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Balancing responsibilities of states to refugees
Bereket Gebru
Ever since the increase in the influx of refugees to Europe in recent years, the Europeans have elevated the issue of refugees to one of the top agendas in international relations. The countries that went out of their continent to roam the world, brutally enslave people, colonize nations, steal their land and loot their resources consider it a ‘crisis’ when the impoverished people they violated start to go North in search of better lives.
Europeans went out to North America, committed genocide on the local residents there, stole their land, plundered the resources, established their own state and left the local community marginalized. They also went to South America, the Caribbean, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Israel and Asia to basically replicate the same thing. Everywhere they walked they brought with them misery to the local people as they subjugated locals and assumed power over societies. Where ever they set foot, they become the rulers, take up the country and subjugate the local people there. Up to this day, these places are considered as nations founded by these people of destruction.
However, they seem to have quickly forgotten about the genocidal Southern migrations they made just a few centuries ago. A brutal colonial era that robbed countries of their resources and an era of independence that ensured the sustained siphoning of resources to former colonial powers through economic colonialism and conflicts orchestrated by these powers have left most of the former colonies in a state of abject poverty. Topped with the realities of the world in the twenty-first century led by an unforgiving capitalist system, the areas of the world that supported communities who co-existed peacefully amongst themselves and with the environment have proved unfit to do so anymore. Their people are finally lured by the economic prosperity and opportunities that Europe provides.
Accordingly, people in their thousands flee their homelands in search of better opportunities in Europe and America. The Europeans have, however, shut their borders to stop these refugees from entering their countries. With war, persecution and absolute poverty to run away from, refugees knowingly dare fatal journeys for a shot at a life of taking a menial job in Europe or America withstanding xenophobia and social marginalization.
On the contrary, poor countries like Ethiopia and Lebanon take on a lot more refugees without complaining. Such countries share their resources with refugees from their neighboring countries with no fuss.
The Europeans have, therefore, been working hard to make sure that significantly fewer refugees make it to their border crossings. They have since tried to convince transit countries to stop refugees in their tracks to European shores. However, the reality is that the conflicts they fuel around the world are deriving people out of their countries. Whether it is in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and the war ravaged parts of Africa, their policies that aim at looting resources are behind the mass exodus of people. Therefore, the major step to take in this regard is to change their policies.
However, protecting those who are forced to flee, and supporting the countries that shelter them are shared international responsibilities that must be borne more equitably and predictably. Towards that end, the United Nations General Assembly hosted a high level Summit for Refugees and Migrants on 19 September, 2016. At the Summit, all 193 Member States of the United Nations unanimously adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (Resolution 71/1).
In the Declaration, all 193 Member States of the United Nations reaffirmed the enduring importance of the international refugee protection regime, committed fully to respect the rights of refugees and migrants, pledged to provide more predictable and sustainable support to refugees and the communities that host them, and agreed to expand opportunities to achieve durable solutions for refugees.
Among the key new elements of the declaration are commitments by States to:
- Strengthen and facilitate emergency responses to refugee movements and a smooth transition to sustainable approaches that invest in the resilience of both refugees and the communities that host them;
- Provide additional and predictable humanitarian funding and development support to host countries;
- Explore additional avenues for refugees to be admitted to third countries, including through increased resettlement; and
- Support the development and application of a comprehensive refugee response framework (CRRF) for large refugee movements, applicable to both protracted and new situations.
The framework presents a comprehensive response designed to ensure: a) rapid and well – supported reception and admission measures; b) support for immediate and ongoing needs (e.g. protection, health, education); c) assistance to national/local institutions and communities receiving refugees; and d) expanded opportunities for durable solutions. These elements are designed to meet four objectives: to ease pressures on countries that host large numbers of refugees, to enhance refugee self-reliance, to expand third-country solutions, and to support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.
Rather than responding to refugee displacement through a purely, and often underfunded, humanitarian lens, the elements of the CRRF are designed to provide a more systematic and sustainable response that benefits both refugees and the communities that host them. It engages a much broader group of stakeholders: government at national and local levels, international and regional financial institutions, UN Agencies and NGO partners, and business and civil society actors. It seeks to ensure more sustainable responses by linking humanitarian and development efforts early on in a crisis, and by strengthening and making more inclusive service delivery, including through investment in national and local systems wherever possible.
It also calls for more robust and expanded planning and opportunities for durable solutions.
Ethiopia launched a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) on 28 November 2017, to facilitate durable solutions for refugees in the country. To this end, Ethiopia announced plans for ‘Jobs Compact’ where US$500 million in concessional finance from the World Bank, DfID, European Investment Bank and European Union will be linked to creating employment opportunities for up to 100,000 individuals (30,000 refugees hosted in Ethiopia and 70,000 Ethiopian nationals) in three industrial parks across Ethiopia.
While Ethiopia still keeps its borders open to refugees, the Government envisages gradual phase out of the encampment policy over the next 10 years while moving towards out-of-camp and local integration options. When the gradual transition ends in10 years, the country will have closed all 27 refugee camps in its territory. A humanitarian bulletin by Ocha states that CRRF has already started transforming the lives of refugees in Ethiopia as witnessed by the increase in the overall school enrollment rate of refugees and the issuance of vital documents, including birth certificates to refugee children.
