Today, 20 June, is World Refugee Day. This day is a chance for people around the world to remember the plight of refugees and other displaced persons, and to join together in solidarity to promote, protect and respect the human rights of these people. It should also be a day when States are reminded of their obligations towards refugees and other displaced persons who are entitled to the protection of States and the international community. Too often and for too long, this promise of protection has not been fulfilled.Today, 20 June, is World Refugee Day. This day is a chance for people around the world to remember the plight of refugees and other displaced persons, and to join together in solidarity to promote, protect and respect the human rights of these people. It should also be a day when States are reminded of their obligations towards refugees and other displaced persons who are entitled to the protection of States and the international community. Too often and for too long, this promise of protection has not been fulfilled.
Refugees are individuals who have been forced to cross an international border in search of a refuge from persecution, and whose governments are unable or unwilling to provide them such protection. In addition to an estimated 8.4 million refugees under the care of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are up to 25 million people who are internally displaced within the borders of their own countries. Refugees in all but name, these internally displaced persons (IDPs) face many of the same human rights violations experienced by refugees while they are in flight and in the place where they seek refuge. Also in common with refugees, they are entitled to a durable solution to their situation, which includes voluntary return, resettlement or local integration. International standards provide specific protection to refugees and IDPs.
In Asia, millions of people are displaced due to war, ethnic conflict, persecution, natural and human-made disasters, ill-conceived development projects and the deliberate and arbitrary policies of displacement conducted by governments in the region. These range from the Bhutanese refugees in Nepal who have not been allowed for more than 10 years to go home in safety and dignity, to the Burmese refugees displaced for generations in Thailand. Many refugee communities in Asia have waited for years in vain for the protection owed them by Asian governments and the international community. New waves of displacement are taking place even as protracted refugee situations persist.
The recent upsurge of violence in Sri Lanka and Timor Leste have caused thousands of people to flee their homes. Meanwhile, communities displaced by environmental disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and the earthquake in Pakistan and India are even now, years after the disasters struck, unable to access fundamental rights and live in inadequate shelters with little or no access to basic services like health and education. In cities throughout Asia, refugees are forced to live as fugitives, branded as “illegal immigrants” and subject to forced return to their country of origin where they will suffer torture and other serious violations of their rights. IDPs too are often to be found crowded into urban centres, desperately trying to eke out a living after having had to flee their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs.
In particular, women and children form a large part of refugee communities, including IDPs.
Due to the overall lower status of women in Asia and the lack of protection provided by governments, these groups are at risk of discrimination and violence. Incidences of sexual assault, forced sex-work, trafficking, rape in custody, forced labour and lack of recognition of women-led households are rampant amidst refugee and IDP communities. Collusion between traffickers, the police, and immigration officials increase the vulnerability of women and children to human trafficking. Most governments have failed to respond effectively to these issues.
On World Refugee Day, FORUM-ASIA calls on the governments of the region to deliver on their obligations to protect all refugees and IDPs on their territories more effectively. This would include ratifying and effectively implementing the international standards specifically designed to provide protection to refugees and IDPs. Currently, there are only seven State Parties to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol in Asia, and levels of actual implementation of the provisions of the Refugee Convention remain woefully inadequate in many of these countries.
Despite the fact that many states in Asia have large numbers of IDPs, there is no comprehensive domestic legislation in place in any country of the region which ensures that the rights and dignity of internally displaced persons are protected. We also call on the media in Asian countries to remember that refugees and IDPs are victims of human rights violations, not “terrorists” or “illegal immigrants”, and to reflect this understanding in their reporting.
And finally, we reach out to all our partners in the civil society movement around the region to work together in a spirit of solidarity to keep alive the flame of hope for all refugees and IDPs in Asia.
In solidarity,
Anselmo Lee
Executive Director
