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UNHCR annual meeting closes with call for enhanced protection of displaced

News Stories, 2 October 2009

High Commissioner Guterres talks to the press after closing the annual ExCom meeting.

GENEVA, October 2 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres closed the annual session of his agency's governing Executive Committee (ExCom) on Friday by informing delegates of plans to increase UNHCR's refugee protection role even as he pushes for greater efficiencies elsewhere.

Committing the UN refugee agency to a zero growth policy at headquarters, Guterres said the challenges of the future would be met through improved productivity and prioritization.

In its field operations, he said, UNHCR will "strengthen its protection capacity, particularly as it relates to urban refugees." Refugee protection, he said, "is an area that cannot be outsourced."

UNHCR's demonstrated ability in dealing with people forced from home as a result of conflict makes the agency well placed to take on an enhanced protection role in the field for people displaced by natural disasters, Guterres told delegates from ExCom's 78 member states.

While some 600,000 refugees returned home in 2008, said Guterres, the figure was among the lowest recorded in the past 15 years. As large-scale repatriation decreases, the need for additional opportunities for local integration and resettlement will increase, he said. "Voluntary repatriation remains UNHCR's preferred refugee solution," said the High Commissioner. "Additional options for local integration and resettlement do not undermine" that preference, he said.

In closing the 60th session of ExCom, Guterres praised the life-long commitment to refugee causes by this year's Nansen Award recipient, the late Senator Edward Kennedy. Senator Kennedy will be honoured for his powerful advocacy on behalf of refugees at a ceremony to be held in Washington, DC on October 28.

Refugee protection ... is an area that cannot be outsourced.

High Commissioner António Guterres

In a press conference that followed, Guterres praised the generosity of countries who continue to host millions of refugees despite having limited resources themselves. Humanitarian work is becoming more difficult and dangerous, he said, as the nature of conflict becomes more complex.

"In some situations humanitarians have become targets," the High Commissioner said. "Not because of who they work for, but simply because they are doing humanitarian work." In Pakistan alone, he said, three UNHCR staff have been killed this year and one kidnapped and subsequently released.

In Europe, he called for a harmonization of refugee asylum schemes to end what he called "huge difference in refugee recognition rates." By limiting access to meaningful asylum procedures the "asylum space" in the developed world was being eroded, just as challenges in the developing world were limiting the humanitarian space.

The five-day annual ExCom meeting reviews and approves UNHCR's programmes and budget, advises on protection issues and discusses a wide range of other topics.

By Tim Irwin in Geneva

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2009 Executive Committee Meeting

UNHCR's 60th Executive Committee met in Geneva from 28 September to 2 October 2009.

Asylum-Seekers

UNHCR advocates fair and efficient procedures for asylum-seekers

Asylum and Migration

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Statistics

Numbers are important in the aid business and UNHCR's statisticians monitor them daily.

The makeshift camp at Patras

Thousands of irregular migrants, some of whom are asylum-seekers and refugees, have sought shelter in a squalid, makeshift camp close to the Greek port of Patras since it opened 13 years ago. The camp consisted of shelters constructed from cardboard and wood and housed hundreds of people when it was closed by the Greek government in July 2009. UNHCR had long maintained that it did not provide appropriate accommodation for asylum-seekers and refugees. The agency had been urging the government to find an alternative and put a stronger asylum system in place to provide appropriate asylum reception facilities for the stream of irregular migrants arriving in Greece each year.The government used bulldozers to clear the camp, which was destroyed by a fire shortly afterwards. All the camp residents had earlier been moved and there were no casualties. Photographer Zalmaï, a former refugee from Afghanistan, visited the camp earlier in the year.

The makeshift camp at Patras

From the corners of the globe, the displaced converge in northern France

Hundreds of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees have created a number of makeshift camps in northern France. Drawn from a diverse range of countries, the men are hoping that from France they will be able to enter the United Kingdom.

Locals call it, "The Jungle" - a squalid warren of shanties made out of cardboard, plywood and bits of plastic that has mushroomed among the sand dunes and brambles outside Calais. Hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers from such faraway places as Afghanistan, Somalia and Vietnam have traveled for months and over rough terrain to camp out and eventually cross the 34-kilometre stretch of sea that separates Calais from England's White Cliffs of Dover.

Some have family in the UK or have heard that it is easy to get a good job there. Others have been forced to flee their countries because of political, religious or ethnic persecution, and may be entitled to refugee status.

Since early June, the UN refugee agency and its local partner, France Terre d'Asile, have been present in Calais, informing and counselling hundreds of people about asylum systems and procedures in France and the UK.

From the corners of the globe, the displaced converge in northern France

"Not Just Numbers" photo exercise

(Ages 12-14)

In this exercise, pupils are invited to use the set of photos provided, and their imagination, to tell a story about migrants, asylum seekers or refugees.

Specific Objectives

To be able to correctly apply the terms learnt relating to migration and asylum.
To demonstrate an understanding of the situation of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers by imagining themselves in similar situations.
To show critical thinking about racial, sexual or ethnic stereotypes and assumptions.