of terrorist attacks. For instance, in the United States, the maximum number of refugees in the year 2002 was seventy thousand although the number was increased after security measures were put in place. As the studies of Newman and van Selm (pp.17) indicate, it is quite unfortunate that the refugees who are already a vulnerable group happen to be the main target while imposing new control rules and policies. Worse still, even earlier on, the refugees were still scrutinized most before gaining entry to any foreign nation.
Further studies by Newman and van Selm (pp.18) illustrate that refugees ought not to be the main target because the verification and the admission procedures are put up in such a way that people who can pose a terrorism threat are excluded. Moreover, the convention which was held in the year 1951 inhibited certain groups of people from acquitting refugee status. Such people may include people considered to have committed serious crimes like crimes against humanity, crimes violating the values and the principles of the United Nations as well other non-political crimes which may be termed as serious crimes. Due to the same reason, bodies such as the European Commission and the UNHCR maintain that the claim that terrorists can pose as asylum seekers does not have a good basis. The situation exposes yet another problem of the refugee law. Apart from the fact that various countries are not committed to applying all the clauses appropriately, ways have not been developed to deal with people who cannot acquire refugee status and at the same time cannot be deported back to their country of origin due to the danger therein.
The Vulnerability nature of the refugees
Although the refugees comprise people across all age brackets, most of them comprise persons who are more vulnerable than the general population. The majority of the refugees are children, women and also the elderly who are marked by the increased vulnerability. According to the studies of UNHCR, about forty-one percent of the refugees are below the age of eighteen while about eleven percent are aged five years and below. Children have got increased needs because they require education, nutrition services as well as health services. Women and the elderly also require increased attention as they are more susceptible than other groups of people.
It is clear that offering protection to children is more challenging, especially in absence of their parents. Most of the children among the refugee population are usually orphaned and that complicates the situation even further. In addition, protecting children from physical and sexual abuse is also challenging due to their level of susceptibility. In most cases, women and children are not only abused by the citizens of the host country but also by fellow refugees. In that case, it calls for additional programs to take adequate care of different groups of refugees and that becomes a challenge especially when the funds are not enough.
Conclusions
Protection of the refugees or the forcibly displaced persons is very important since such people are more vulnerable than ordinary citizens. The duty of protecting such people is usually performed by the UNHRC which not only ensures the provision of basic human rights but also prevents the refugees from being involuntarily returned to their countries of origin. Although in the recent past countries have been responding positively to refugee protection, research has indicated that there are various obstacles to protection (UNHCR). One of the major obstacles to protection is the fact that many countries have been unwilling to accept or allow refugees to settle in their countries due to fear of taking responsibility or due to the security threat. The latter is the main obstacle as various studies have indicated that forcibly displaced persons are the main target while combating international as well as national insecurity. Terrorism national and international security is the subject matter of discussion in various states and countries. As a result, many policies which have been developed to deal with forcibly displaced persons exhibit discrimination as well as exclusion (UNHCR).
Discrimination and intimidation is also important obstacle toward protection bearing in mind that refugees settle in foreign societies and are viewed as competitors to the already scarce resources. Some actions taken by governments like the detention of illegal entrants are also an important obstacle to protection as it is meant to deter asylum seekers from applying for refugee status. As much as there are other important obstacles, lack of funding has proved to be a major obstacle not only in developing but also in developed countries. The developed countries are more pressurized economically since apart from taking care of the refugees in their own country, they also do have a great role in providing funds to take care of the forcibly displaced persons in the developing countries. However, the developing countries still argue that they are more burdened by the issue of refugees since they host quite a large number compared to the developed countries who continue to reduce their support for such programs. Due to the same problem of funding, a body like UNHCR has been forced to reduce the number of staff as the studies of Jastram and Achiron (pp. 7) indicate; hampering protection to quite a great extent.
Recommendations
In view of the fact that protection of forcibly displaced persons is an important agenda, all the relevant stakeholders including the government, partners and bodies such as UNHCR should collaborate effectively to achieve their overall goal. The UNHCR ought to develop the right framework that would enable it to take care of various categories of forcibly displaced persons including those who cannot acquire refugee status. In addition, the gaps which have been present in responding to humanitarian aid needs should be addressed appropriately. Some of the obstacles like the security concerns ought to be addressed internationally by bodies like United Nations. Rules regarding refugee admissions ought not only to be established but also followed appropriately to ensure that the forcibly displaced persons enjoy their legal and physical rights. Strengthening the UNHCR and regular review of various frameworks, as well as the commitment of various stakeholders, can ensure optimum protection the forcibly displaced persons (Martin pp. 1) and (Feller, Türk & Nicholson pp. 657)
Works Cited
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Hall, Nina. “Climate change and institutional change in UNHCR.” Protecting Environmental Migration: Creating New Policy. Oxford: the University of Oxford, 2010. 1-20.
Jastram, Kate and Marilyn Achiron. REFUGEE PROTECTION: A Guide to International Refugee Law.2001. Web.
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