[refugee-rights] World Refugee Survey 2003: 4.3 million newly uprooted find post-September 11 world more hostile

Press release US Committee for Refugees
For further information:
Hiram Ruiz
202-347-3507
202-494-7790 (evening)

World Refugee Survey 2003: 4.3 Million Newly Uprooted Find Post-September
11 World More Hostile and Refuge in Short Supply


Washington, D.C., May 29, 2003 "Since the start of the war on terror, many
countries -among them the United States- have become more wary of
foreigners, including refugees," said Lavinia Limón, executive director of
the U.S. Committee for Refugees, which today published its authoritative
annual report, the World Refugee Survey 2003
[http://www.refugees.org/WRS2003.cfm.htm].

Human rights violations and conflicts newly uprooted 4.3 million people,
the Survey finds, many of whom found that a fearful world did not want them
and that safety was in short supply. The United States, for example,
admitted only 27,000 refugeesless than half the number it admitted in 2001
and the fewest in more than 30 years.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, in a Survey article, noted
that the effects of the aftermath of September 11 have not been limited to
refugees in the United States, but have reverberated worldwide. He said,
"Since September 11, refugees and asylum seekers have had even more
difficulty than before in finding safety. No corner of the globe has been
immune.... Increasingly, governments exclude [refugees] from protection and
detain them."

"The United States' severe cutback in refugee admissions left many refugees
at risk and undermined its leadership in refugee protection," added Limón.
"For the sake of refugees everywhere, it is imperative that the United
States restore that leadership."

The Survey devotes particular attention to two refugee groups that have
been denied international protection, Palestinians and North Koreans.
According to the Survey, China forcibly returned tens of thousands of North
Korean refugees. In an article on the plight of North Korean refugees in
China, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), who visited the China/North Korea
border in 2002, documents China's denial of refuge and forced return of
North Korean refugees to detention, torture, and even death. In another
article, USCR analyst Ahmed Jabri argues for equal international protection
for Palestinian refugees, the only refugee group superficially excluded
from the UN Refugee Convention's protection mandate.

The Survey also found that Rwanda pushed back some 7,000 Congolese
refugees; Cambodia forced back Vietnamese Montagnards; and, Guinea shut its
doors to people fleeing Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. European Union countries
accepted only an average of ten percent of asylum applicants. They denied
asylum to most Iraqis who fled there, even as they criticized the Hussein
regime's violations of human rights in Iraq.

Despite the many problems refugees faced in 2002, however, the Survey noted
hopeful developments. The ouster of the Taliban from power in Afghanistan
made possible the return home of 1.8 million Afghansthe largest, fastest
refugee repatriation in the world in more than 30 years. The international
community did not provide the level of security and assistance that it
promised, however.

Elsewhere, the promise of peace prompted hundreds of thousands of hopeful
refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes. In Sri Lanka,
after two decades of fighting, the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels
agreed to a cease-fire and began peace talks. By year's end, some 230,000
displaced persons had returned home. The death of rebel leader Jonas
Savimbi in Angola in February 2002 and an unexpected peace agreement soon
afterwards triggered the return home of some 800,000 displaced persons and
80,000 refugees without international assistance. In Sierra Leone, a
peaceful start to the year, confidence among Sierra Leoneans that the civil
war was finished, and relatively fair elections in May encouraged more than
200,000 uprooted Sierra Leoneans to return home.

The authoritative, 258-page World Refugee Survey 2003 reviews refugee
conditions and government policies affecting refugees and displaced persons
in 134 countries worldwide. It includes 13 pages of comprehensive,
reliable, widely-cited statistics on refugees, internally displaced
persons, and asylum seekers.

USCR is a public information and advocacy program of Immigration and
Refugee Services of America (IRSA), a nongovernmental, non-profit
organization. Since 1958, USCR has defended the rights of refugees, asylum
seekers, and internally displaced persons worldwide.

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