tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/eu-refugee-policy-37991/articlesEU refugee policy – The Conversation2019-03-08T02:37:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1122302019-03-08T02:37:29Z2019-03-08T02:37:29ZCommunity members should be able to sponsor refugees for the right reasons, not to save the government money<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/262651/original/file-20190307-82677-51dtdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are thousands in the Australian community who say they would sponsor a refugee's resettlement, but only if the program was reformed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week the Greens <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/07/greens-propose-private-sponsorship-of-refugees-as-they-targets-inner-city-seats?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">announced their refugee policy</a>. It includes allowing private citizens to sponsor refugees as part of its plan to increase Australia’s humanitarian intake by 10,000. In December, Labor also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/17/labor-conference-commits-to-increased-refugee-intake-and-processing-funding-boost">announced plans</a> to increase the existing community sponsored refugee program by up to 5,000 places per year. </p>
<p>Australia’s little-known <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program/community-support-program">community support program</a> (CSP) allows individuals, businesses or community organisations to fund and sponsor the travel and resettlement of refugees into Australia from overseas. </p>
<p>But the number of visas allowed under the CSP is part of the overall quota in Australia’s humanitarian program. This means that, for each refugee sponsored privately, one less place is available in the government-funded resettlement program.</p>
<p>The CSP also requires the sponsored refugee to be capable of getting a job quickly and have functional English. Altogether, this suggests the CSP seeks to exploit the goodwill of the community while shifting the cost of resettlement away from the government. </p>
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<h2>Community sponsorship of refugees in Australia</h2>
<p>The history of community involvement in refugee sponsorship dates back to the <a href="http://www.ausrefugeesponsorship.com.au/2018/04/27/lessons-from-history-the-community-refugee-settlement-scheme/">community refugee resettlement scheme</a>. The program ran from 1979 to 1997 and resettled more than 30,000 refugees, primarily from Vietnam.</p>
<p>Australia’s current program began with the community proposal pilot in 2013. This provided 500 places, again from within Australia’s <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program">refugee and humanitarian program</a> (which has a capped quota for each financial year). This meant the overall humanitarian intake didn’t increase under the pilot, but the government did save money. Community sponsors covered the cost of existing resettlement places for the first year as well as paying significant visa fees.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/private-resettlement-models-offer-a-way-for-australia-to-lift-its-refugee-intake-65030">Private resettlement models offer a way for Australia to lift its refugee intake</a>
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<p>The government conducted a public consultation and review of the program in 2015. While it never publicised the findings of that consultation, documents <a href="https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/4554/response/13772/attach/4/FA180500515%20Documents%20released.pdf">obtained under Freedom of Information</a> show 13 out of 17 respondents recommended the program should operate in addition to the existing refugee and humanitarian program. The responses also showed there was a perception the program was merely a “cost cutting scheme”.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program/community-support-program">community support program</a> was introduced in 2017 after the summit on refugees held in New York at the end of 2016. At the summit, then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="https://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/leaders-summit-on-refugees">announced</a> that </p>
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<p>in addition to our existing programs, Australia will… create new pathways for refugees to resettle in Australia through the establishment of 1,000 places under a Community Support Program, where communities and businesses can sponsor applications and support new arrivals, leading to better settlement outcomes.</p>
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<p>But rather than being “in addition”, the CSP again takes places from Australia’s existing refugee and humanitarian program, currently capped at 18,750 per year.</p>
<p>The CSP also <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/refugee-and-humanitarian-program/community-support-program/how-to-apply">introduced a number of new requirements</a>. These include that refugees must have “adequate English”, be aged between 18-50 and “have a job offer or skills to enable you to get a job quickly”. Such requirements prioritise the country’s economic priorities over humanitarian need. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201718/Immigration#_ftn9">2017-18 budget</a> promoted the CSP as a way for the government to raise A$26.9 million. This revenue gain comes from the extraordinarily high fees associated with the program. Altogether, the fees amount to more than A$100,000 to sponsor a refugee family of five.</p>
<h2>What is the community saying?</h2>
<p>Governments all over the world are looking at ways to increase community involvement in resettling refugees. Canada has been <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/guide-private-sponsorship-refugees-program.html">running a program</a> that has facilitated the private sponsorship of more than 300,000 refugees since 1978.</p>
<p>Our unpublished research shows that Australian community members are eager to sponsor and support refugees to settle in Australia. But the current program is expensive, restrictive and does not expand Australia’s resettlement numbers. These problems have dissuaded community groups from getting involved.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-this-the-greatest-period-of-humanitarian-need-since-wwii-44068">FactCheck: is this the greatest period of humanitarian need since WWII?</a>
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<p>A coalition of refugee and community organisations has formed the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative (<a href="http://www.ausrefugeesponsorship.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CRSI-Policy-Brief-Long-April-2018.pdf">CRSI</a>). This calls on the government to develop a new sponsorship model “to enable people to come together to add to, not reduce, Australia’s resettlement places”. </p>
<p>They have collected the names of more than 13,000 community members who would sponsor refugees should the current model be reformed.</p>
<h2>The CSP can expand our refugee program</h2>
<p>Both the Greens’ and Labor’s policies pledge that the number of people coming to Australia under refugee sponsorship will be in addition to those under the humanitarian program. They also propose to abolish the problematic requirements that undermine the humanitarian principle of refugee resettlement.</p>
<p>To date, the CSP has been largely used by people living in Australia as <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/community-support-program-brief/">a form of family reunion</a>. This is because other safe pathways for families to be reunited have been closed off or limited by the government. </p>
<p>More than 90% of the 1,000 refugees resettled through the current CSP have been sponsored by family members, rather than the wider community. The CSP is also limited to refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Bhutan, Syria and Iraq, with a significant majority coming from Syria and Iraq. </p>
<p>Private sponsorship will continue to function as an expensive form of family reunion until better options are made available.</p>
<p>Community sponsorship of refugees has the potential to transform refugee resettlement. It can significantly expand the scale of Australia’s humanitarian migration program, allowing the public to supplement the government-funded humanitarian migration program. This means more refugees finding safety every year, when other resettlement programs (such as that in the US) are shrinking.</p>
<p>When done properly, community sponsorship engages the broader community in the resettlement of refugee arrivals. It can challenge and rewrite government-led narratives about refugees and asylum seekers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Hirsch is a Senior Policy Officer with the Refugee Council of Australia and a member of the Community Refugee Sponsorship Initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthea Vogl does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The current community support program that allows Australians to sponsor a refugee’s resettlement is flawed. It exploits the goodwill of the community while shifting costs away from the government.Anthea Vogl, Lecturer, University of Technology SydneyAsher Hirsch, PhD Candidate, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1006642018-08-02T20:24:43Z2018-08-02T20:24:43ZAustralia and other countries must prioritise humanity in dealing with displaced people and migration<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230137/original/file-20180801-136661-kxqnsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The United Nations says the number of forcibly displaced persons around the world has risen to 68.5 million.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After six rounds of consultations, United Nations member states have produced the final draft of the <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/migration.pdf">Global Compact</a> for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). </p>
<p>It is preceded by the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_71_1.pdf">New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants</a>, which the UN General Assembly adopted in 2016. This was an intergovernmental declaration to initiate development of two separate global compacts: one on refugees and another on migrants.</p>
<p>This latest global compact document focuses on the latter issue. It lays down <a href="https://www.un.org/pga/72/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2018/07/migration.pdf">23 objectives</a> in order to establish “a <a href="https://www.un.org/pga/72/wp-content/uploads/sites/51/2018/07/migration.pdf">cooperative framework</a> to address migration in all its dimensions”. </p>
<p>Key points include securing the human rights of migrants, reducing vulnerabilities in migration, and the use of migration detention only as a last resort. The global compact also promotes “integrated, secure and coordinated” border management. Its aim is for states to cooperate rather than focus strictly on their domestic priorities. </p>
<h2>National responses to the draft global compact</h2>
<p>Over the last month or so, states have started to declare their positions on the draft text. Notably, these positions do not always align with how those states have conducted themselves in intergovernmental negotiations. As is often the case, tensions can arise between domestic political priorities and intergovernmental relations. </p>
<p>Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said <a href="https://www.2gb.com/not-in-its-current-form-immigration-minister-rules-out-global-migration-deal-sort-of/">Australia would not sign the global compact</a> in its current form. Australia is “happy to negotiate in good faith”, according to Dutton, but it will not “sign its border protection policy over to the UN”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-international-condemnation-on-human-rights-mean-so-little-to-australia-53814">Why does international condemnation on human rights mean so little to Australia?</a>
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<p>The Hungarian government also declared its opposition and <a href="http://www.kormany.hu/en/ministry-of-foreign-affairs-and-trade/news/hungary-officially-announces-its-exit-from-the-adoption-process-of-the-un-global-compact-for-migration">officially announced its exit from the adoption process</a>.</p>
<p>These developments follow the high-profile US withdrawal from the drafting process in December 2017. At the time, the Trump administration <a href="https://usun.state.gov/remarks/8197">argued</a> that numerous provisions of the New York Declaration were “inconsistent with US immigration policy”. </p>
<p>As the Global Compact on Migration moves towards finalisation in December 2018, there is a chance these early challenges may snowball. </p>
<h2>The key to Australia’s resistance</h2>
<p>The grounds for Australia’s particular resistance to the global compact are the provisions relating to migration detention. The compact insists detention should only be used as a “last resort”. Signatories would <a href="https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/migration.pdf">commit</a> to:</p>
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<p>review and revise relevant legislation, policies and practices related to immigration detention to ensure that migrants are not detained arbitrarily, that decisions to detain are based on law, are proportionate, have a legitimate purpose, and are taken on an individual basis, in full compliance with due process and procedural safeguards, and that immigration detention is not promoted as a deterrent or used as a form of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment to migrants, in accordance with international human rights law.</p>
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<p>Critical readings of domestic policy and practice find Australia’s behaviour in violation of some or all of the compact’s checks on migration detention. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/offshore-detention-australians-have-a-right-to-know-what-is-done-in-their-name-64113">Offshore detention: Australians have a right to know what is done in their name</a>
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<p>Indeed, Dutton effectively <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/25/dutton-says-australia-wont-surrender-our-sovereignty-by-signing-un-migration-deal">acknowledges</a> that Australia’s practice is out of alignment with international legal standards. He notes that “we’ve fought hard for [our policies]” and “we’re not going to sign a deal that sacrifices anything in terms of our border protection”.</p>
<p>Multiple <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-the-international-criminal-court-prosecute-australia-for-crimes-against-humanity-33363">actors</a> have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/13/international-criminal-court-told-australias-detention-regime-could-be-a-against-humanity">sought</a> to bring Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers before the <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/publications/communique-to-the-office-of-the-prosecutor-of-the-international-criminal-court-under-article-15-of-the-rome-statute-the-situation-in-nauru-and-manus-island-liability-for-crimes-against-humanity/">prosecutor</a> of the International Criminal Court. The Australian government faces allegations including crimes against humanity and torture, arising from the system of mandatory offshore immigration detention it continues to enforce. </p>
<h2>Global forced displacement and migration challenges are unprecedented</h2>
<p>It is clear that states typically prioritise their national interests in international relations. Arguments are often <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/22/end-the-wars-to-halt-the-refugee-crisis/">framed in such a way</a> as to absolve states of responsibility and position vulnerable refugees and migrants as a “problem”. It is past time for this mentality to change. </p>
<p>The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recently released the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/en-au/statistics/unhcrstats/5b27be547/unhcr-global-trends-2017.html">2017 Global Trends Report</a>. It confirms that the number of forcibly displaced persons around the world has risen to 68.5 million. This is 2.9 million more than reported at the end of 2016.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.iom.int/wmr/chapter-2">estimated global migrant population</a> is 244 million.</p>
<p>States’ approaches to challenges of forced displacement and migration often fail to acknowledge a sometimes competing, but always essential, consideration – the basic dignity of the human person. </p>
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<p>The agenda of the global compact is to encourage states to prioritise human dignity. This consideration does not have to contravene sovereignty. It does not dictate that a country abolish its borders. Nor is it against measures to protect its security. </p>
<p>To construct a justification for state cruelty based on sovereignty is an affront to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/renewed-commitment-to-multilateralism-required-to-deal-with-forced-human-displacement-80151">shared objectives</a> of member states of the UN. </p>
<h2>The case for greater cooperation</h2>
<p>The current scope of forced displacement and migration necessitates more rather than less cooperation. Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, <a href="https://arynews.tv/en/pakistan-welcomes-agreement-on-global-compact-on-migration-lodhi/">stated</a> that the “success rests on mutual trust, determination and solidarity to fulfil the 23 objectives and commitments contained in the GCM”. </p>
<p>Bonds of solidarity at the international level are heavily strained by the disproportionate burdens borne by a small number of receiving states. Developing countries now host <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/eighty-four-percent-of-refugees-live-in-developing-countries/">84%</a> of the world’s refugees. </p>
<p>In this context, the last thing national governments should do is abandon cooperative efforts to build stronger global responses to migration and refugee protection. </p>
<p>The lives and wellbeing of millions of people depend on countries working together and prioritising humanity in their domestic policies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Maguire is a member of Amnesty International and Co-Chair of the Indigenous Rights Subcommittee of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason von Meding and Samuel Berhanu Woldemariam do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>States’ approaches to challenges of forced displacement and migration often fail to acknowledge a sometimes competing, but always essential, consideration – the basic dignity of the human person.Samuel Berhanu Woldemariam, PhD Candidate (Law), University of NewcastleAmy Maguire, Senior Lecturer in International Law and Human Rights, University of NewcastleJason von Meding, Senior Lecturer in Disaster Risk Reduction, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883562017-12-07T06:06:30Z2017-12-07T06:06:30ZWhen the British government expects volunteers to help refugees, it’s back to the 1930s<p>Refugees are awkward. Their arrivals are typically unpredictable and hard to anticipate. They raise immediate logistical difficulties, and frequently give rise to difficult diplomatic and political situations. </p>
<p>While each new movement of refugees can feel unprecedented – this is an illusion. Over the last century, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Making_of_the_Modern_Refugee.html?id=UAkarK3gLDgC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y">each decade has seen</a> significant movements of refugees fleeing war, mass atrocities, political repression and civil breakdown. </p>
<p>Those looking for solutions to current refugee movements often turn to history to provide answers to today’s refugee situation. The 1930s offer compelling, if often disheartening, comparisons with the present. As today, 1930s Britain found itself in a rapidly changing world, and one in which its imperial influence was in decline. </p>
<p>In Europe, the internationalism of the 1920s that led to the creation of the League of Nations as a vehicle to prevent international conflict was in retreat. The 1930s saw instead a toxic combination of economic depression, the rise of totalitarian communism and <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-a-warning-for-the-brexit-age-from-the-british-fascism-of-the-1930s-70936">fascism</a>, and the ongoing insistence of the major powers, including Britain, to put their own national interests first.</p>
<p>In the 1930s, a European state’s authority to control its own borders, and how to treat its population within those borders, was sacrosanct. This principle of state sovereignty meant the democratic powers were unwilling to challenge the treatment of people under Germany’s Nazi government. It also meant that there were <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5iswDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30&lpg=PT30&dq=Zara+Steiner,+%27Refugees:+The+Timeless+Problem&source=bl&ots=iWvl00M7EN&sig=8DvNWaKl-DdvFTOXJH5PVAgTcgw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwievrbR2ujXAhUEDOwKHaEOCMEQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q=Zara%20Steiner%2C%20'Refugees%3A%20The%20Timeless%20Problem&f=false">no international mechanisms</a> requiring any nation to receive refugees once they had left Germany.</p>
<p>And rather than giving refuge to Jews and others fleeing Nazism, democratic nations instead <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5iswDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30&lpg=PT30&dq=Zara+Steiner,+%27Refugees:+The+Timeless+Problem&source=bl&ots=iWvl00M7EN&sig=8DvNWaKl-DdvFTOXJH5PVAgTcgw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwievrbR2ujXAhUEDOwKHaEOCMEQ6AEILDAB#v=onepage&q&f=false">engaged in</a> “competitive restrictionism”: each feared they would bear the brunt of refugee arrivals if they didn’t maintain strict visa requirements. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Whitehall_and_the_Jews_1933_1948.html?id=uF45zYcPt68C">Britain</a>, alongside countries including the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa, maintained <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Paper_walls.html?id=GOLa_9S4lXkC">“paper walls”</a> keeping out many thousands of refugees, in part citing concerns that allowing Jews in would only increase antisemitism. </p>
<p><em><strong>Read more: <a href="https://theconversation.com/british-media-suspicion-of-child-refugees-goes-back-to-the-1930s-73942">British media suspicion of child refugees goes back to the 1930s</a></strong></em></p>
<p>By September 1939, Britain <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Whitehall_and_the_Jews_1933_1948.html?id=uF45zYcPt68C">had accepted </a> roughly 80,000 refugees – mainly German and Austrian, but also some Czechs – out of the 500,000 to 600,000 refugees who sought entry. </p>
<p>The British government’s immigration policy up to 1939 <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1919/92/pdfs/ukpga_19190092_en.pdf">classed refugees</a> along with all other “aliens”, or non-British subjects. And no alien was granted entry who might “become a charge on the rates”, that is, to receive state welfare payments. For refugees forced to leave behind their possessions and money this was an enormous hurdle, particularly when <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/British_Policy_and_the_Refugees_1933_194.html?id=xa38gqg3WcwC">regulations also barred them</a> from taking up most paid work. </p>
<p>The parallels with today’s world are striking. The UN is deprived of the influence it wielded during the Cold War. There is a global rise of nationalism, Islamophobia and economic protectionism. And ever tightening immigration and asylum regimes mean refugees and the dispossessed continue to risk their lives to cross the Mediterranean or the Channel tunnel.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196972/original/file-20171129-12016-1s14u2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A protest against Donald Trump’s refugee policies in London, February 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alisdare/32340040080/in/photolist-RgMacW-RjKbKS-Gr8syr-SDoqFD-Rh2JtN-RFaeux-QDDdV2-cvUBVd-cvURTQ-cvVarb-cvVxcS-RuXMJN-RDBRdY-QyPkKf-cvVe55-cvV99S-cvVbRs-cvV9wo-cvVbrs-cvVmj5-cvVt3S-cvV5Pq-cvV4cN-cvUzHS-cvUNjh-cvVzDh-cvUMUE-5mrJdA-Qs4pwh-cvVgiW-cvV3as-cvV8hh-cvVwJ9-RxJZvv-cvVAA9-cvVk87-RHc8cM-SgxRvN-SkdKwB-Skc3Xn-QuMo8P-SgvddA-Rjt5eC-SgxhLu-R3vf93-REYCh3-HDAcMK-Jsgnow-RCBEy7-B2iWXw">alisdare1/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<h2>Local groups step up</h2>
<p>In the face of inaction by governments, in the 1930s, as today, newly formed refugee organisations sprang up to meet the challenge. </p>
<p>Both national organisations, such as the German Jewish Aid Committee, and local refugee organisations in towns across Britain sought to cut through this problem by guaranteeing to cover all of an individual refugee’s costs while in the UK. Fundraising material stressed again and again the crudeness of the equation they faced – that the number of refugees they could save: “Depends entirely upon the amount of money subscribed.”</p>
<p>But across Britain – even in towns as small as <a href="https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/5929/file/pardes18_s21_34.pdf">Worthing</a>, where the Refugee Committee supported over 500 refugees – undaunted volunteers collected clothing, food parcels and financial donations. They pooled their ration coupons and spoke up publicly about the need for international solidarity. They invited the refugees of the town for tea, took them to the cinema and on outings. They wrote to those who had come to Britain only to be interned as enemy aliens after 1940, sending them messages of support, food parcels and continued to look after family members.</p>
<p>We might expect that the stark reckoning facing such committees – their guaranteed sponsorship equalled the rescue of one refugee – has been consigned to history. In fact, it was revived last year via the Conservative government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/community-sponsorship-scheme-launched-for-refugees-in-the-uk">community refugee sponsorship scheme</a>. This stands both as a symbol of the commitment of voluntary groups to actively enable refugees to come to Britain, and entrenched state reluctance to commit resources to their reception and resettlement. The refugees selected come as part of the government’s Vulnerable Person Resettlement Programme, and are mainly Syrian families from camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.</p>
<p>In order to be accepted under the scheme, civil society groups must prove an extensive and long-term commitment to any sponsored family. Groups are expected to provide housing for each family, as well as <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/community-sponsorship-scheme-launched-for-refugees-in-the-uk">help them</a> “to integrate into life in the UK, access medical and social services, arranging English language tuition and supporting them towards employment and self-sufficiency”. When they have fulfilled all the requirements, one family is granted entry to Britain.</p>
<p>The red tape surrounding the scheme was such that in January 2017, six months after its launch, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jan/18/uk-community-refugee-scheme-has-resettled-only-two-syrian-families">only two families</a> had been settled under it. But even when refugee groups are successful, the fact remains that, as in the darkest days of the late 1930s, the British government seems committed to ducking responsibility for some of the world’s most vulnerable citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Taylor received grant funding from The Wellcome Trust to carry out archival work associated with this article.</span></em></p>Then as now, volunteer groups are stepping in where governments won’t.Becky Taylor, Reader in Modern History, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809182017-07-19T10:55:31Z2017-07-19T10:55:31ZNamed and shamed: EU countries are failing to share responsibility for refugees<p>There are currently an estimated <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2016/">22.5m people</a> living as refugees around the world. On July 10, representatives from more than 80 countries <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2017/7/595f41694/sharing-responsibilities-large-refugee-movements.html">gathered at the Palais de Nations</a> in Geneva to discuss how best to share responsibility for them. Organised by UNHCR, the discussion will inform a new <a href="http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/refugees-compact">Global Compact on Refugees</a> which is being developed in the hope of addressing the long-term challenges associated with displacement. </p>
<p>The starting point is simple but important. <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/eighty-four-percent-of-refugees-live-in-developing-countries/">The vast majority (84%)</a> of those forced to leave their homes now live in low and middle-income countries. Turkey, for example, hosts more than three million Syrian refugees alone, Lebanon a further 1.5m. In the absence of protection and opportunities to rebuild a life, some of these people will move elsewhere with all the associated human, financial and political costs that this entails. Countries with more resources could, and should, do more.</p>
<p>But Europe faces a responsibility sharing crisis of its own. </p>
<p>Over recent years, the majority of refugees have crossed the Mediterranean by boat arriving almost exclusively in just two countries: Italy and Greece. Under the <a href="https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/what-is-the-dublin-regulation/">Dublin Regulation</a>, people seeking protection in Europe have to apply for asylum in the first EU member state they reach. In 2015, this meant that Greece, already reeling from the <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-greek-economic-crisis-the-social-impacts-of-austerity-debunking-the-myths/5431010">effects of economic crisis and austerity measures</a> dating back to 2010, suddenly became responsible for <a href="https://www.iom.int/sites/default/files/situation_reports/file/Mixed-Flows-Mediterranean-and-Beyond-Compilation-Overview-2015.pdf">850,000 people</a> arriving on its shores, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. A further 150,000 were rescued at sea and taken to Italy. </p>
<p>Greece already had a <a href="http://www.refworld.org/docid/54cb3af34.html">deeply flawed asylum process and limited reception facilities</a>. Unable to cope, it effectively persuaded Macedonia to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/migrant-crisis-macedonia-opens-border-with-greece-as-hundreds-of-desperate-refugees-spark-police-10467502.html">open its borders</a> and allow people to move on, primarily to the countries of northern Europe. It was only at this point that Europe’s leaders decided something needed to be done.</p>
<h2>Relocation, relocation</h2>
<p>That something turned out to be relocation.</p>
<p>The process of relocation involves distributing those people who arrive in Europe and are considered to need international protection to other member states with fewer arrivals. Relocation was intended to be a clear <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/background-information/docs/2_eu_solidarity_a_refugee_relocation_system_en.pdf">expression of solidarity</a> between EU countries. In July 2015, it was agreed that <a href="http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-11131-2015-INIT/en/pdf">40,000 people would be relocated</a> from Greece and Italy. This number was increased by a <a href="http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-12098-2015-INIT/en/pdf">further 120,000</a> in September that year. </p>
<p>The distribution of people across different countries was calculated using <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/background-information/docs/communication_on_the_european_agenda_on_migration_annex_en.pdf">objective and quantifiable criteria</a>. Those defined as vulnerable – children, pregnant women, the elderly and those who had experienced torture, rape and other forms of gender-based violence – were to be given priority. Where possible, family connections in European countries would be taken into account when deciding where someone would be sent. The scheme would last two years, ending in September 2017.</p>
<p>But from the moment relocation began in October 2015, it was <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/5-reasons-relocating-refugees-is-a-nightmare-migration-crisis-malta-summit/">painfully slow</a>. In the first few months, just a few hundred refugees were moved out of Italy and Greece even as tens of thousands more were arriving every day. By March 2016, six months after the scheme started, <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-829_en.htm">just 937 refugees had been relocated</a>. Nothing much changed during 2016. By the end of the year, <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_AGENDA-16-4250_en.htm">8,162 people had been relocated</a> (6,212 from Greece and 1,950 from Italy) representing just 5% of the total originally agreed.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/20170613_factsheet_relocation_and_resettlement_en.pdf">latest figures</a> released by the European Commission provide slightly better news, with a significant increase in the number of people relocated since the start of 2017. As of <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/press-material/docs/state_of_play_-_relocation_en.pdf">July 13</a>, the total number of relocations stood at 24,092 (7,615 from Italy and 16,477 from Greece). </p>
<p>But with only two months to go before the scheme is scheduled to end, the idea of relocation as a mechanism for sharing responsibility is <a href="https://www.ecre.org/weekly-editorial-if-relocation-is-the-only-game-in-town-then-we-play-for-high-stakes/">clearly in trouble</a>.</p>
<h2>So what went wrong?</h2>
<p>There are three main reasons why relocation has failed to deliver on its promises.</p>
<p>First, only those with a <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/20170613_factsheet_relocation_and_resettlement_en.pdf">high chance of having their applications successfully processed</a> are eligible for relocation. This means people are only eligible if they come from countries in which <a href="https://www.easo.europa.eu/questions-and-answers-relocation">more than 75%</a> of asylum seekers have been recognised as refugees under the strict criteria of the <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/1951-refugee-convention.html">1951 Refugee Convention</a>. As of July 1, the only <a href="https://www.easo.europa.eu/questions-and-answers-relocation">countries meeting this criteria</a> were Eritrea, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bhutan, Qatar, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. </p>
<p>The problem is that refugee recognition rates across Europe are generally low and also <a href="https://www.easo.europa.eu/sites/default/files/public/EN_%20Annual%20Report%202015_1.pdf">vary considerably</a> between member states, even for those coming from the same country. This means that while some people, such as Syrians, are eligible for relocation, others, for example those coming from Iraq or Afghanistan, are not. The strict criteria mean that very few of the hundreds of thousands of people who have arrived in Europe since March 2015 can actually be relocated. The fact that Bahrain and the Bahamas are on the relocation list simply because there are very few applications from these countries and the acceptance rate is high, reflects the arbitrariness of the eligibility criteria. </p>
<p>Second, virtually no European countries have delivered the number of places originally agreed. This is due, in part, to <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/569fad556.pdf">inadequate facilities</a> for identifying, informing, processing and transferring relocation applicants, particularly in the early days. But countries have also <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-eu-infringements-idUSKBN1931O4">cited</a> “security concerns” or expressed preferences about the people they are ready to accept based on factors such as nationality and family status. </p>
<p>Some countries have openly discriminated. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33986738">Slovakia</a>, for example, will only accept Syrians who are Christian. This has significantly complicated the matching process. There is also some evidence of countries <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/04/eu-refugee-relocation-scheme-inadequate-will-continue-to-fail">“cherry picking”</a> refugees with particular qualifications or professional skills.</p>
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<p>Third, while some countries have taken quite a few refugees – Germany, for example, had <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agenda-migration/press-material/docs/state_of_play_-_relocation_en.pdf">taken</a> 6,738 people by July 13, almost a third of the total – others have simply refused to relocate refugees at all. This undermines the principles of solidarity and responsibility sharing on which the relocation scheme was based. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32705615">UK, Ireland and Denmark</a> opted out of the scheme from the beginning. Others, such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40259268">Hungary and Poland</a>, have not relocated any refugees to date. The Czech Republic has relocated just 12 of the 2,691 agreed. It is only due to pressure from the EU, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/13/eu-takes-action-against-eastern-states-for-refusing-to-take-refugees">threats of legal action</a> in June 2017, that relocation has increased at all.</p>
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<h2>A moving target</h2>
<p>Relocation has now become a moving target. When it became clear that the scheme was failing, the EU <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/relocations-very-far-from-target-commission-admits/">reduced the target from 160,000 to 98,000</a>, citing a lack of people eligible for the scheme. With just a few months to go until September 2017, the target was reduced again in April, this time to <a href="https://euobserver.com/migration/137582">just 33,000 places</a>. Although the legal obligation to relocate refugees will continue beyond the end of the scheme, it is difficult to imagine that the number of people relocated will go beyond the new target.</p>
<p>These problems reflect the underlying issues that go to the heart of both the European and global response, namely a lack of solidarity and responsibility sharing for the world’s refugees. Even as UNHCR calls on countries to move from rhetoric to practice and make “<a href="http://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/latest/2017/7/5964977c4/action-needed-share-responsibility-refugees.html">the rubber hit the road</a>”, it is increasingly clear that Europe’s car is still sitting in the garage trying to find a way to put the wheels back on.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heaven Crawley had received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)</span></em></p>With the EU’s refugee relocation scheme due to end in September, progress has been painfully slow.Heaven Crawley, Research Professor, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/763402017-04-25T19:41:42Z2017-04-25T19:41:42ZFamine creeps in on Africa while the world’s media looks elsewhere<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/166088/original/file-20170420-20068-1xymnsp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A UN helicopter flies over people waiting for food aid in South Sudan. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Siegfried Modola</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Major political events in the US and Europe have preoccupied western media over the past year. Chief among these has been Donald Trump’s rise to US president and his continuing efforts to establish a credible domestic and foreign policy agenda. </p>
<p>Before that, the inability of the European Union to agree on a plan to host an <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131911">influx of refugees</a> gained the media’s attention along with the United Kingdom’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/britain-votes-for-brexit-eu-referendum-david-cameron">referendum</a> on Europe. Now a succession of national elections across Europe – in France, Germany and the UK among others – looks set to dominate front page news.</p>
<p>The western media’s focus on momentous events at home has come at the expense of reporting on events unfolding in the global South. Among the events which have been eclipsed by the media’s preoccupation is the famine that’s unfolding in Africa. </p>
<p>Today the causes of famine are largely man made even though <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/drought-set-worsen-parts-of-greater-horn-of-africa">below average rain fall has exacerbated local food production</a> in the Horn of Africa over the past 18 to 24 months. However, in Sudan, Niger, the Central African Republic and Nigeria military conflict over the past three to four years has disrupted food production, displaced millions and created conditions which prevent the delivery of humanitarian assistance (assuming it was available). </p>
<p>The situation today is not unlike events that unfolded in Ethiopia in the early 1980s. Western governments then failed to monitor and intervene in time to prevent or mitigate the famine. It took a global media event – in the form of Band Aid and a pop song [<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/making-of-band-aid-20141125">Do they know it’s Christmas</a>] – to focus attention on the failure of western governments to respond to the tragedy that was unfolding. Alas humanitarian assistance, when it arrived, was too little too late.</p>
<p>The factors responsible for famine are complex. But, following the work of Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winning economist, they are well known and should be the focus of western development policy and humanitarian assistance. They include poor governance, inadequate planning, limited investment in development, ongoing violence and large scale population displacement. Unfortunately, such factors don’t appear on the agendas of western governments. </p>
<p>At the same time <a href="https://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/documentupload/2%20Africa%20-%20Development%20Aid%20at%20a%20Glance%202016.pdf">development assistance to Africa</a> has declined since 1990. The continent receives approximately 33% of total Overseas Development Assistance, down from 45% in 1990. And while humanitarian aid has stabilised at 7% to 8 %, funding for economic projects has increased from 17% to 21%. </p>
<p>Even though over the long-term the assistance should, in theory, be declining as the pace of development picks up, the need for humanitarian assistance needs to be constantly assessed so that it can be delivered in time to save lives.</p>
<h2>Interests are far more insular</h2>
<p>Why has western development policy failed to recognise the signs that a famine has been unfolding in Africa? Why has it failed to provide humanitarian aid in a timely manner? </p>
<p>The answer to these questions is twofold. Firstly western governments have failed to engage in sustained dialogue with African states to discuss the consequences of<a href="https://www.icrc.org/en/document/icrc-submission-international-development-committee-inquiry-forced-displacement-and"> policies that rely on force, which displace populations and which disrupt markets and set back development</a>. </p>
<p>Secondly it appears that western governments and tax payers are no longer interested in Africa. Their interests are far more insular, a situation reflected in the domestic issues that dominated the US election and the UK Brexit referendum. </p>
<p>The extent of western interest in Africa, indeed with the global South, is focused on securing the <a href="https://iscs.elliott.gwu.edu/sites/iscs.elliott.gwu.edu/files/downloads/Glaser-Oil-IS-2013%20(1).pdf">flow of oil</a> and other commodities which underpins their consumption. Coupled with this are determined efforts at stopping illegal migrants and refugees from entering the west. This fact is reflected in the $21 billion cost of Trump’s proposed <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-s-wall-on-us-mexico-border-could-cost-american-households-170-in-new-216bn-estimate-a7573151.html">wall</a> between the US and Mexico and the European Union’s €2.5 billion project to <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/regions/africa/eu-emergency-trust-fund-africa_en">bottle up migrants in Africa</a> to prevent them from reaching Europe. </p>
<p>The current cost of humanitarian assistance for Africa pales into insignificance against such sums.</p>
<h2>Too little too late</h2>
<p>The famine in Africa is occurring on a much larger scale than in 1980 across the Horn of Africa, in the Central African Republic and in Nigeria where an estimated 40 million people are at risk. </p>
<p>Yet humanitarian assistance has come very late. What’s on offer is too little and it will be delivered too late to prevent large scale death. For instance the <a href="http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/126052.pdf">European Union’s pledge</a> of €760 million to the Horn of Africa was only announced in November 2016 while European states made belated and quite small pledges in February this year. The US, for its part, remains the largest provider of <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41072.pdf">food aid</a> but has yet to state what it will pledge to alleviate famine in Africa. </p>
<p>In 1984 public support for Band Aid provided a much needed kick up the backside to western governments for their failure to respond to the needs of 1 million Ethiopians. It remains to be seen who or what’s going to push the world into action today, for the 40 million Africans who face famine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John R Campbell receives funding from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>The western media’s focus on events at home like the US elections and the UK Brexit referendum has come at the expense of reporting on the famine that’s unfolding in Africa.John R Campbell, Reader in the Anthropology of Africa and Law, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.