Opinion: United Nation’s special programme GCR a boon for refugees

Among the 68.5 million, there are nearly 25.4 million refugees, and over half of whom are under the age of 18. In addition, there are also an estimated 10 million stateless people who have been denied a nationality and access to basic rights such as education, healthcare, employment, and freedom of movement.

According to the data provided by the UNHCR, at least one person is forcibly displaced every two seconds as a result of conflict or persecution.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was assigned the task of developing a new global compact on refugees in consultation with States and other stakeholders, building on the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) set out in the New York Declaration.

Eventually, the UN General Assembly, officially affirmed The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) on 17 December 2018, paving the way for this new international framework to be implemented and to bring tangible benefits for refugees and host communities.

Global Compact on Refugees (GRC): GRC is a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing, recognising that a sustainable solution to refugee situations cannot be addressed without international cooperation. It provides a blueprint for governments, international organisations, and other stakeholders to ensure that host communities get the support they need and that refugees can lead productive lives.

Arrangements for follow-up and review the implementations, which will be conducted primarily through the Global Refugee Forum every four years, an annual high-level official meeting held every two years between forums, and the High Commissioner’s annual report to the General Assembly.

Strength of the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) is a viable mechanism bringing all countries on board to deal with all aspects related to migration as the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the 1967 Protocol, which has not been signed and ratified by many countries. This new framework GCR is affirmed by all the UN member countries. It will definitely promote international cooperation in dealing with the mass movement of people in the event of civil wars.

The new mechanism provides an opportunity for all the countries to gather once in four years for a Global Refugee Forum. Now, countries can discuss all aspects relating to refugees.

Additionally, the GCR provides the private sector provisions to help the refugees to empower themselves with jobs, skills and education. Another welcoming feature of the GCR is a Global Academic Network. This new network will promote studies on refugees across colleges and universities.

Research on refugees has been given high priority and various perspectives of the refugee issues could be taken up by the researchers. Scholarships for refugee students to pursue higher education takes precedence as of now since less than one per cent of the refugee students is in higher educational institutions. Support platforms and solidarity conferences will go a long way in understanding the problems of the refugees.

Main reasons and causes if analysed appropriately, will prove that it is the rich, industrialised, third countries or the western countries that are responsible for the mass movement of people. In the case of Syria, the civil war made 4.6 million refugees. It displaced 7.6million within Syria, which has been considered as the largest refugee flow since the Second World War. The war also created serious disturbances in its borders with Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan.

Countries enforcing military intervention and creating a large flow of refugees remain unaffected and the numbers of refugees they host also are small compared to other countries.

The data provided by the UNHCR clearly provides evidence that mass refugee movement occurs only with military interventions and the western or third countries responsible for such interventions are the major cause of the mass refugee flow, which is not addressed in the GCR.

Another major drawback of the GCR is its legally non-binding mechanism. In other words, it does not bind any country with obligations.

Absence of a Regional Mechanism: There is no Asian or South Asian mechanism to define refugees in the region and to have an in-depth look at the causes and reasons for populations becoming refugees. The other regions have a mechanism such as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Convention that was drafted by the African countries to deal with the refugee issue in 1969. The Latin American countries which met in a colloquium held in Mexico in 1981 drafted a ‘Cartagena Declaration of Refugees’. Historically, Asia had the largest movement of people like the partition refugees (1947 when India was portioned), India-Pakistan war in 1971, which resulted in the creation of Bangladesh that witnessed more than 5 million East Pakistan refugees entering India. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 resulted in the Afghans seeking asylum in Pakistan. At one point in time, Pakistan was hosting the highest number of refugees in the world.

The Vietnamese boat people were prohibited from landing in any of the Asian countries and the stories of them dying in the middle of the sea was a prevalent fact from the seventies of the last century. Adding to the list of refugees across the world are the Khmer refugees who sought asylum in Thailand. Mentioned here, are a mass movement of people seeking asylum in other countries.

While observing the political condition that prevails in Asia, it is evident that there is a need for an Asian convention or sub-regional mechanisms to deal with the protection the refugees.

Citizenship for the Sri Lankan Tamil Refugees: The Citizenship Amendment Act of 2016 addresses the issue of refugees by granting them citizenship. Six religious categories (Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis) from three countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) are considered for citizenship.

Meanwhile, last year, the Indian government announced, it would consider extending the citizenship to Chakmas, who number a lakh. If so, why are the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees left out in the consideration for citizenship? If religion is the basis to consider the granting of citizenship, then most of the Sri Lankan-Tamil refugees are Hindus by faith.

In the camps, those who wish to go back to Sri Lanka may be repatriated to Sri Lanka, but those who would like to stay back like the other refugee categories in India should be considered for citizenship. The DMK party in its election manifesto of 2019 to the parliamentary elections promised citizenship for the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who wish to stay back and not return to Sri Lanka. Hope in the parliament, the opposition parties will sufficiently highlight this issue to end the long years of camp life for the refugees.

The other refugee groups in India are given long term visas so that they can take up any job in the cities, work and earn money, send their children to schools and live with dignity. This is what is being called as ‘Urban Refugees’ in contrast to the ‘camp refugees’ who live with several restrictions and limited livelihood options.

Stateless Sri Lankan-Tamils in the Camps: Findings show that there are about 25,000 to 30,000 Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are stateless. The reason that rendered them stateless (Hill Tamils) in Sri Lanka was the pacts signed by the governments of Sri Lanka and India.

However, before they could be repatriated from Sri Lanka to India the civil war started in 1983. Some of the hill people who were made stateless joined the Tamils of northern and eastern provinces in Sri Lanka and reached India as refugees. Therefore, the Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camps have people who are stateless and cannot return to Sri Lanka.

Conclusion: This year 2019 World Refugee Day assumes importance in the context of a new mechanism that has been accepted by the International community to address the issues relating to refugees. On 20 June, the world commemorates the strength, courage, and resilience of millions of refugees. The time has come to close down refugee camps and allow them to live like any other person in the country.