WHY IT MATTERS

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In the case of the man on the cover of thismagazine, at themomentwhen the picturewas taken,the questionwas irrelevant.Whoeverhe is, he deservedto be saved – and that is preciselywhat the coastguardswere trying to do after a boat of would-bemigrants

overturned off the coast of southernSpain, drowning severalof its occupants including at least twopregnantwomen.However, oncehewas safely on shore, the question of

whetherhewas a refugee or amigrantmaywell have comeimmediately to the fore.As a refugee, fleeing persecution or

armed conflict, hewouldhave beenentitled to “international protection” inan asylumcountry – in this casemostprobably Spain.On the other hand, if hewas someonemoving for financialreasons – to earn a better living thanhecould at home – thenhewould be classi-fied as an economicmigrant, andwouldquite likely be sent back to his homecountry.This is a judgement thatmany coun-

tries around theworldmake in varyingnumbers of individual cases every day.Sometimes the decision is relatively

straightforward, and sometimes it is anextremely difficult call tomake.Thereare countries that produce lots of eco-nomicmigrants, and very few refugees.But they do produce some, and it is thejob of asylumadjudicators to spot them.There are asylumseekerswithout documentswho arerefugees, and there are asylumseekerswith valid traveldocumentswho aremost definitely not.There are peoplewho articulate a false storywell, and peoplewho articulate atrue story badly – or not at all (because it is too painful andtoo personal).And there is a grey zone: peoplewho are leaving a country

where persecution anddiscrimination are unquestionablyoccurring, and the economy is also dire.Are people leavingsuch countries for refugee reasons, or economic ones – or doboth sets of reasons fuse into one that is, inmany cases, almostimpossible to unravel?Andwhat about the peoplewho leave their country for

refugee reasons, and thenkeep onmoving for economic ones(so-called ‘secondarymovers’)?Whether or not their onward

movement is justifiedmaydepend onwhat lies between theircountry of origin and the countrywhere they eventuallymake their asylumclaim.There is, of course, nothingnewabout peoplemoving.

Migrations of people for both refugee andnon-refugee reasonshavebeen takingplace since before thebeginningof recordedtime.And if wewere to trace our ancestors back far enough, allof uswould find thatweoriginated somewhere else.Nor should voluntarymigration – economic or otherwise –

necessarily be viewed as negative (eventhough it is usually seen thatway).Migrants often fill the gaps in thework-force, rather than take otherworkers’jobs – but they stillmake the perfectscapegoat for a society’s ills, and theircontribution is oftenhidden or ignored.The linked issues of migration and

asylumare probablymorewidely de-bated (and confused) today than everbefore: perhaps because thenumber ofpeople on themovehas increased;perhaps because the planet – or certaincountries on it – feel overcrowded;perhaps for a host of other reasons,both real and imagined.And, as the 21st century progresses, it

is likely to become evenmore compli-cated,withmore people forced – oneway or another (war, economics, climatechange) – to pull up their roots andmove somewhere else.

Over 200million people are believed to be living outsidetheir original homeland already.Relatively fewof themarerefugees. But, yes – taking the trouble to find outwhich onesare does stillmatter.Toundermine the system that identifies a refugee, and

prevents himorher frombeing sent home,would in somecases be like the coastguards in the cover photo cutting therope instead of hauling it in. It should be unthinkable – and itis unthinkable,when one looks at asylumseekers andrefugees as individual humanbeings.Butwhen they are reduced to statistics, and described in

pejorative terms such as ‘floods,’ ‘waves,’ ‘unstoppable tides’(and otherwaterymetaphors that bear a certain tragic ironygiven thenumber of would-be refugees andmigrantswhodrown), they are all too easy to cast aside and ignore.

REFUGEE or Migrant?

Too soon to tell: a migrant or refugeepicked up in the Mediterranean.

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EditorRupert Colville

French EditorCécile Pouilly

ContributorsAngel Suárez, Anja Klug, FrancescaFontanini, Giulia Laganà, Ligimat Perez,Nazli Zaki and unhcr staff worldwide.

Editorial AssistantManuela Raffoni

Photo DepartmentSuzy Hopper, Anne Kellner

DesignVincentWinter Associés, Paris

ProductionFrançoise Jaccoud

DistributionJohn O’Connor, Frédéric Tissot

Photo EngravingAloha Scan, Geneva

MapsunhcrMapping Unit

Historical documentsunhcr archives

REFUGEES is published by theMedia Relationsand Public Information Service of the UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees. Theopinions expressed by contributors are notnecessarily those of UNHCR. The designationsand maps used do not imply the expression ofany opinion or recognition on the part ofUNHCR concerning the legal status of aterritory or of its authorities.

REFUGEES reserves the right to edit all articlesbefore publication. Articles and photos notcovered by copyright ©may be reprinted withoutprior permission. Please credit UNHCR and thephotographer. Requests for copyrighted photosshould be directed to the agency credited.

English and French editions printed in Italyby AMILCARE PIZZI S.p.A., Milan.Circulation: 121,000 in Arabic, English,French, Italian and Spanish.

issn 0252-791 X

Front cover: Coastguards rescue a migrantor refugee off the coast of southern Spain.©REUTERS / A . MERES / ESP•2002

Back cover: Somemigrants and refugeesare killed, or badly injured, attempting tocross borders.©SERGIO CARO / MAR•2005

UNHCR

P.O. Box 25001211 Geneva 2, Switzerlandwww.unhcr.org

4States are having increasing difficultydistinguishing between refugees andmigrants.

12 W O R S E T H A N T H E S H A R K S

The smugglers operating between Somaliaand Yemen are among the most vicious inthe world.

15 M A L AW I ’ S D I L E M M A

Many refugees andmigrants only stay for ashort while before moving on to South Africa.

16 T H E D E E P B L U E S E A

Anti-immigration policies, reckless smugglersand cold commercial calculations may beendangering lives at sea.

22 C A R I B B E A N C O N U N D R U M S

Every year, thousands fromwithin theregion – and beyond – try to reach the USvia the Caribbean.

23 M I G R A T I O N T O T H E N O R T H

The route via Mexico to the US is fraughtwith risk for refugees andmigrants alike.

25 C O N T R O L V S . P R O T E C T I O N

Within the EU, there has been a marked shiftof focus from protecting refugees to haltingirregular migration.

29 D I V E R T E D T O N A U R U

How different treatment, based on the waypeople arrive, became a central feature ofAustralia’s asylum policy.

31 I S T O L E R A T I O N E N O U G H ?

Relatively few Asian countries haveestablished formal asylum systems.

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4Migrants and refugeestake the same routes,face the same hazards.

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22Protecting refugeesin the Caribbean isa challenge.

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25Migration controlsmake it hard forrefugees to find safety.

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n 13 September, Polish border guardspatrolling themountainous border areanear the borderwithUkraine cameupon

a distraught and emaciated Chechen womancarrying a two-year-old baby boy. She begged theborder guards to come with her to find her threedaughters, whom she had left behind as she wenttolookforhelp. Afewhourslater,aroundmidnight,

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they found the bodies of the three girls, aged 13, 10 and 6,huddled together and covered in fern leaves. Dressed insummer clothes, they had died of exposure after spendingfour dayswandering disoriented in themountains.

While being treated in hospital, their mother Kamisa

Jamaldinova told Polish investigators that she had paid someMoscow-based smugglers us$2,000 to get herself and her fam-ily toAustria.Butat theborder, their guidehadsimplypointedinthegeneraldirectionofPolandandabandonedthemtotheirfate–justastemperaturesintheBieszczadymountainsplunged

X-ray andthermalimagingsystems arenow in usein severalcountries,including theUS and portsin theMediterraneanand northernFrance.

INCTIONTINGUISHING BETWEEN REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS.

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MIXED MOTIVESAs these examples suggest, the phenomenonof ‘irregularmigration,’ inwhich peoplemove fromone country and continent to anotherwithout pass-ports and visas, is growing in scale and scope.Whatforcesaredrivingthistrend?Whoarethepeoplemov-ing?Andhow are they affected by their journey?Peoplemoveforavarietyof reasons. Insomecases,

theyarefleeingpersecution,humanrightsviolationsand armed conflict in their home country, and cantherefore be considered as refugees under interna-tional law.Moreoften,theyaremigrantstryingtoescapethe

hardships and uncertainties of life in developingcountries with weak economies, high levels ofunemployment, mounting competition for scarceresources, and poor standards of governance.Refugeesandmigrantsfrequentlymovealongside

eachother,usingthesameroutesandmeansof trans-port, andemploying theservicesof thesamehumansmugglers as they try to reach the same countries of

to around zero degreesCelsius.Throughout the world, people are embarking

upon long, hazardous and clandestine journeys ofthe type undertaken by the Jamaldinova family.InAsia, for example,membersof theRohingyacom-munity are trying tomake theirway fromMyanmarto Thailand and then to Malaysia and Indonesia.People from Central American countries aremovingnorth, initially toMexicoandsubsequently–if they can – to theUnited States andCanada.Somalis and Ethiopians are crossing the Gulf of

AdentoYemenandtheGulf states,whilepeoplefromCentral andEasternAfrica aremaking their way toSouthAfrica.Inrecentyearstherehasalsobeenagrowingmove-

ment of people from, or via,West African countriesto Spain’s southern outpost, the Canary Islands; andvia North Africa and the Mediterranean to theEuropean Union. Others enter the eu by land fromthe south-east, making their way though countriessuch asTurkey and the Balkan states.

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They had adream–adreamof escapingmisery, or political oppression, and finding anew El Dorado on the other side of the world.There were no Africans, Arabs, Asians or LatinAmericans among them – just desperateEuropeans, impoverished by the economicslump that followed the end of the 1936-39Spanish civil war.

“If you had breakfast, you had no supper,”remembered José Abreu, “and the only exit[we] could think of was to emigrate.”Abreu,who died in 2006, and his brother Sebastianwere interviewed by the makers of a Spanishdocumentary* half a century after they and169 other people set sail from the CanaryIslands on theTelémaco, an old boat designedto carry around 20 passengers.

Their journey across the Atlantic beganon 9 August 1950, and lasted a seeminglyinterminable 36 days.

Between 1946 and 1958, a total of some180,000 Spaniards emigrated, mainly fromGalicia and the Canary Islands, to Venezuela,a country the islanders sometimes refer asthe “The Eighth Island” (LaOctava Isla),because of the large community of theircompatriots who still live there. Venezuelawas not the only South American destination:in 1950 alone, some 60,000 Spaniards set sailfor Argentina, while thousands more went toother countries in the region.

Fernando Medina Valladolid, speaking toUNHCR at his home in Venezuela, describedthe departure of the boats, dubbed buquesfantasmas (ghost ships) by the islandersbecause they were leaving on a one-way trip,never to return: “People hugged and cried...some jumped into the sea to swim after theboat and then swam back.” Researchers havecatalogued at least 130 of these clandestine

Irregular migrantsfrom the CanaryIslands, during theirepic 1950 voyage toVenezuela on boardthe Telémaco.

How the TIDE has

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boats that sailed from the Canaries between1948 and 1955.

Valladolid was eight years old, when heleft with his mother and his nine brothers andsisters: “When I realized the boat was leavingthe shore and my grandfather – who hadbeen like a dad to me – was not coming withus, something hit me.”

Just like today’s clandestine travellerscoming to the Canaries from West Africa, theislanders often had to save up for months inorder to pay for themselves or a relative totravel. “People in the Canary Islands used tobuild big wooden boats; they worked day andnight in a shed for three or four months tofinish a boat,” said Valladolid.

The Atlantic crossing was notoriouslydifficult. Carlos Medina was anotherpassenger on the Telémaco: “At first, we had agood time, we were playing guitar… going for

a swim. But, after 10 days, the fuel ran out andbad things started to happen.”

The Telémaco had hardly any navigationinstruments and was steered by a crew whohad never crossed the Atlantic. It wassomething of a miracle that nobody diedduring the crossing, after a big storm with15-metre waves left the boat drifting, badlydamaged, with its food supplies spoiled.

Many gave up hope, especially after aSpanish-flagged ship refused to take them onboard. Eventually they were rescued by menwith “a darker complexion” than they hadever seen before. They arrived in Martinique,where they were well looked after –something that has left a lasting impressionon 90-year-old Sebastian Abreu: “Theyoffered us everything they had. They treatedus very nicely… those coloured people –much better than the whites.”

Abreu was the cook on the Telémaco, andwhen the ship finally arrived in Venezuela, heand the rest of the crew were jailed forimmigration offences, while the otherpassengers were taken to an island normallyused to quarantine cattle. Later, they weremoved to a reception centre on the mainlandwhere they stayed until they received properdocumentation. Many of them subsequentlyworked on farms cutting sugar cane for verylow wages.

When Abreu (who later returned to theCanary Islands) witnesses the current odysseyof would-be immigrants from Africa to theCanaries, he finds echoes of his ownexperience in theirs, and feels empathytowards people who share the simple dreamhe once had: “They aren’t coming to ask foranything,” he said, “except a better life.”

Cécile Pouilly

* An excerpt of the Spanish documentary on the emigration of Canary Islanders to Latin America “El ruido del mar” can be viewed at http://elruidodelmar.blogspot.com

HALF A CENTURY AGOEUROPEANS WERELEAVING ON BOATS FORLATIN AMERICATURNED

PRINCIPAL ‘MIXED MIGRATION’ ROUTES

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destination.Thesehavebecomeknownas‘mixedmi-gratorymovements.’

COMPLEX SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORSSuch movements generally – but not always– involve people travelling frompoorer and less sta-ble states to more prosperous and secure countries.However (contrary to popular opinion in the indus-trialized states),mixedmovements are aglobal phe-nomenon,affectingdestinationcountries inboththeSouthandtheNorth.Forexample,whileasmallnum-ber of West Africans head for Europe, a far greaternumbermigratewithintheirownregion, takingad-vantage of the ecowas treaty,which allows the freemovement of people betweenWestAfrican states.There is abroadconsensus thatmixedmigrations

are likely to grow. Migration experts have pointedout that theworld is characterized by increasing dis-parities in terms of development and democraticprocess. Populations are shrinking and getting olderinsomeregions,whereasothershaveyoung,growingpopulations with little or no employment prospects.Improvedcommunicationsandtransportlinksareen-couragingmorepeopletolookforalifebeyondthecon-finesof theirowncommunity,countryandcontinent.

THE POOREST STAY PUTThe most deprived and destitute are notusually to be found inmixedmovements.Travellinglong distances in an irregular manner can be an ex-

pensivebusiness,especiallywhen(asisoftenthecase)peoplehavetopurchasecounterfeittraveldocumentsand employ smugglers in order to find a way roundtheincreasinglystringentbordercontrolsestablishedby states.Sometimesfamiliesandcommunitiesselltheiras-

sets and club together so that one or two individualscanbesenttotrytheirluckabroad.Inothersituations,people – especiallywomenandchildren – aremovedby professional traffickers from one country to an-other for the purpose of sexual and other forms ofexploitation.The people involved in mixed movements –

whether refugees or migrants, whether traffickedor not – experience many of the same hazards andhuman rights violations in the course of theirjourney.Theseincludedetentionandimprisonmentin unacceptable conditions, physical abuse andracial harassment, theft, extortion and destitution.Those who travel by boat are at risk of intercep-

tion, abandonmentanddrowningat sea,while thosewhomoveby landmaybe returnedor transferred toremote anddangerous locations. People on themovewho loseordestroy their identitydocumentsmaybeunable to establish their nationality, become effec-tivelystatelessandfinditverydifficulttoreturnhome.While the issue of mixed migratory movements

raises awide range of human rights andhumanitar-ian concerns, theun refugee agency’s interest in theissue is quite specific.

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Would-be migrantsawait a decision ontheir future afterbeing rounded up inthe Sahara Desert.

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PROTECTING THE REFUGEES“Many states have introduced measuresthatareintendedtopreventcertaingroupsof foreignnationals from arriving and remaining on their ter-ritory,” said un Assistant High Commissioner forRefugees Erika Feller. “These measures are oftenindiscriminate in their application andmake it verydifficult, if notimpossible,forrefugeestoenteracoun-trywheretheycouldfindthesafety,securityandsup-portwhich theyneed, and towhich theyare entitledunder international law.”Fellersaidunhcr isparticularlyconcernedtoavert

situations where refugees are apprehended duringtheir journey, given no opportunity to claim asy-lum, deprived of legal advice and social welfareservices, and, “most seriously, are returned to acountrywhere theymaybe at risk. For a refugee, be-ing forced to gohomemayquite literally be amatterof life and death.”Nobodyarguesthatthereareeasyanswerstothese

issues. States have a sovereign right to control theirborders. They are understandably concerned about

thearrivalof peoplewhosejourneysareorganizedbysmugglingnetworks.And they find it difficult to ig-noretheconcernsof theirowncitizens,someofwhom(rightly orwrongly) fear the arrival of migrants andrefugeeshasnegative consequences for their societyand economy.Taking full account of such concerns, Feller said

unhcr is working with governments and other or-ganizations in an attempt to ensure the drive to im-pose stricter forms of migration management doesnot compromise the right of asylum (see box below).

BROADENING HORIZONSOne particularly important arena is to befoundinso-called‘transitcountries,’whereinthepastrefugees had little or no prospect of gaining asylum,forthesimplereasonthatthecountryinquestionhadan inadequate domestic asylum system – or no realasylum system at all.

unhcr is currently working both with ecowasand with individual West African countries in ajoint effort tomake the region safer for refugees, and

TheUN refugee agency has drawnup a ‘10Point Plan ofAction’ that aims to alleviatesome of the protection difficulties arisingfrom the intertwined migration andrefugee movements occurring around theworld. The plan provides a frameworkthat states, UNHCR and other organizationsinvolved in asylum and migration issuescan use to develop comprehensivestrategies in mixed migration situations.

“The 10 Point Plan is not a blueprint thatrequires identical or similar action to betaken in all circumstances,” explainsUNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner forRefugees Erika Feller. “Instead, it identifiesmain issues and objectives around which acomprehensive refugee protection strategycan be formulated, while recognizing thatthe activities of UNHCR and other actorswill have to be tailored to suit specific

situations. The mixed movements areso complex and fluid, that any systemdesigned to cope with them has to beextremely flexible.”

In addition to addressing traditionalconcerns, such as reception conditions, theplan contains some novel ideas. Theseinclude a ‘profiling and referral mechanism,’which would provide an early understand-ing of the background and motivationunderlying a new arrival’s journey, and helpchannel individual cases into the mostappropriate response mechanism. “By this,we mean some sort of official refugeeprotection status for those who need it,”said Feller, “but also repatriation, or possiblysome legal migration alternative, for thosewho don’t.”

The plan also flags the difficult issue of‘secondary movements’ (when refugees

keep on moving from country to country).And it proposes establishing a flexible asy-lum procedure that could be used to assesscases with varying levels of complexity. “Insome situations,” said Feller, “the proc-edure could be streamlined and quick. Butin others, we would have to proceed withcaution so as not to make dangerousmistakes. The bottom line remains thesame: people with a well-founded fear ofpersecution, and those fleeing war orwidespread violence, should be able to findasylum in another country. But the ways ofensuring we identify all those people couldbe woven together into a more coherentsystem. That would be to everyone’sbenefit, not least the refugees themselves.”

For a detailed analysis of the ‘10 Point Plan,’go towww.unhcr.org

MIXED MOVEMENTS ARE A GLOBAL PHENOMENON, AFFECTINGCOUNTRIES IN BOTH THE SOUTH AND THE NORTH.

The TEN POINT plan

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integration for refugees.There has also been progress in some North

African countries which sit astride the mixedmigration routes from the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. In February 2007, forexample, unhcr signed an agreement with a localngo partner in Libya, called the InternationalOrganization for Peace, Care and Relief, which hasled to a breakthrough in that country in anumber of

thereby reduce the number of people who feel theyhavetocontinuemovingnorthinsearchof safetyanda reasonably decent life. Such efforts take time tobear fruit, but most countries in West Africa havenow not only signed up to international laws suchas the 1951 un Refugee Convention and the 1969oau Convention, but have also enacted domesticrefugee legislation, adopted training programmesfor officials and in some cases are supporting local

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THERE HAS BEEN PROGRESS IN NORTH AFRICANCOUNTRIES WHICH SIT ASTRIDE THE ROUTES FROM THEMIDDLE EAST AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA TO EUROPE.

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A group of peoplearriving on aEuropean beach,under closesurveillance.

The group of 58migrants had justbeen brought into the port on theItalian island of Lampedusa on acoastguard patrol boat. After a five-daytrip, during which two women died,they were exhausted but relieved tohave been rescued. Many of themseemed happy, even eager, to describetheir awful journey.

However, a young Eritrean womancalled Eden (not her real name) stoodsilently on the sidelines, a sad, distantlook in her eyes.

On the second day, Eden began, bitby bit, to unburden herself to a UNHCR

official in the island’s reception centre.She had left Eritrea because she “didn’twant to be a soldier for the rest of [her]life” – in other words, she had deserted

from the Eritrean army. She headednorth, eventually arriving in a NorthAfrican country, where she was arrested.

“Words cannot explain what our lifewas like in prison,” Eden said of her tenmonths in detention for entering thecountry without documents or a visa.“They kept us locked up 24 hours a day.There were 70 women in a 30-squaremetre room. Food was given to us oncea day – plain rice and salty drinkingwater – and sometimes the guards onlythrew us a piece of bread straight fromthe door.”

Tears began to stream down herface. “I could cope with this treatment,but the real nightmare began once thesun had set,” she said. “We were underconstant threat of being singled out

and raped by the guards… I hated myselffor having to live such a life and for notbeing able to find a solution.”

The day Eden was released from jailwas not the day she became free. “Agroup of us was handed over to a farmowner,” she said. “We were sold forapproximately 50 dollars each, likeanimals.” They were forced to work onthe farm from dawn to dusk, withoutany pay. “He could do whatever hewanted to us, especially as far as thewomen were concerned,” she said inher low, flat voice. They were finallyfreed after their families sent money tothe land owner.

“I’m already dead,” she said, “andnobody will give my life back to me.”

Laura Boldrini

One WOMAN'S Ordeal

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BY A ST R I D VAN GEND E R E N STO RT

Sitting in front of her empty tent inYemen’s Kharaz refugee camp,Aysha is trying to move on with life.But holding two young children inher arm, the thought of her three-

year-old son keeps haunting her.“He was sick and cried a lot,” she said, ten

days after crossing the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.“The smugglers did not like it. They grabbedhim – I begged them not to. Then they threwhim overboard.”

“I saw him disappear into the deep darkwater.”

Aysha is one of tens of thousands ofSomalis and Ethiopians who every year risktheir lives crossing the Gulf of Aden, lookingfor safety or a better life. “When I felt we wereno longer secure in Somalia, when gunmenattacked all night, I decided to leave,” sheexplains.

The family travelled from Mogadishu toBossaso in Puntland, northern Somalia, wherethey spent seven days with relatives, followedby three days with the smugglers, before

setting off from a beach just before dawn.There were 115 other people crammed into thesame flimsy boat.

“I did not know what kind of people thesmugglers were,” she said. “But now I know.They are not human. They are animals.”

The gangs operating in the anarchic stretchof sea separating Somalia from Yemen arenotoriously and consistently brutal. Duringthe first 11 months of 2007, more than 26,000people – mostly Somalis and Ethiopians –each paid US$ 50-150 to make the crossing.During that period, at least 1,030 people diedor were reported missing – almost double the2006 total.

Many died atrocious deaths: stabbed andbeaten by the smugglers; drowned after beingdumped too far from the Yemen coast; orasphyxiated when too many people werecrammed in a boat’s hold. Some were ‘luckier:’they were only raped, robbed, beaten orscalded by the engine. But they made it.

In 2007, two-thirds of those who reachedYemen alive sought assistance, and severalthousand elected to live in the UNHCR-runrefugee camp near Aden. Others attempted to

make a meagre living on their own in Yemen’scities or as shepherds up in the hills. And somemoved on to the Gulf States to work as maids,car cleaners – anything to earn a living andsend some money back home. When theirresidence permits expire, some attemptto move elsewhere in the Middle East or headnorth to Europe.

The movement of people within the Hornof Africa – a region with more than its fairshare of poverty, famine and political instabil-ity – is scarcely a new phenomenon. However,in recent decades, Yemen has become an evermore important link between the Horn andthe oil-rich Gulf countries.

The vast majority of those passing throughare Somalis, who have been fleeing for muchof the past 19 years as a result of alternatingspells of extreme instability and outrightconflict, including the most recent round offighting between Somali insurgents and theTransitional Federal Government (TFG) backedby Ethiopian troops.

Yemen, which is one of world’s poorestnations, is the only country in the ArabianPeninsula that has acceded to the 1951 UN

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Exhausted survivors waiting for helpon a Yemen beach after completingthe dangerous crossing from Somalia.

Worse than the

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areas, including access, registration and assistanceto asylum seekers in detention centres, and legalandpracticalhelpwithvoluntaryrepatriation.Libyahas also been taking amore active role inhelping lo-cateboatsknowntobeintroubleintheMediterranean.

unhcr’s presence is alsonowon firmerground inMorocco, after the signing of a formal cooperationagreementwith thegovernment in July2007,whichshould greatly improve its operational capacity, andits ability to work alongside other agencies involvedin asylum andmigration issues there. Further west,inMauritania, national asylum legislation has beenin force since 2005, and the necessary structures tomake it function are being established.

OFFERING ALTERNATIVESThe task of protecting refugees could bemadeeasierby initiatives that reduce thenumberofpeoplewhomoveinanirregularmannerandsubmitunfoundedasylumapplicationsbecausetheyhavenootherlegalmeanstoenterandresideinanothercoun-try. Prospective migrants need to receive better in-formation about the consequences of irregular mi-gration as well as about new opportunities for themtomove ina safe and legalmanner, suchasexpandedfamily reunion and labourmigration programmes.Afinalissuethatmustbetackledconcernsthelim-

itedcapacity (and insomecases theunwillingness) ofsome states to address the issues of mixedmigration

A map of the Hornof Africa, and theroute to Yemen(‘Arabia’), drawn onthe wall of an oldfort near theKenya-Somaliaborder.

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Refugee Convention. For years it has kept itsdoors open and offered prima facie refugeestatus to all Somalis who make it across theGulf of Aden (its generosity partly stemmingfrom the fact that on some occasions in thepast it was Somalia that provided a haven forYemenis).

At the end of 2006, there were 95,000refugees living in Yemen, 95 percent ofwhom were Somalis (other groups, such asEthiopians, do not get automatic refugeestatus), and the numbers are rising – despiteefforts on both sides of the Gulf of Aden towarn people of the dangers involved indealing with smugglers.

Under increasing strain, Yemen has calledupon the international community for moresupport in dealing with the constant mixedflow of migrants and refugees. As a result,over the past year, UNHCR and its partnershave stepped up work in Yemen under aUS$7 million operation that includesadditional staff, increased field presence,more assistance, provision of additionalshelter for refugees and training programmesfor coastguards and other officials.

On the Somalia side, information andassistance projects have been launched in anattempt to discourage people from placingtheir lives in the hands of the smugglersunless they absolutely have to.

But until Somalia finds some sortof lasting peace and economic stability,

and until root causes of poverty in theregion are addressed properly, desperatecitizens will most likely continue to climbinto the boats, no matter what risk theyface.

As Aysha put it: “I had to go. I lost mychild in the sea. But what choice did I have?”

THE GANGS OPERATING IN THE ANARCHIC STRETCH OFSEA SEPARATING SOMALIA FROM YEMEN ARE NOTORIOUSLYAND CONSISTENTLY BRUTAL.

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and refugee protection in an effectivemanner in re-gions of origin, transit and final destination.On the one hand, countries of transit and desti-

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nationneedencouragementtodevelopthenecessarypolicies, practices and institutions to admit asylumseekers to their territory, assess their claims andprovide solutions for those who qualify for refugeestatus.On the other hand, action is needed to provide

peoplelikeKamisaJamaldinovaandherfourchildrenwiththeopportunitytoliveapeacefulandprosperouslife in their homeland, thereby averting the need forthemtoembarkondifficult,dangerousandsometimesdeadly journeys to countries which seem to offer abrighter future.As the Global Commission on International

Migration has stated, “women, men and childrenshould be able to realize their potential, meet theirneeds, exercise their human rights and fulfil theiraspirations in their country of origin, and hencemigrate out of choice, rather than necessity.” �

NEW INITIATIVES ARE NEEDED TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FORPEOPLE TO MOVE IN A SAFE AND LEGALMANNER.

Since themid 1980s, governmentshave been attempting to clampdown on all modes of travel, by

introducing punitive fines against airlinesor transport companies that bring in“irregular” migrants. They are alsosometimes made to pay the costs ofdetaining such people, and of returningthem to their home countries.

As a result, airline check-in staff andcabin crews have become quasi-immigra-tion officials, and truck drivers have toinspect their own vehicles as rigorouslyas if they were border police. But, as theInternational Transport Workers’Federation has pointed out, “transportworkers are not trained for immigrationwork, and should not be expected to takeon the responsibility of policing borders.”

However, it is what happens next thatis of most concern to refugee advocates.

Many industrialized states haveintroduced special accelerated borderprocedures to decide on an asylumrequest before a person is allowed toformally enter the country. This can beespecially dangerous in airports where,if there are no proper safeguards, arefugee may very easily be bundled onto the next plane home, before anyoneis even aware of what is going on.

Lack of access to proper legal adviceis another common problem, along withinsufficient time for the preparation ofthe asylum application, and restrictedappeal rights. Decisions on asylum claimsare also sometimes not taken by theproper authorities. Detention-likeconditions at the airport (where somepeople can end up living for months – oreven, in the occasional case, for years) arealso problematic; and sometimes not

enough attention is paid to the specificneeds of unaccompanied children andother vulnerable people.

Some countries, however, haveadopted specific safeguards in theirairport procedures. In Austria, for example,everyone who wishes to claim asylum atthe airport has access to legal counselling.The more complex cases are allowed entryinto the country and channelled into theregular asylum procedure. And the files ofthe small minority of cases who are placedinto the accelerated airport procedure areautomatically sent for review to UNHCR ifthe case is found to be “manifestlyunfounded.” If UNHCRdisagrees with thisdecision, the case will be looked at again inthe regular procedure and the person isallowed to enter the country in themeantime.

Rupert Colville

Planes, TRUCKS and trains

A boy holds nougat given to him by Turkish gendarmesguarding a group caught heading for Greece.

BY JA C K R E D D E N

When the un refugeeagency teammadefinal preparations on24October tomovethe last residents of

LuwaniRefugeeCampnorth to an alter-native campnear the capital of Malawi,they counted 127Somalis andEthiopiansin the reception shelter among therefugees andasylumseekerswhowouldbeboarding trucks thenextmorning.Butbythe timethe32-vehicleunhcr

convoypulledout justafterdawn,all of the127youngmenhadvanished. Itwasnosurprise.ThegovernmentofMalawihadorderedthecampclosedafterrepeatedlycomplainingthatasylumseekers fromtheHornofAfricawere justusingLuwaniasarest stopenroute toSouthAfrica.“It’s a verydifficult situation,” said

KelvinSentala, theunhcr protectionfield assistant in charge of the convoy. “Wehave refugees andeconomicmigrantscominghere – but very oftenbothgroupsprefer tokeeponmoving.”

LOOKING FURTHER SOUTHMany countries around theworld face a similar dilemma, but it isespecially acute inMalawi.There arealternatives routes south, suchas roughtracks through theMozambiquebush,butMalawihas thebest road toward theultimate goal of somany travellers: thecontinent’s economicpowerhouse, SouthAfrica.As a result, people frommanytroubled countries, like theDemocraticRepublic of Congo andSudan, are travel-ling thisway.Their stay inMalawi isusuallybrief, but

longenoughtoreceive foodrationsanditems likeblankets,beforecontinuingthejourney.Becauseso fewof the freshEthiopianandSomali arrivals stay,unhcr

in thepast twoyearshas limited thechancetosell rationsbyprovidingsmallerquanti-tiesweekly, rather thana largermonthlyration.Withinamonth,mostSomalisand

Ethiopianshaveheadedsouthovertheborder intoMozambique.Somethenmovequicklywest intoZimbabweanddownintoSouthAfrica.AnalternativerouteheadsfurtherdownMozambiqueandstraightintoSouthAfrica fromthere.“Wedosuspect there’sanetworkthat

starts inEthiopiaandSomaliaandextendsall thewaytoSouthAfrica.Theyappeartohavepeople ineverycountryalongtheway,”saidSarahThokozaniNayeja, senior legaladvisor inMalawi’sOfficeof theCommissionforRefugees. “It’sdifficult. Ifnothingchanges inEthiopiaandSomalia,nothingwillchange.Thecausecontinuestobethere–that is therealproblem.”SouthAfrica isnot justamagnetbecause

of itseconomy.Unlikemanyothercountriesthatstraddletheroutes fromthenorth, theSouthAfricangovernmentdoesnot insistrefugees live incamps. Inaddition, itgivesrefugeesandasylumseekers freedomtoworkandlivewheretheywant.“Inmanyrespects,” saidunhcr’s

RegionalRepresentativeSandaKimbimbi,“SouthAfrica isamodelasylumcountry.”

THE REFUGEE ELEMENTThe desire to earn a decent livingapplies torefugeesasmuchaseconomicmigrants, andthe fact that somanySomalisandEthiopiansdonotremain inMalawi,orother transit countries, shouldnotbeseeninanywayasunderminingthevalidityoftheirclaimtorefugeestatus.Manyof themstartmoving forrefugeereasons–even iftheironward journey ismotivatedbyeco-nomic factors.Somalis, inparticular,havenoshortageof genuinehorrorstories fromtheyearsof conflict ina landwithno func-tioningcentralgovernment.“While inKismayo [Somalia] fora short

period looking forwork,his familywaskilledbyarival familyclan,” saysonerecentunhcr reportof an interviewwithayoungSomali asylumseeker. “His fatherwastorturedandkilled,whilehismotherwasrapedandthenburnedalive.Twoof hissiblingswerealsokilledandonebrotherwasverybadly tortured.Hesayswhenhearrivedhome, theentirevillagehadbeenransackedandall theirpossessionsweredestroyed.”Accordingto thegovernmentof

Malawi,duringthe firstninemonthsof2007more than3,000asylumseekerscrossed itsnorthernborderwithTanzania.Almostallwere fromEthiopiaorSomalia,andbyNovembermosthadalreadymovedonsouth.The continual flow of refugees and

migrants to SouthAfrica, where itconverges with the hundreds ofthousands of Zimbabweansmoving backand forth each year, is a challenge tounhcr as well as to the states in theregion. There is a danger that the sheervolume of claims is clogging asylumprocedures in SouthAfrica, where in theautumn of 2007 a backlog of more than134,000 asylum cases from scores ofdifferent countries were awaitingdecisions. �

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An overloadedboat in thesouthernMediterranean.

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Onlya relatively smallnumber of theworld’smigrants travel by sea.Yet themost familiarmigration image is prob-

ably that of themen,women and childrenwho, crammedon small, barely sea-worthy boats, brave the seas to escapepoverty, conflict or persecution.Desta is one of them.After aharrowing

trip across theSaharadesert, this 29-yearoldEthiopianwoman’s experiences cross-ing theMediterraneanwere typical ofthousands of others attempting to enterEurope eachyear: “Wewere 60people,including 11womenandfivekids.Theboatwas too small.Wecouldn’tmove.Therewasno food, nowater…WehadaThuraya [satellite phone], sowe called forhelp – butwedidn’t knowwherewewere.On the thirdday, twowomendied. Peoplecried andpanicked.We thoughtwewereall going todie.Thenwe sawaboat.” Shewas rescued and taken to the Italian islandof Lampedusa, one of 11,800migrants andrefugees to endup there in thefirst tenmonths of 2007.Manyothers are less fortunate.

DYING FOR A BETTER LIFEEvery year, thousands ofdesperatepeople insearchof protectionoranewlifedrownastheirflimsyboatscapsizeintheMediterranean,Atlantic, IndianOcean,Caribbeanandotherseasandwater-waysaroundtheworld.Althoughattemptsaremadetotrackcasualties, thetrueextentof thisglobal tragedywillneverbeknownasmanyvesselssinkwithouttrace.“The fact that there are children

among thesepeople indanger, and thatwehaveunfortunatelyhad to retrieve anum-ber of deadones, has deeplymarkedus,”saysCommanderMicheleNiosi of theItalianCoastguard. “Children are symbolsof renewal, and in these conditions it feelslikedefeat rather than renewal.”While individual naval and coastguard

officers often treat thepeople they rescuewith sympathy, governments tend toapproach thephenomenonof boat peoplefromanational securityperspective.On

occasions, theyhavedeclared “a state ofemergency” to dealwithperceived “inva-sions” bypeoplewhoarenot onlyunarmed, but very oftenhalf-starved, sickanddestitute. Somenational and local offi-cials have evengone so far as to suggestthat theboats shouldbe shot atwith liveammunition.

INTERCEPTION AT SEAWhile stopping short ofmeasures thatdrastic, somecountrieshave sentwarships to turnbackboats sus-pectedof transportingmigrants or asylumseekers, apracticeknownas interceptionor interdictionat sea.Given theunseaworthystateof so

R E F U G E E S 17

manyof thevessels carryingwould-bemigrants,many lives areundoubtedlysavedbynaval andcoastguard shipsprowling thehighseas in searchof them.

Nevertheless, thepracticeof interceptionishighlycontroversial foravarietyofreasons, includingtherisks itmayentail. Itis forexampleanapparent fact that inorder

toavoiddetectionboatpeopleareresortingtoever longerandmoredangerousroutes.Theothermaincauseof concern is that

someof thepeople embarkingon these

EVERY YEAR, THOUSANDS OF DESPERATE PEOPLE IN SEARCH OF PROTECTIONOR A NEW LIFE DROWN AS THEIR FLIMSY BOATS CAPSIZE OR SINK.

R E F U G E E S18

perilousvoyages are refugees.Thepercentagediffers fromboat toboat androute to route. “For this reason,” saidunAssistantHighCommissioner forRefugeesErikaFeller, “unhcrhasaninterest inmaritime issues suchasinterception, searchandrescue,disembarkation,people smugglingandstowaways.Ourpositionremains that theinterceptionprocess, even if itmaybenecessary toprotect livesandborders,mustincludesafeguards thatallowanyrefugeesonboardtoclaimasylum.”Interceptionat sea,whether in

territorial or internationalwaters, isnotnew.During the 1970s, boatpeople from

VietNamandCambodiawere routinelyapprehendedand towedout to seabycountries in the region, and thousandsof Vietnamesemayhaveperishedat seaas a result of such ‘pushbacks.’On theother sideof theworld, theUS

Coastguardhasbeen intercepting ships intheCaribbeancarryingmigrants andasy-lumseekers fromCubaandHaiti foryears.“Wehaveexpressed fears that thispoli-

cymayhaveresulted inrestrictedaccess toasylumprocedures, particularly in thecaseof theHaitians,” saidFeller. “Thebottomline is that this could lead to refugeesbeingforcibly returned toaplacewhere their lifeor freedomis at risk.”

EUROPEAN INTERVENTIONSSeveral European countrieshave also been interceptingboats suspect-ed of carryinguninvitedmigrants in theMediterranean. Since the creationof theEuropeanAgency for theManagement ofOperationalCooperation atExternalBor-ders (or ‘Frontex’), a series of high-profilejoint interceptionoperations byvariouseumember stateshave takenplace inboththeMediterraneanand theAtlantic.One suchoperation, code-named

“Hera 2007,” deployedSpanish and Italiannaval ships andplanes to patrol thewatersoff Mauritania, Senegal andCapeVerdeand intercept irregularmigrants attempt-

A sunbather helps aid a group of 46 exhausted and dehydrated people after their boat ran aground on a tourist beachin the Canary Islands.

THE INTERCEPTION PROCESS, EVEN IF IT IS NECESSARY TO PROTECT LIVES ANDBORDERS, MUST INCLUDE SAFEGUARDS THAT ALLOW REFUGEES TO CLAIM ASYLUM.”‘‘

R E F U G E E S 19

Fatal diversionOn 29April 2006, some

fishermen approached asmall, white rustymotor boat

drifting in the Caribbean, off Barbados. Itcontained a grim cargo: the bodies of 11men, partly mummified by the sun andsalt spray. The men had probably beendead for several weeks. One of them hadleft a note to his family in Senegal. Hisname was Diao Souncar Dieme.

The other ten, also thought to be fromSenegal, had still not been identifiedwhen they were finally buried in Barbadosin January 2007, in a joint Muslim andRoman Catholic ceremony.

Investigators believe the boat left theCape Verde Islands, off West Africa, onChristmas Eve 2006 witharound 50 people on board.They were almost certainlytaking the long way roundto Spain's Canary Islands,but the boat ran intotrouble and was sweptby the prevailingcurrents across theAtlantic. Somereports havesuggested it mayhave been

towed for a while, and then the tow-ropewas cut. The bodies of the otherpassengers had apparently either beenthrown or washed overboard.

Boats of all shapes and sizes are usedto reach the Canaries. However, until late2005, most migrants were using smallervessels called pirogues from West Africa,or pateras (which carry up to 20 people)from Morocco and the Western Saharaterritory, from where it takes only 10 or 12hours to sail to the Canaries.

Over the last two years, larger openboats (known as cayucos), which carry upto 150 people, have become morecommon. In order to avoid detection, thecayucos are taking longer, more round-about routes from countries such asSenegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone

and Ghana. As a result, the journeyto the Canaries can now

take up to 25days and involves

much greater risks– as demonstrated

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ing to sail to Spain’sCanary Islands.According to theSpanishMinistry of

Interior, thenumber of arrivals in theCanaries plummeted from32,000 in2006to 9,500 in thefirst tenmonths of 2007, asa result of stepped-up interceptionopera-tions, better collaborationwith countriesof departure, and information campaignsinformingpotential travellers of the risks.Thenumber of arrivals in the Italian

mainlandand islands,where theFrontex-coordinated “OperationNautilus”hasbeenactive, also fell slightly from22,000in2006, to 19,000during thefirst tenmonths of 2007.By contrast, thenumber of migrants

and refugees arrivingbyboat fromTurkey in theGreek islands of Samos,Chios andLesvosdoubled from3,500 in2006 to 7,000 in thefirst tenmonths of2007 –perhapspartly because it is one oftheprincipal routesusedby Iraqis.

RUTHLESS SMUGGLERSOne of the main reasons givenby governments for intercepting boats atsea is to combat the smuggling and traf-ficking of people.There is little doubtthat smugglers, some of whomappear tobe linkedwith international organizedcrime, are behindmost irregular cross-ings by sea. Some of themare utterlyruthless characterswho all too often rob,beat and evenmurder their clients.InMarch 2005, for example, 15

Chinesemigrantswere forced to jumpoverboard into the sea by “snakeheads”(people smugglers) about 30kmoff Sicily.Only twowomen and fourmen survived.A forensic examination of one of thebodies showed fractures and a severe con-tusion in the skull, apparently inflictedbefore the victimwas tossed into the sea.

unhcr staff inYemen also frequentlyreport instanceswhenboat people in theGulf of Aden –where the smugglers areespecially brutal – have been beaten,mur-dered or thrownoverboard and attackedby sharks [see p. 12].

Yet, cracking downon smugglers – asimportant as this is –maynot only reduceirregularmigration, but close the onlyavenue left for refugees to escape persecu-tion or conflict. “I can’t go back to Iraq, as Iwill be tortured andkilled,” insistedOmar, an Iraqiwhopaid smugglers US$1,600 to shiphim fromLibya to Italy inAugust 2007. “Iwasworking inLibya butmy contract ended. Iwas afraid theywould sendmeback to Iraq…no [other]

countrywould giveme a visa.What can Ido?Therewasno other choice.”Omarwas subsequently recognized as a refugeeby the Italian authorities.

MY BROTHER’S KEEPERFor centuries, rescue at sea hasbeengovernedbyanunwrittencode,whichhasevenbeenapplied to theenemyin timesof war.“Ashistoryprogressedand theannals of

FOR CENTURIES, RESCUE AT SEA HAS BEEN GOVERNED BY AN UNWRITTEN CODE,THAT HAS EVEN BEEN APPLIED TO THE ENEMY IN TIMES OF WAR.

I would like tosend to my familyin Bassada a sumof money. Pleaseexcuse me andgoodbye. This isthe end of my lifein this bigMoroccan sea…Fromanote foundon thebody

ofDiaoSouncarDieme.

humanconflict continued togrow, there remainedonlyonecommonenemywithwhich theentire race couldconsider itself atwar, andthatwas thebrute force andwrathof the seaand itselements,”writesClaytonEvans, authorof abookonthehistoryof rescueat sea.“Abondwoulddevelopamongst seafarers andwatertravellers theworldover:when it came to survival atsea theywere theirbrother’skeeper.”Themoral imperative to rescue fellow

humans inperil at seawas eventuallygiv-enan international legal framework, espe-cially throughthe 1974 InternationalCon-vention for theSafetyof Life atSea (solas),and the 1979 InternationalConventiononMaritimeSearchandRescue (sar).Butmanymigrants andrefugees indis-

tress are still saved,notbyprofessional res-cuers, butbypassingfishermen, leisureyachts, commercial ships, luxurycruiseliners – andevenbyotherboatpeople.

JoséDurán, skipperof theSpanishtrawlerFranciscoyCatalina,whichrescued51people – including tenwomenanda2-year-old child – fromadinghy in theMediterranean, exemplifies theprincipleof solidarity thatbindspeople at sea.TheFranciscoyCatalinawas stuckoffMalta foraweek, as countries in the regionargued

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StowawaysDesperate situations call for

desperate solutions andstowing away in boats, lorries

or planes is, in some cases, the onlyescape route open to those fleeing waror persecution.

As in other forms of irregular migra-tion, refugees and migrants frequentlyfind themselves, quite literally, inthe same boat. Regardless of theirreasons for travelling clandestinely,stowaways hiding in cargo holds faceconsiderable hazards, ranging fromdeath by asphyxiation to exposure toextreme temperatures. In addition,ships’ crews often resent their presence,since shipping companies thattransport undocumented migrants

face hefty fines, high repatriation costsand administrative delays.

Although international maritimeregulations say that stowaways have to betreated humanely, fear of losing their jobsor bonuses has occasionally turnedsailors into murderers: “In some terriblecases, stowaways on board ships havebeen thrown overboard, because ships’captains or shipping companies would befined if they came into port with thestowaway on board,” said David Cockroft,General Secretary of the InternationalTransport Workers’ Federation, in aninterview with a trade magazine.

In January 2006, a South Africancourt heard how the captain of theAfrican Kalahari ordered two crew

members to force four Tanzanian andthree Kenyan stowaways to jump into thesea off Durban harbour. Two of the men,Omar Kemu and Amir Jesh, could notswim and drowned almost immediately.

Every year, the world’s media carriessimilar reports about stowaways whohave been shot, thrown overboard orbeaten to death. In some cases, crewmembers have reported their superiorsto the authorities; in others, stowawayshave survived to tell the tale.Prosecutions, however, are all toorare, as evidence of the crime often sinksto the ocean floor, together with thereasons why the stowaways wereso desperate to leave their countriesof origin.

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Infamous episode:A group of 27 peoplerescued by the ItalianNavy after spendingthree days clinging to atuna pen.

An Italian coastguard officer checks upon a man brought ashore after beingrescued at sea.

R E F U G E E S 21

aboutwhere thepeople ithadrescuedshoulddisembark.Askedif hewoulddoitagain,giventhe

financial lossesandlegalwrangles itmayentail, thisfishermanfromtheportof SantaPola,nearAlicante,replied: “Iwoulddoexactlythesamething.Nodoubtabout it. Inourwayof thinking,weputourselves intheirplace. If Iwas intheirsituation, Iwouldn’twantanothershiptopassmebywithouthelpingme. ‘Hell!’ Iwouldsay,‘I’mgoingtodie!’”

TOO EXPENSIVE TO SAVE?But, as the episode involving theFrancisco y Catalina illustrates, vesselsfulfilling their duty to rescue people at seaare increasingly encountering problemsas states refuse to let migrants andrefugees disembark. To the alarm of theshipping industry, such incidents may be

seriously jeopardizing the centuries-oldhumanitarian tradition of sea rescue.The autumn2007 trial of seven

Tunisianfishermen inSicily, on charges ofaiding and abetting illegal immigration,has also aroused considerable concernamongpeoplewhobelieve thefishermenhad actually rescued the 44people (includ-ing 11women and two children) found ontheir boat fromaflimsy rubber dinghy.If convicted, they face between one and15 years in jail.“Shipmasterswho save people in dis-

tress shouldnot be penalizedwith furtherexpenses,” says JohnLyras, Chairman ofthe ShippingPolicyCommittee of theInternationalChamber of Shipping.“They should be allowed to disembark thepeople as soon as possible.”Amendmentsweremade to the solas

and sarConventions in July 2006,which

oblige states to cooperate and coordinatewith a view to disembarking rescued peo-ple to a place of safety as soon as possible.However, several keymaritime states havenot yet ratified these amendments.Financial pressures also sometimes

overridehumanitarianprinciples. InMay2007, for example, agroupof 27Africanswere rescuedby the ItalianNavyafter theyhadspent threedaysandnights clinging toatunapendraggedbyaMaltesefishingboat,theBudafel.Theboat’s captain told themediaherefused todiverthis ship todisembark themenbecausehewasafraidof losinghisvaluable catchof tuna.Such incidentsprovoke fears that a

combinationof anti-immigrationpolicies,reckless smugglers andcold commercialcalculationsmaywell signal thedemiseof anoblepractice that is almost as oldashumanity itself. �

SHIP MASTERS WHO SAVE PEOPLE IN DISTRESS SHOULD NOT BE PENALIZEDWITH FURTHER EXPENSES.”‘‘

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T H E A M E R I C A S i

Caribbean CONUNDRUMSB Y G R A I N N E O’H A R A

Providing effectiveprotection to refugees caughtupinmixedmigratoryflows criss-crossing theCaribbean is quite achallenge.There are some25 in-

dependent islandnations anddependentoverseas territories spread along the 2,300kilometre expanse of ocean separating theBahamas, just off Florida, fromTrinidadandTobagowhich lieswithin sight ofVenezuela.TheCaribbeanhas itsshareof smug-

glerspeddlingtheirservicestomigrantssoldonthedreamof findingabetter lifeontheNorthAmericanmainland.Numeroussecludedislandssurroundedbyazurewaters–thesamefeaturesthatattract thetourists–alsocatchtheeyeof ruthlessop-portunistskeentoturnaquickprofitregardlessof thehumancost involved.What couldbe easier thandumpingan

unsuspectingSriLankanon thebeachof

St. Lucia and tellinghimhe isonly one step away fromCanada?Ortelling an Iraqi she is already inFlorida?Weeksmaypass before thebewilderedmi-grants and refugees actuallyworkout ex-actlywhere in theworld they are, bywhich time– since the fee is nearly alwayspaidup front – there is little they cando. Iftheyhave avoided endingupadrift in aleakyboatwithno food andwater, that isalready abonus.

HIDDEN TRAGEDIESEvery year, thousands take thenorthwardpassage towards theUnitedStates alongoverlapping,windingmar-itime routes.Duringperiods of regionaltension, thefigureshave sometimes riseninto the tens of thousands.USCoastguardstatistics on the intercepted and returnedonly tell part of the story.Nobody is keeping anaccurate account

of thenumber of peoplewho succumb tostormsandotherhazards en route.Over60people died in a single incident inMay2007,whenanovercrowdedHaitiansloop attempting to reach theTurks andCaicos Islands capsized, pitching itspassengers into choppy seas in thedeadof night.In termsof numbers,Dominicans,

CubansandHaitians consistentlydomi-nate themixedflowsofmigrants andrefugeesheadingnorth.But thedizzyingvarietyof routes and transit points, and thegrowingdiversityof nationalities in-volved, reveal a farmorecomplexpicture.

MIGRATION KALEIDOSCOPEThere is considerable movementto, andbetween, locations in theCaribbean.Cubans andHaitians tran-sit via theBahamas (most, butnotall,with the clear intentionofcontinuingonwards to theUS). Cubans alsouse theCayman Islands as a step-ping stone on thelengthy journey to

Honduras andotherCentralAmerican locations,

beforeheadingbacknorthwards on thelongoverland trek to theMexican-USborder.Haitianshead for theTurks andCaicos Islands, anddestinations furthersouth – including theFrenchoverseas de-partments ofMartinique andGuadeloupe–which are seen as a gateway to continen-talEurope.In addition, thenumber of people ar-

riving fromother continents appears to beon the increase.Trinidad is a transit pointforWestAfricans, on a long and compli-cated journey that often includes an ear-lier stop inCapeVerde, before itswearypassengers are eventually disembarkedsomewhere along theSouthAmericacoastline. SriLankanshave appeared inseveral locations in theLesserAntilles;Ethiopianshave sought asylum inHaiti;and Iraqishavebeennoted transiting theregion, apparentlyheading tofinal desti-nations inbothNorth andSouthAmerica.While thenumber of non-Caribbean

people arriving remains low in absoluteterms, thepresence of somepeoplewithvery specificprotectionneeds brings anadditional dimension to an already com-plex situation.Even thoughalmost allstates in the region are signatories of the1951unRefugeeConvention, effectivedomestic asylumsystemsarevirtuallynon-existent.Thequantityof arrivals is straining

local receptioncapacityon islandsmoreat-tunedto tendingto theneedsof payingguests thanrespondingto theweather-beaten,dehydratedmigrantswhowashupontheir shores, andthereactionsofCaribbeanstates tendtobeadhocandun-predictable.Refugeesareas likely tofindthemselves intercepted,detained,deemedeconomicmigrantsandpromptlydeportedas theyare tobeadmitted toanationalasy-lumsystem.Andevenfor those fewadmit-ted to theasylumprocess, recognitionratesin theCaribbeanareuniformly low.

GENEROUS PARTNERSUnder such circumstances,providing evenaminimumof protectioncoveragedepends oneffective partner-ships. For this reason,unhcrhas takentheunusual step of settingupanetworkofHonoraryLiaisons,whoundertake essen-tial protectionworkonaprobonobasis intenkey locations around theCaribbean.Hailing fromallwalksof life, thesededi-

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catedvolunteers (who in-cludeauniversity lecturer inJamaica, andtheheadof alegal aidclinic in theBahamas)havebeenfillingsomeof thegapswhichunhcr cannothope tocoverwith itsownsmall rovingteamoperatingoutof theUSandCaracas.Partnershiparrangementswithngos in theDominicanRepublic,Haiti, JamaicaandTrinidadandTobagoareanothervitalpiece in theprotection jigsawthatnowextendsacross theCaribbean.

Arecent seminaronmigrationflows,organizedbyunhcr and the InternationalOrganization forMigration in theCaymanIslands, providedaplatformforCaribbeanstates to exchange ideasonstrengthening

collaborative responses tomigration, refugeeprotec-tionand trafficking.Theprotectionchal-

lenges in theCaribbeanarejust that – challengingbutnot insurmountable.Establishingapredictablesystemthatwouldprovide

reliableprotection for refugees iswellwithin the reachof Caribbeanstateswhichare, after all, accustomed to lookingafter aconstant streamof visitors fromforeignlands. �

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THE ROUTE VIA MEXICO TO THE US IS FRAUGHT WITHRISK FOR REFUGEES AND MIGRANTS ALIKE .

The Great MIGRATION to the North

B Y M A R I A N A E C H A N D I ,M A R I O N HO F F M A N N A N D

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It is estimated that halfamillionundocumentedmigrantscrossMexico’s southern borderevery year,most of themCentralAmericans attempting tomove on to

theUnited States or, to a lesser extent,Canada.According to figures fromMex-ico’sNationalMigration Institute, in thefirst ninemonths of 2007, some45,000undocumentedmigrantswere detainedatmigrationholding centres across thecountry.However,manymigrants appearto succeed in crossingMexico undetected,and theUSBorder Patrol often ends upapprehendingmore than 1,000 a day.Strictermigration controls byboth

Mexico and theUnitedStates, aswell as astringof natural disasters affecting south-ernMexico andCentralAmericanStates,havehad a strong impact on themigrationroutes. Since thedestructionof 300kilo-

metres of railwaybyHurricaneStan in2005,mostmigrantshavehad towalkhundreds of kilometres across thebordersof El Salvador,Honduras andGuatemalato reach the city of Arriaga inMexico’sChiapasProvince,where they climboncargo trainsheadingnorth.At the southern border itself, there

appear to be at least threemain landroutes intoMexico, via theGuatemalancities of ElNaranjo, laMesilla orTecúnUman. Somemigrants are also nowusing boats fromGuatemala’s Pacificsea ports to avoidmigration checkpointson the land borders.Althoughmost of themigrants are

men, there are alsomanywomen andchildren travelling along these danger-ous routes, which cost hundreds – if notthousands – of lives a year.At theUS border alone, at least 400

people died during the year up to 30 Sep-tember 2007,many of them from thirst,heat or exhaustion in theArizona desert.

Others died in vehicle and train acci-dents, or drowned in the great river(known toAmericans as theRioGrandeand toMexicans as theRio Bravo)whichextends formore than half the length ofthe 3,200 kilometre border.

WOMEN AT RISKMany more probably die, or aresyphonedoff by criminal gangs, longbe-fore theyget anywherenear theUnitedStates,withwomenparticularly vulnera-ble to being sexually abusedor forced intolong-termprostitution. Indeed, oneMexicanSenator,MariaElenaOrantes,has suggested thatup to 80percent ofwomenmigrantsheadingup fromthesouth endup involved in the sex trade insomewayor other,with tens of thousandsforced intoprostitution eachyear in theGuatemala-Mexico border area alone.Nobody questions the fact that the

greatmajority of the people heading uptoNorthAmerica in thisway are doing

‘‘I WAS HIDDEN IN THEMACHINERY ROOM OF A TOURIST BOAT THINKINGTHAT I WAS HEADING TO EUROPE. AND WHEN I GOT OFF THE SHIP, THEY TOLDME I WAS IN GUATEMALA.”

Cubans taking a valuable asset across the Straits of Florida.

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so for economic reasons, and there is noend of debate aboutwhether this is, onbalance, a good or bad thing for theeconomies of their home countries, ofMexico and of theUS. But there are al-ways some among them– if not today,then yesterday or tomorrow –who arerefugees. Andwhen the percentage issmall, they are often less easy to identify.Thenumber of asylumapplications

made inMexico isminuscule comparedto thenumber of people passing through– perhaps one in a thousand, althoughsomeof the otherswill later claimasylumin theUS.In 2003,unhcr established a small of-

fice inTapachula, a city close to theGuatemalan border in the state of Chia-pas. Since then, a total of some 600 peo-ple have filed asylumapplications to thetheMexican authorities there. From Jan-uary toOctober 2007, 154 individuals ap-plied for asylum inTapachula, of whom12 percentwere Somalis, 11 percentBangladeshis, 10 percent Eritreans, and 8percent Colombians andEthiopians.

FROM A FAR CONTINENTSome of the non-Latin Americanasylum seekers end up inMexico forbizarre reasons. One 31-year-old SriLankan, for example, claims he fled afterescaping from the Tamil Tigers. Afterhitching a lift on a fishing boat to theMaldives, he stowed away on a biggership. “I was hidden in the machinery

room of a tourist boat thinking that Iwas heading to Europe,” he told unhcrofficials in Mexico, “and when I got offthe ship, they told me I was inGuatemala.”From there, he joined the thousands

of undocumentedCentralAmericanmi-grants travelling north, until he reachedTapachula, where hewas advised by angoworkingwithunhcr to apply forasylumwith theMexican authorities.Another asylum seeker, a 26-year-old

man fromDarfur in Sudan, came by anequally haphazard route. “First I went toEthiopia, then to Somalia and then toEgypt, where I took a boat thatwent toPanama,” he said. “Once in Panama, ImetsomeAfricans therewho toldme that if Iwanted to apply for asylum, I should go toMexico.”Unlikemanyof his fellow travellers, he

sayshe ishappy to stop inMexico,wherehe is trying (withdifficulty) to get a job asanEnglish teacher. “Theykeptme in cus-tody at the immigrationdetention centrewhere Imet otherSudanese, andEritre-ans andEthiopians,” he recalls. “They toldme that theyweregoing to theUS.”

RAMPANT GANGSOne of the most intriguingphenomena in the region involves peopleescaping fromthe so-called ‘maras,’ the ex-tremelyviolent street gangs that are pres-ent in force throughoutCentralAmericaandalso in southernMexico.Themaras

(theword is derived fromthenameof anespecially fierce carnivorous ant species)include children as youngas ten.Most of the asylum claims presented

byHondurans, Salvadorans andGuatemalans to theMexican asylumau-thorities are by youngsters or families al-leging persecution by these gangs. Somefear forcible recruitment by themaras.Others are petrified of revenge becausethey havewitnessed crimes.In 2007, theMexicanNationalMigra-

tion Institute issued internal regulations(drawnupwith assistance fromunhcr)to facilitate the granting of humanitarianstatus to those asylum seekerswho arefoundnot to qualify for refugee statusunder the 1951 RefugeeConvention orthe key regional refugee instrumentknown as theCartagenaDeclaration, butwhomay clearly be in need of anotherformof protection.Andunhcr, unicefand other agencies have been attemptingto set up a system to help the exception-ally vulnerable unaccompanied childrenstranded in this febrile border zone.Meanwhile the greatmigrationnorth

continues, full of largely unseen tragediesandheartbreak as people, for one reasonor another, fall by thewayside. �

R E F U G E E S24

Hopeful migrants making their waythrough the desert just south ofthe US-Mexico border. During theCentral American wars, many refugeestook similar routes.

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R E F U G E E S 25‘‘

E U R O P E i

IN SOME INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS, DETENTION HAS BECOME AN ACCEPTEDMEANS OF IMMIGRATION CONTROL.”

Control vs. PROTECTIONREFUGEES , MIGRANTS AND THE EU

B Y J U D I T H K U M I N

In 1999, the European Unionstates agreed to build a “CommonEuropeanAsylumSystem” based onthe “full and inclusive application”of the 1951 Convention relating to

the Status of Refugees. The first phasewas devoted to the development of mini-mumcommon standards to ensuremoreconsistent treatment of asylum seekersand refugees throughout the eu. Since itwas completed inmid-2004,work on de-veloping a common asylum systemhascontinued.However, there has been averymarked shift of focus fromprotect-ing refugees to halting irregularmigra-tion.During the first phase, the eu adopted

legal directives covering some of themost fundamental elements of the sys-tem, includinghowasylumproce-dures should be conducted,whoqualifies for refugee status, andwhattheminimumassistance levels forasylumseekers should be. It alsoagreed on two other pieces of legisla-tion – knownas theDublin II andEuro-dacRegulations – that determinewhicheu state is responsible for handling a par-ticular asylumapplication.

DIFFERENT STANDARDSAs the eu navigates its waythrough the second phase of harmoniza-tion (gearedmainly to implementing thenew laws and filling any remaininggaps), a clear need to reduce the discrep-ancies between the practices of variouseu states has emerged.InNovember 2007,unhcr published

a study on the implementation of a key

piece of first-phase legislation, the so-calledQualificationDirective, whichsets outwho is eligible for protection inthe eu. The study examined 1,488 asy-lumdecisions taken in five eu states. Itconfirmed that therewere still signifi-cant differences on a variety of issuesthat result in refugees being recognizedin one country and not in another. Thereport found “strikingdisparities” inrecognitionrates forasylum

seekersfromvarious

countries such asIraq, Somalia and Sri

Lanka —with an individual Iraqi asylumseeker’s chances of receiving protectionwithin the eu varying from75 percent inSweden to zero percent in the SlovakRe-public andGreece.Refugee advocates are also increas-

ingly concerned about howmigrationcontrol efforts are affecting people insearch of protection.As internal bordercheckswithin the eu are progressivelyabolished, it has concentrated on rein-forcing controls at its external frontiers.In 2006, it adopted a commonpolicy,called the SchengenBorders Code,

which incorporates a general provisionstating that the rights of refugees andother people requesting internationalprotection should not be prejudiced, inparticularwith regard to non-refoule-ment (the key element of internationallaw that forbids states to deport refugeesback to a potentially dangerous situationin their own country).Yet at the eu’s busy external frontiers,border personnel are sometimes noteven aware that refugeesmust begiven the possibility to apply forasylum.

DIVERSIONARY TACTICSIntensified efforts bystates to deter or deflectmovements before people

actually reach the eu’s externalfrontier have been arousing concern

for several years.Then, inmid-2005, a newEuropean

Agency for theManagement of Opera-tional Cooperation at theExternal Bor-ders (known as ‘Frontex’) began function-ing,with awide-rangingmandate, in-cluding the coordination of states’ jointefforts to patrol the eu’s external borders.Themost visible of thesehave in-

volvedmultinational operations in theMediterraneanand theAtlantic to inter-cept boatloads of migrantsheading forEu-rope’s southern coasts.TheFrontex opera-tions aim toprevent thesevessels fromreachingeuwaters and, if possible, to re-turn themto their points of departure.So far, what has been happening to the

people among themwho could berefugees is not entirely clear.unhcr isworking to establish a relationshipwithFrontex, with the aim of ensuring a clear

R E F U G E E S26

understanding of the principles of inter-national refugee law, including the vitalprovision that no refugee should be un-wittingly returned somewherewhere heor shemight be in danger.A furtherpriority for theeu in the fight

against illegal immigrationhasbeen theconclusionof readmissionagreements,includingwithcountries along theeu’seasternandsouthernborders. In2002, inSeville, theEuropeanCouncil (a biannualmeetingof eu government leaders)proposed that compulsory readmission

clauses shouldbe inserted inall futurecooperation, associationorequivalentagreementsbetween theeu andnon-eucountries. It alsogave theEuropeanCommissionawide-rangingmandate tonegotiate readmissionagreementswithspecific states.Concerns persist about the compati-

bility of this aggressive readmissionpolicywith international refugeeprotection norms.Although theagreements contain a general provisionrepeating states’ obligations under the

1951 RefugeeConvention, signatoriesof the readmission agreements have sofar omitted to includemore detailedprotection safeguards.

REAL RISKSThere is a real danger thatasylumseekerswhose claimshavenotbeenexamined substantively in theeuwill be removedunder the termsof theseagreements to countrieswhichdonothave fair andeffective asylumprocedures.Indeed, there are regular examples of such

In the autumn of 2005, hundreds of desperatewould-be migrants (and some refugees) wererounded up as they tried to reach Europe viaSpain’s North African enclaves.

Died in the AttemptThree weeks of documented deaths of people trying to reach Europe

DATE NUMBERFOUND OF DEAD NAME ORIG IN CAUSE OF DEATH

17-9-06 13 No name unknown drowned; 1 found, 12 missing after shipwreck 115 miles South West of Malta16-9-06 1 No name (man) Sub-Saharan Africa body found in boat with 56 survivors landed on Los Cristianos, Canary Islands (Spain)12-9-06 250 No name unknown missing; boat, at the mercy of the waves, sent SOS signal near Lampedusa, Italy10-9-06 2 No name Kurdish died in minefield after entered Vyssas area, in Evros (Greek/Turkish border)9-9-06 17 No name (5 women, 3 minors) Somalia died of starvation; thrown overboard from drifting ship on way from Libya to Italy5-9-06 2 No name unknown drowned; bodies found on the beach of Torretta Granitola near Mazara del Vallo, Italy3-9-06 1 No name (man, 19) Algeria Stowaway; fell in field in Vinantes (France) fromwheelbay of a plane from North Africa3-9-06 1 Janvier Makiadi (man, 44) Congo Suicide; hanged under bridge, asylum claim refused (UK); known also as Paul Kiese3-9-06 1 No name Maghreb found near Los Ancones, Spain; body thrown overboard by boat landed in Lanzarote2-9-06 8 No name Eritrea/Somalia died of hunger and thirst; bodies thrown overboard during journey to Italy1-9-06 1 No name (man +/- 30) Pakistan drowned; boat hit rocks near Hania (Greece) on way from Egypt to Italy1-9-06 3 No name (2 adults, 1 minor) Sub-Saharan Africa died after been rescued off El Hierro, Canary Islands (Spain), after boat sank1-9-06 7 No name unknown reportedly drowned; missing after boat sank near coast of Crete (Greece)

30-8-06 10 No name unknown died in boat with 13 survivors; bodies thrown overboard during journey to Italy29-8-06 132 No name Sub-Saharan Africa drowned; 84 found, 48 missing, shipwreck off coast of Mauritania28-8-06 1 No name (man) Mali died of dehydration after been abandoned in Sahara desert

events takingplaceunderbilateralarrangements:Dr.KatrineCamilleri, alawyerwhosework for the JesuitRefugeeService includesmonitoringMalta’sdetention centres, describedone such casetomembers of unhcr’s governingbody inGeneva, theday after she received theprestigious 2007NansenRefugeeAwardfor exceptional services to refugees.She recounted thewords of a Somali

asylumseekerdescribingwhathappenedafterhewashandedbackby aneu coun-try to the authorities of a countryhehadpreviously transited: “‘Whenwe landed…wewereplaced in custody at the airportfor a fewdays and thenwewereblind-folded, placed in avanand taken to an-other location...Wewerekept in thislocation for sevendays.Thesewere theworst days of my life. Iwasheavily interro-gated and tortured, beatenonmyshinsandelectrocuted.They tiedmy legs andput apiece of woodbehindmyknees, thenplacedmeupsidedown.They thenbeatmeon the soles of my feet.Thereweretimeswhere Iwas beaten so severely that Iurinatedblood.’”He and the others deportedwith him

were sentenced to ninemonths in prison,where theywere kept in appallingconditions, 50 to a cell. At the end of hissentence, hewas put in a jeepwith some

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Source:UNITED -www.unitedagainstracism.org. As ofMarch 2007, thisNGOnetwork had assembled reports of 8,855 documented deaths of would-bemigrants andrefugees in, or heading for, Europe since 1993.The use of an excerpt from this list does not constitute endorsement byUNHCRof all details containedwithin it.

other people and driven intothe desert. After three days,theywere forced out of thevehicle in themiddle of thedesert and told theywere atthe border. Of the six peoplein the group, only two –including the Somaliinterviewed byCamilleri –survived.

RESTRICTED VISIONNo monitoring arrange-ments for readmittedasylum seekers are in place or beingcontemplated by the eu or itsMemberStates, althoughunregulated detentionupon readmission – as in the casedescribed above – is a real risk.Andnotjust inNorthAfrica.On the eu’s Easternfringe, for example, a number ofcountries are heavily engaged inconstructing immigration detention

facilities, in several caseswith significantamounts of eu funding.Long periods of detention are also a

feature in some stateswithin the eu,includingMalta andGreece: “In someindustrialized nations, detention has

become an acceptedmeans of immigrationcontrol,” saidCamilleri.“At times, it seems as if thefundamental right topersonal liberty has beenturned on its head, andthere is an almostunquestioned assumptionthat detention is the onlyoption available.”So even as ground-

breaking efforts continueto build a high quality

common system for those peoplewho domanage to reach theEuropeanUnionand lodge their asylum claims, the eu’smigration control policiesmay beleavingmany refugees andother vulnerable people in a potentiallydangerous protection limbo inother countries in theEuropeanneighbourhood. �

R E F U G E E S28

Due to its geographic location,Greece has always beenoneofthemain gateways to Europe

from the Middle East and beyond by land,air and sea. Recent arrivals include asubstantial number of people fleeingwar-torn countries such as Somalia andAfghanistan. And in the first six monthsof 2007, some 3,500 Iraqis applied forasylum in Greece, the second highestnumber in any industrialized country, afterSweden.

Overall, the number of migrants andasylum seekers crossing by boat fromTurkey increased sharply in 2007. As aresult, detention centres on the islands ofSamos, Chios and Lesvos experiencedserious problems of overcrowding.

The UN refugee agency has repeatedlyraised concerns about the poor conditionsunder which migrants and asylum seekersare kept in Greece – and in October 2007,UNHCR called for the immediate closure ofone particular holding centre, on the islandof Samos, because of its overcrowded andextremely unhygienic condition. An earlierEuropean Parliament report (July 2007) haddescribed the same centre as “squalid,deplorable, inhuman and unacceptable,”and had cast a critical eye over a number of

other aspects of the country’s asylumsystem.

Irregular entrants in Greece face majordifficulties accessing asylum procedures.These include lack of information abouttheir rights and asylum procedures, lack ofqualified interpreters and insufficient legalaid. However, a new Interior Ministry guideto asylum procedures in Greece, publishedin six different languages, is expected tohelp improve this situation somewhat.

For several years, UNHCR has beenexpressing concern at the extraordinarilylow numbers of refugees being recognizedin Greece, compared to other EU countries(the overall Greek recognition rate hastended to be just above or below 1 percent).And a study on the implementation of theEuropean Union’s Qualification Directive infive EU states, released by the agency inNovember 2007, appeared to confirm thatthere are serious problems with thecountry’s asylum procedure.

The study examined 305 randomlyselected first instance decisions on claimslodged by asylum seekers from Sudan, Iraq,Afghanistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. All 305decisions were negative. The study foundthat none of the decisions contained anyreference to the facts, and none

mentioned any legal reasoning. Althougheach asylum claim should be evaluated onits individual merits, all the decisionsexamined contained a standard paragraphwith exactly the same information.

As a result of these deficiencies, thestudy said, “the research was not able todiscern legal practice in Greece.”

A few weeks earlier, in October 2007,another report was issued – by the GreekGroup of Lawyers for the Rights ofRefugees and Migrants and the GermanNGO Pro Asyl – which alleged that theGreek coastguard was pushing back boatpeople. “It tries to block their boats andforce them out of Greek territorial waters,”the report stated. “Regardless of whetherthey survive or not, passengers are castashore on uninhabited islands or left totheir fate on the open sea.” The report alsoalleged there had been serious physicalmaltreatment of migrants in Greece, aswell as cases of forced returns of people,who could be refugees, across the landborder with Turkey (an issue UNHCR hasraised separately on a number ofoccasions). The Greek government orderedan investigation into the claims.

William Spindler

Greek studies

A Romanian boy picked up by the Hun-garian border police waits in an airportdetention area prior to his deportation.

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R E F U G E E S 29

Some of the first group ofasylum seekers deposited bythe Australian navy on the

Pacific island of Nauru inSeptember 2001.

A S I A i

DIVERTED to NauruB Y A R I A N E R U M M E R Y

In August 2001, after aNorwegian freighter, theMVTampa,rescued433mainlyAfghanasylumseekers froma sinking Indonesianfishingboat, theAustralian authori-

ties refused to let themdisembarkonChristmas Island.NewZealandaccepted131 of theAfghansdirectly fromtheboat,and the restwere transferred to thePacificisland state of Nauru, sparkingwhatbecameknownas the ‘Pacific Solution.’Zerghona Jawadiwas one of some

1,600 asylum seekerswhowere taken toNauru orManus Island in thewake oftheTampa incident.Zerghona, her husbandHadi and

their ten-year-old sonMustafa originallyfled to Iran fromTaliban-controlledAfghanistan, after the family hadreceived threats. They subsequentlymoved on toAustralia via thewell-trodden route throughMalaysia andIndonesia.After eight days at sea, the small

fishing boat she sharedwith about160 other asylum seekers started tosink inwaters nearAshmoreReefoff north-westernAustralia onNovember 8, 2001 – just two daysbefore the federal election.TheSumberLestari – known to theAustralian authorities as‘Suspected Illegal EntryVessel(siev) 10’ – then caught fire.Almost overcome by smoke,Zerghona,Hadi andMustafajumped into thewater andwereeventually rescued by anAustralian naval vessel.

Twowomen drowned in the incident.The survivorswere taken first toAshmoreReef for two days, then toChristmas Island for almost twomonths,and eventually toNauru.

THE MINISTER EXPLAINSZerghona recalls a visit, soonafterher arrival onNauru, by the thenAustralian ImmigrationMinisterPhilipRuddockwho spokebriefly to thegroupofmainlyAfghanand Iraqi asylumseekers.“I remember Iwas standing close to

him,” Zerghona said. “He said you arenot refugees because you do not comethrough the door, you just come throughthewindow. You are notwelcome inAustralia.”But theMinister’smetaphorwas lost

onZerghona andmanyof the others. Nordid sheunderstandwhy, simplybecauseher familyhad scraped together somecash topay for their passage, and initiallyspent some time in Iran, the legitimacyof

their refugee claimwasbeingquestioned.“We sold our house and our shop in

Afghanistan becausewe couldn’t staythere.Wehad problems andhad to leave,”she explained.They stayed in Iran for sixmonths. Butwithout id papers or formalstatus, they facedmany obstacles and feltextremely vulnerable. “It was hard. Myson couldn’t go to school. Andmyhus-bandwas taken from the street. He had topaymoney two times.”

DETERRING ARRIVALSThe different treatment ofpeople based on theirmode of arrival hasbecome a central feature of Australia’sasylumpolicy.Building on the policy of mandatory

detention for ‘unauthorised arrivals’ in-troduced by a Labour government in1992, theHowardCoalitionGovernmentdeepened the differential treatment be-tween those asylum seekerswho arrivewith visas and thosewho comewithout.

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R E F U G E E S30‘‘WE NEED TO LOOK AT THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLEACTUALLY MOVING, RATHER THAN MAKING GENERALIZED ASSUMPTIONSABOUT ILLEGAL MIGRATION.”

Temporary protection visas, offshoreprocessing, and lengthy delays in off-shore centres for recognized refugees allbecame part of the special regime appliedto thosewho come through the ‘window,’rather than the ‘door.’This differential treatmenthas long

beenof concern tounhcr, lawyers,ngosand advocates –not least because it is atoddswithprotection andhumanrightsprinciples.But if the suite of measures is about

deterringwould-be economicmigrants,does the logic still standup if most of thoseimpacted turnout to begenuine refugees?As timegoes on, the recognition rate of

those asylumseekerswhoarrivewithoutavisa inAustralia remains consistentlyhigher than thosewhoarrivewithone.InAustralia, thewords “onshore” and

“offshore” feature constantly in the pub-lic debate, although they are little knownelsewhere. “Onshore” asylum claims aremade by peoplewhomake it to theAus-tralianmainland, these days usually byair andmostlywith valid visas. Someboat arrivalsmake it through the cus-toms patrols to themainland, butmostarrive on outlying territories likeAsh-moreReef orChristmas Island (or are in-tercepted at sea) and are diverted into the‘Offshore’ system –which included beingtransferred to the controversial receptioncentres onNauru andManus Island.

unhcr ’s Regional Representative inCanberra, RichardTowle, observes thattheAustralian system, in practice, ap-pears to penalize the genuine asylumseekers in the offshore system.“InEurope there are some larger flows

of peoplewith awide range of motivesmoving in clandestinewayswhich haverelatively low refugee components, andrecognition rates,” he said. “But statisticsshow that the so-called ‘irregularmovers’ in theAustralasian region areactually, for themost part, refugees.”According toDepartment of Immi-

gration andCitizenship onshore figuresfrom July 1999 to June 2007, of the 11,266asylum seekerswho arrived inAustraliawithout a valid visa (andwere automati-cally detained), 87 percentwere found tobe refugees. By contrast, over the sameperiod, only 15 percent of the 49,573 ‘law-ful’ arrivalswho claimed asylumwerefound to be refugees.

DIFFERENT STANDARDSunhcr is especially concernedby the reduced procedural safeguards inplace for peoplewho are processed off-shore: these asylum seekers, unlike thoseprocessed inmainlandAustralia, do nothave ready access to legal advice, to afully independentmerits review or to theAustralian courts. As a result, theymayface a higher risk of beingwrongly re-turned against theirwill to a dangeroussituation in their own country.Towle acknowledges the legitimate

concerns of states over border control,but argues that protection needs shouldremain at the heart of all policies relatingto the treatment of refugees both on-shore and offshore.“Weneed to look at thenature and

character of the people actuallymoving,rather thanmaking generalized assump-tions about illegalmigration,”Towle said.“Currently, in theAsia Pacific region,

the question is not somuchwhetherthese ‘secondarymovers’ are in need ofprotection, butwhich country is bestplaced to provide it,” he added. “Very fewof the countries refugees pass through ontheirway toAustralia andNewZealandhave signed theRefugeeConvention, un-like inEuropewhere virtually everycountry has done so.”After twoandahalf yearsonNauru,

Zerghona Jawadiandher familywereeventually foundtoberefugeesandtakento theAustraliancapitalCanberra in July2004. Hadi isworkingasahousepainterandMustafa (now16) isdoingwell at school.

Thingsare lookingupfor the Jawadi family.Zerghonawas the firstof “theAfghanladiesoffNauru” togainadriving licenceandwork inashop inCanberra, andshehopes to studynursingonceheryoungestchildHedayat–oneof around20babiesbornonNauru–starts school.

AN ETHICAL QUESTIONThe government has insistedthat the decline in boat arrivals showsoffshore processingworks as a deterrenttowould-be illegal immigrants and thepeople smuggling industry.Others, likeAustralianNationalUni-

versity’s ProfessorWilliamMaley, arguethat drawing connections between poli-cies and observed outcomes is ‘fraughtwith difficulty’.“There’s amultiplicity of influences

at play that can shape theway inwhichpeoplemake decisions aboutmigrationormovement fromone country or area toanother,”Maley said, adding thatchanges in political circumstances insource countriesmayhave donemore toinfluence boat arrivals than the govern-ment’s deterrent policies.Under international law, people enter-

ingAustraliawithout a visa to claimasy-lumhavenot committed anyoffence,Maley said. And forhim, there is also animportant “moral question about the le-gitimacyof … treatingonepotentiallyquite innocent grouppoorly, in order todeter others.” �

InNovember 2007, the claims of sevenasylum seekers fromMyanmar,who hadalready spent over a year onNauru,werestill undecided.And 74 recognized refugeesout of a group of 82 Sri Lankans sent toNauru inMarch 2007 remained on theislandwhile theAustralian governmentsearched for another countrywilling toaccept them.The newly electedLaborparty has pledged to end offshore processingonNauru andManus Island.

R E F U G E E S 31

B Y Y A N T E I S M A I L

Sixteen-year-old step-brothersAminandHashimhadenduredovera fortnightof hardworkwithnopay–andvirtuallynorestor food–onasmall

fishingboat in theBayof Bengal.“The fisherman tolduswehadbeen

sold tohimtopayoff ourdebts to thesmuggling agent,” recallsAmin. “Wewerein themiddle of the sea – therewasnoonetohelpus.”The twoyoungMuslimRohingya

refugees thought theyhadpaid a smug-gler tohelp themflee fromMyanmar toMalaysia. Instead, theywere sold intoforced labour inThailand.Late onenight, in an act of sheerdes-

peration, theboys jumped into the sea.“We swamforhours,” saidAmin.

“Whenwe finally reached the shore, theskywaspink andgetting light.”Hidingduringdaylighthours, they travelledfurtively on foot through theThai coun-tryside over several nights, until theyfinally arrived at theMalaysianborder.

FORBIDDEN TO LEAVEAmin and Hashim had fled theirvillage inMyanmar’s northernRakhinestate after discovering the authoritieswere looking for thembecause of anearlier trip theyhadmade to findwork inBangladesh (theRohingyas are statelessand thereforeunable to acquire thenecessarydocumentation toworkoutsideRakhine state legally – let alone leavethe country).Fearing theworst, the boys’ familypaid

almostus$1,000– ahuge sumfor aRohingya family – to an agent to smugglethemto theMalaysian capitalKualaLumpur,where theyhave relatives.Amin’s andHashim’s story is all too fa-

miliar. Similar journeyshavebeen takingplace for similar reasons for decades.

Myanmar is SoutheastAsia’s biggest pro-ducer of refugees –with 203,000 recordedinneighbouring countries at thebegin-ningof 2007 (although the true totalmaybenearer 400,000).Of these, some31,000have enteredMalaysia over thepast tenyears or so to find safety.WithinAsia, refugee andmigratory

movements frequently intersect.Withsomecountries, suchasMyanmar, impos-ing strict exit controlmeasures, refugeesoftenhaveno choice but to engage inunauthorized formsofmovement inorder to reach safety or join their families– and they are oftenobliged touse thesameroutes andmethods asmigrants.Asaresult, refugees inAsia– like

refugeeselsewhere–arestigmatizedaspeople tryingtocircumvent the law. Inad-dition, therelianceonthenetherworldofsmugglers increases thevulnerabilityofbothrefugeesandmigrants toabuse–ashappened inthecaseofAminandHashim,whenasmugglingtransactionmetamor-phosed into trafficking forbonded labour.Hadtheybeenteenagegirls, their fatemighthavebeenevenworse.Relatively fewAsian countrieshave ac-

ceded to international refugee instru-ments, andmost donothave formal

asylumsystemseither.There is a tradition of host-ing refugees informally inmostAsian countries, buttoleration alone is notenough toprovide refugeeswith the security theyneed.

MIXED RECEPTIONThe country with themost knownrefugees fromMyanmar isThailand,where some 140,000 live in

nine camps along theThai-Myanmarborder.Of those, 128,500 (mainly ethnicKaren andKarenni) are registeredrefugees and the rest are awaiting adecision on their status byThailand’sProvincialAdmissionsBoards.InBangladesh, there are 27,000

MuslimRohingya refugees in twounhcr-run camps – aswell as up to200,000otherRohingyasnot officiallyregistered as refugeeswhoare livingamong the local population.SomeMyanmar refugee communities

havebeen inMalaysia –where they live inthe cities rather than in camps – for closeto twodecades. But their technically ille-gal statushasmade life difficult, leavingrefugees vulnerable to arrest for immigra-tion offenses suchas “illegal entry.”Restrictivemeasures introducedby

countries to curb irregularmigrationoftenprevent refugees fromaccessingsafety –withAminandHashimalmostbecominga case inpoint: after theycrossed theborder, theywere immedi-ately pickedupby theMalaysian authori-ties and taken to an immigrationdetention facility.Weeks later, their luckfinally changedwhenunhcr intervenedon their behalf and theywere released.Manyothers, inAsia andelsewhere,maybe less fortunate.Howmany,wewillneverknow. �

REFUGEES IN ASIA

Is TOLERATION Enough?

Three mothers with babies shortlyafter their release from immigrationdetention in Malaysia.

UNHCR

/E.TAN

/M

YS•2

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