Subject: REFUGEES: GOVERNMENTS CALLOUS ABOUT FATE OF REFUGEES
From: Amnesty International
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 06:35:02 -0500
AI INDEX: ACT/34/ 09/97
News Service 48/97
19 MARCH 1997
REFUGEES: GOVERNMENTS CALLOUS ABOUT FATE OF REFUGEES
Governments increasingly show a callous disregard for the impact of
policies deliberately designed to prevent people who are genuinely
fleeing
persecution from reaching safety in their countries, Amnesty
International
said today as it launched a global campaign on refugees.
"The new battery of techniques aimed at keeping refugees at bay
mean
that countless people never get a real chance to escape from torture
or
death threats or are sent back to countries where they run a real risk
of
getting thrown in jail or handed over to executioners," Amnesty
International said.
The organization said there are more than 15 million men, women
and
children refugees and a further 20 million people internally displaced
because they have been forced to leave their homes but have not
crossed an
international border.
"The vast majority are women and children -- with women
particularly
at risk before, during and after they flee," Amnesty International
said.
"Rape is increasingly used to torture and terrorize women into flight,
especially in conflicts such as in Afghanistan, Rwanda and the former
Yugoslavia."
With the scale of human rights violations that force people into
exile
continuing unabated, the number of those displaced is likely to grow
in
coming years, as shown most recently by the political crisis which has
been
unfolding in Albania in the past month.
At this stage it appears that the Italian authorities are
admitting
Albanian asylum-seekers. Amnesty International is monitoring the
current
crisis and urging all governments to fulfill their obligations toward
these
asylum-seekers.
"While the number of people needing international protection
continues
to grow, governments seem more concerned with keeping refugees away
from
their borders," Amnesty International said. "They should at least have
the
decency to protect refugees when human rights tragedies unfold."
In 1951, in the aftermath of the Second World War, states
formulated
the Refugee Convention in order to deal with the mass outpourings of
people. One of the key principles spelled out in the Convention and
general
international law is that of non-refoulement -- that no one should be
forcibly returned to a country where his or her life or freedom would
be at
risk .
"Yet nearly half a century after the Convention was drafted,
there is
more than ample evidence that this principle is simply not respected
and
that people are in fact sent back to countries where their life or
liberty
is at risk," Amnesty International said.
In one case, a Zairian woman escaped from a military prison where
she
was tortured and sought asylum in Sweden. The Swedish authorities
rejected
her claim on several grounds, including their view that the president
does
not control the military and therefore torture by soldiers does not
constitute state persecution.
In another case in July last year, the Belgian authorities
deported
Bouasria Ben Othman to Algeria after refusing his asylum application.
Despite repeated efforts, Amnesty International received no
information
from the Belgian authorities about his location, until 19 November
when
they said the Algerian authorities said he had been arrested upon
arrival
in Algeria, released and rearrested. On 26 November Bouasria appeared
on
Algerian television saying he was well and that people should stop
asking
about him. A week later Algerian police told his family that he had
thrown
himself out of a window and died. However, there are allegations that
he
died as a result of torture.
"Governments have made the rules on the refugees and they should
now
play by those rules," Amnesty International said. "The increasingly
restrictive approach that more and more governments take towards
refugees
makes a mockery of their international and national obligations."
This restrictive approach includes limiting access to their
countries,
harshly applying asylum criteria, detaining asylum-seekers,
temporarily
protecting or forcibly repatriating refugees, and fining airlines and
shipping companies if they carry people who do not have travel
documents.
For example, after the military coup in Haiti in September 1991,
most
Haitian refugees tried to reach the USA and more than 38,000 risked
their
lives at sea. In June 1992 the USA intercepted Haitian boat people at
sea
and summarily returned them, without any examination of their asylum
claims.
"While governments may have the right to control their borders,
they
do not have the right to refuse people access to asylum procedures,"
Amnesty International said.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina alone, more than half the population was
uprooted by the war with an estimated 1.3 million people displaced
inside
the country and another million or more refugees abroad.
Since November 1996, the massive repatriation of refugees in the
Great
Lakes region without clear guarantees of safety on their return has
been
marked by a shocking disregard for the rights, dignity and safety of
hundreds of thousands of people. Disparate groups from Rwanda, Zaire
and
Burundi are in grave danger of human rights abuses, and they are not
getting the protection they deserve from the international community.
"If the repatriation solution is needed, it must be defined in
terms
that give human rights considerations the highest priority at every
stage,"
Amnesty International said.
The human rights organization is calling on the world's
governments to
fulfill their international obligations for the protection of
refugees.
They must support the efforts of the UNHCR and other international
organizations who work to protect and help refugees. They must remind
their
communities that refugees need protection, they are not abusing the
asylum
system for their own gain, they are not economic migrants, they are
not
moving en masse for illegitimate reasons.
ENDS\
****************************************************************
You may repost this message onto other sources provided the main
text is not altered in any way and both the header crediting
Amnesty International and this footer remain intact. Only the
list subscription message may be removed.
****************************************************************