We are presently living in a world full of turmoil, conflict, and confusion, continually engulfed in various power struggles and wars of all kinds. As a result of this never-ending, widespread violence and corruption, we are also living in a world of refugees. According to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: a refugee is a person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail him/herself of the protection of that country (Refugee, 2008).
The current crisis of refugees around the world is overlooked by average, first world citizens every day. The topic of refugees, besides bringing up obvious issues of human rights, also involves numerous other global issues and raises countless questions. In this paper, we will discuss issues revolving around the history of refugees, refugee warehousing and its alternatives, as well as three individual case studies of current refugee crises around the world and how they connect to other global issues. Refugees were first defined and acknowledged as a legal group in the aftermath of World War II, due to the vast number of people fleeing Eastern Europe (Refugee, 2008). While it is clearly impossible to account for all of the world’s refugees, when this estimate is combined with the staggering number of world wide internally displaced persons (IDPs), or “people forced to flee their homes but who, unlike refugees, remain within their country's borders” (Internally Displaced Persons, 2008), the number can get as high as forty million. With numbers this high, protecting and housing those in need of shelter becomes difficult for individual countries; as a result, the burden has been spread out between governments and various other independent groups. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the leading international agency working with refugees, and “was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide” (UNHCR, 2008). In addition to the UNHCR, there are dozens of organizations and agencies dedicated to the same purpose of safeguarding and insuring the lives and rights of refugees worldwide. One of these other organizations is the U.S Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), whose mission statement is “to address the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of migrants in community life” (USCRI, 2008). The UNHCR, USCRI, and countless other groups and organizations have been working together, and with governments, to both assist and understand the present refugee situation and its many interconnected issues. One major issue surrounding refugees is that of claiming asylum. Asylum is a form of protection granted to a refugee by a host country, which allows said refugee to remain in the host country and away from persecution. According to the UNHCR, the right to asylum was established in 1951 at the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees through an international treaty, eventually signed by a total of 144 countries (2007). According to InterAction, the American Council for Voluntary International Action (2002): The protection of civilians is first and foremost the responsibility of states, including in times of conflict and crisis. When a state is unable or unwilling to provide such protection, the international humanitarian community, including the United Nations agencies and other organizations, must step in until the state is able to reassume is obligations.
As of December 31, 2006, according to the USCRI World Refugee Survey, there are a total of 2,932,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Africa, 648,900 in the Americas and the Caribbean, 569,200 in Europe, 5,931,000 in the Middle East and North Africa, 953,500 in East Asia and the Pacific, and 2,914,200 in South and Central Asia, creating a world total of 13,948,800, not including IDPs (USCRI, 2006). With such an tremendous number of innocent peoples in need of attention and assistance, countless refugees and asylum seekers do not get the help they so desperately need. In addition to an overall lack of aid, the distribution of donations and host countries is disturbingly uneven. According to the USCRI World Refugee Survey, 65% of the world’s host countries have a per capita income of $2,000 or less (with 9,640,600 refugees), 30% with a per capita income between $2,001 and $10,000 (with 4,166,700 refugees), and only 5% with a per capita income over $10,000 (with only 717,500 refugees) (USCRI, 2006). With such an uneven and poorly dispersed ratio of refugees to available aid, it is not surprising how poor the living conditions are for both refugees and some host country’s own civilians. Because a majority of host countries have little resources and many problems of their own, refugee warehousing often occurs. According to the USCRI, warehousing is a term used “to describe the denial of human rights found in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and other instruments to live lives as normal as possible while in exile” (USCRI, 2006). These basic human rights include, but are not limited to, physical protection, access to courts, freedom of movement and residence, and the right to earn a livelihood (USCRI, 2006). Because most host countries either have no physical or economic capacity, or simply no desire to provide refugees with resettlement programs or living assistance, a majority of warehoused refugees are confined to segregated settlements or unimaginable living conditions in camps “where they are virtually dependent on humanitarian assistance” (USCRI, 2006). However, even those refugees lucky enough not to be confined to a camp are still warehoused if they are denied the freedom to support themselves or own property. Unfortunately, “warehousing is not only a human rights violation in itself, it facilitates, leads to, and shelters many others” (USCRI, 2006). Alternatives to warehousing do exist and are also stated in the 1951 Convention Relating to the Stats of Refugees. The first of these is the right to earn a livelihood, including articles in wage-earning employment, self-employment, liberal professions, and movable and immovable property (articles 13, 17, 18, and 19). Others include freedom of movement, due process, and education and relief, with articles in travel documents, refugees unlawfully in the country of refuge, non-discrimination, access to courts, public education, and public relief (articles 3, 16, 22, 23, 26, 28, and 31) (USCRI, 2006). Unfortunately, a greater part of host countries cannot provide many of the basic human rights listed above, and do not offer alternatives. While warehousing in host countries creates obvious problems for the refugees and asylum seekers, the creation of a refugee state has occasionally proven to be worse and result in a never-ending chain of more refugees and ultimately more warehousing, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for example. ( The Palestinian refugee crisis began in 1948 after the Palestinians were forced to flee the Mandate of Palestine during the Arab-Israeli conflict. According the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, Palestinian refugees are classified as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict” and it “also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948” (UNRWA, 2003). What is unique about the Palestinian situation is that unlike other refugee groups, they do not have a homeland. As of 2004, the UNRWA data shows that there are 4,186,711 registered Palestinian refugees in its area of operation, which includes the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon (Palestinian Refugee Research Net, 2008). UNRWA research also shows that the population of the Palestinian people of a whole is only around eight million people, which means that over half of the total population is displaced. The number of Palestinian refugees however, was not always so large. At the start of the first exodus, the UNRWA placed the number of refugees at 957,000 in 1950 (UNRWA, 2003). Since 1950, the number of refugees has quadrupled and the only way to resolve the situation is to bring an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Unfortunately, this conflict has such deep roots within the Middle Eastern community, that a solution seems nearly impossible. Not only does the conflict involve the issue of Palestinian refugees, but it is also a dispute over land. If a resolution to the problem was going to be effective and permanent, it would have to include not only the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Liberation Organization, Hamas, and the Israeli government, but also the Arab League, United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia. Since a peaceful resolution does not seem plausible in the near future, the amount of Palestinian refugees will only increase, causing greater stress on the region. Due to the fact that the Palestinians will not likely be getting an independent state in the near future, it is important to understand the current state of the refugees in the areas they have been relocated to. The UNRWA (2003) focuses on Palestinians relocates in what they have labeled the “area of operation.” The Palestinians that reside in the West Bank and Gaza are stateless and live in what is called “occupied territories.” They are under Israeli rule for the most part, but have their own proxy government in the Palestinian Authority (PA). However, conditions in the occupied territories have declined and become increasingly violent, causing the economic status of the Palestinians in this area to plummet (Palestinian Refugee Research Net, 2008). However, unlike the West Bank and Gaza, refugees in Jordan are full citizens for the most part. Less than an eighth of the refugees live in camps and are considered more or less equal to Jordanian citizens. In Syria, the refugees are not citizens but are able to find employment and have access to social services. In Lebanon, the Palestinians status is more similar to those in the West Bank and Gaza; they face many employment restrictions and most live in run-down and overcrowded camps. Because of these conditions, many Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes have since been forced to flee Lebanon (Palestinian Refugee Research Net, 2008). There have been many initiatives to try and resolve the Palestinian refugee crisis, but none have had lasting results. The two most recent, and most notable, have been the Madrid Peace Process and the Oslo Accords. The main problem with these two attempts at peace is that the Israeli’s and the Palestinians don’t agree on the refugee crisis (Palestinian Refugee, 2008). The Palestinians claim they have a “Right of Return” under the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which states: “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date” (Palestinian Refugee Research Net, 2008). This “Right of Return” has caused massive differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Israeli’s claim that the Palestinians left on their own accord for the most part, and not only that they don’t have the right to return, but that they should not be compensated in any way. The Palestinians, however, believe they should not only be able to return home but should also receive some form of compensation. As one can easily see, the Palestinian Refugee crisis has greatly influenced the politics and actions of many Middle Eastern governments. It has also expanded beyond the region and involved many prominent western nations, especially the United States. The United States’ support of Israel has caused many Arab governments to challenge and disagree with our actions. It has also caused many radical Islamist groups to target the United States both on our soil and abroad. In order for this to stop, a solution needs to be reached between Israel and the Palestinians to resolve the refugee crisis and bring peace to the Middle East. Unfortunately, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the only source of violence and refugees in the Middle East. The present situation in Iraq has also been the foundation for hundreds of thousands of refugees and IDPs. The Iraqi refugee conflict has a long history, but it sharply increased and emerged as a worldwide problem in 2003, after the invasion of Iraq lead by the United States (Refugees of Iraq, 2008). Iraq has been involved in several wars and ruled by numerous dictators, which contributed to the growth in refugees. The location of Iraq and the abundance of natural resources is the main reason for the current conflict and many disputes throughout the region. According the latest statistic, every fifth resident of Iraq has been dislocated (Refugees International, 2008), an extremely high percentage if looked at in comparison to the population of the country, totaling at 28, 221, 181 (Refugees of Iraq, 2008). A republic of Iraq originally belonged to the Ottoman Empire, up until the occupation by Britain during World War I and after. During the occupation, many people residing in Iraq had to flee the country due to various changes in the government. Iraq, in reality, did not become a republic after proclaiming its independence in 1958, but was ruled by dictators who used military power to control the people. One of those dictators was Saddam Hussein, who was in power until 2003. Hussein became famous for his military dictatorship and wars fought over territory with neighboring countries Beginning in 1980, and up until 1988, Hussein fought a war over Iran’s territory and in August 1990, he also seized Kuwait. The United Nations (UN) had to step in, and from January to February of 1991, the Gulf war was fought between Hussein’s military forces and UN coalition forces. One of the biggest problems with Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship was the fact that he did not allow UN Security Council to come into the country to inspect the production of weapons of mass destruction when he was asked in 1991. After 12 years of disobedience, the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003. As a result of this invasion, a new wave of refugees overwhelmed the neighboring countries of Jordan and Syria (Berman, 2004). When United States invaded Iraq, still more Iraqi people were affected and had to flee from their homes. As stated in The Nation (Berman, 2004), dating back to only one year since the war had begun, Ari Berman wrote shocking facts about the conditions refugees were already dealing with. At the time, over 400,000 children in Iraq were suffering from chronic diarrhea due to the lack of healthy food (Berman, 2004), and presently only a mere twenty percent of all Iraqis have access to proper sanitation (Refugees International, 2008). In addition to horrible living conditions, the funds received for the reconstruction of the country are not nearly enough. From the original over eighteen billion dollars Congress had planned to spend on helping Iraq, the United States has only spent roughly over one and a half billion dollars (Berman, 2004). People who stayed in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, say that is much more dangerous not than it ever was before the war. The overall security of the country has left people wishing for the best, with nowhere else to turn. As also described by Berman (2004): “The Iraqi police has only 41 percent of the weapons, 25 percent of the vehicles, and 31 percent of the body armor identified as necessary by US forces”, which is not enough (p.4). The resettlement of refugees from Iraq is a worldwide problem. There are donors all around the world who send money to the government of Iraq trying to help refugees (Refugees International, 2008). The United Sates, however, should be the first and foremost country to help Iraq, and at the very least, should keep the promises given to the Iraqi people. In 2007, the US had only resettled 1,608 refugees from Iraq, when the original plan was to resettle seven thousand (Refugees International, 2008). This year, the United States is, again, behind its resettlement plan (Refugees International, 2008). The US should not be giving promises it cannot keep. The displacement crisis needs to be solved as soon as possible. 100,000 Iraqis running away from Iraq, and into neighboring countries monthly (Refugees International, 2008) is simply not acceptable. The main reason so many Iraqis are fleeing their country, is because the violence inside is getting worse. Unfortunately, the amount of nearby refugee crises has already overwhelmed all of Iraq’s neighbors and most are overcrowded with refugees. Neither the government of Iraq, nor the governments of the many neighboring refugee host provide adequate assistance to any refugee in the area, no matter their origin (Refugees International, 2008). In addition to these inadequate governments, the UN also does not have enough resources to aid refugees from Iraq who settle around the Middle East (Refugees International, 2008). The refugee situation in the Middle East has reached its boiling point, and the World needs to cooperate and resolve Iraq’s displacement crisis before the entire region collapses under the pressure. There have been several international conferences dealing with the Iraqis displacement crisis. An international conference dealing with this crisis began on April 17, 2007 in Switzerland (Refugees of Iraq, 2008). Another important conference was held on July 29, 2007 dealing with health problems (Refugees of Iraq, 2008) of Iraqi refugees. These conferences need to be more productive and the people supporting them should take a more active role raising voices in support of refugees. ( The lack of international response, aid, and commitment has resulted in countless causalities throughout history, and continues to end in bloodshed and an endless line of refugees. A prime example of this international ignorance is the Rwandan genocide and its resulting refugees. The genocide in Rwanda has extremely deep roots into the past. It has caused unthinkable destruction and created thousands of refugees. Much of the reasoning behind the violence has to do with how the country was shaped by its former colonizers. In 1959, around the time the colonialists were getting ready to leave the country, Rwanda had a revolution (The Rwandan Genocide, 2008). This revolution was fought between two main tribes, the Hutu and the Tutsis. The Hutu tribe overthrew the Tutsis, and created a Hutu republic. During this time, the Hutus killed roughly twenty thousand Tutsis. Before this occurred, the country had a king who was of the Tutsis group, the country was problem free under his rule. In 1959, he left the throne and the Hutus took power because they were the majority of the population of Rwanda and Tutsis fled. In 1990, the “war” started when the Tutsis refugees wanted to return to Rwanda. The war started in Byuma, in the north. People weren’t able to get back into the country completely because there was not enough room for everyone to live, and that is when refugees in Rwanda became more prominent. In 1994, killings started to become a more prominent problem. During a period of about three months, it is estimated that around 800,000 Tutsis were killed, maybe even around 1,000,000. The UN neglected the genocide in Rwanda, claiming it was too much for them to handle. Even though the world knew it was going on, no one did anything to stop it. The U.S even refused to call it genocide (The Rwandan Genocide, 2008). Ethnic background was not the only thing that played a roll in the genocide. Economics played a roll as well. In the years right before the genocide, the country became very poor, poorer than it had been in recent years, with about ninety percent of the people living off the land. To make things worse, a drought occurred in the late 1980’s, causing the economy to once again plummet due to the lack of exports from the country (The Rwandan Genocide: how it was prepared, 2006). For a better understanding, let me first clarify the difference between a Hutu and a Tutsis. According Immaculee Neiwimigini, a former French teacher of mine who escaped the Rwandan Genocide “ a Hutu is based more on agriculture. Whereas a Tutsis is based on the amount of cattle you have” (personal communication, April 4, 2008). According to an article about the background of the genocide, it states that Tutsis were the elite, seeing themselves as better than everyone else. Tutsis believed that they had the right to rule because they were better, whereas the Hutu thought themselves to be the oppressed people. The Hutu versus Tutsis discrimination started back when the Belgium colony was situated in Rwanda. The king would give cattle to people that he liked, and so the more cattle one attained, the more prestige they had as being a Tutsis (Rwandan genocide, 2008). Some people of Rwanda weren’t a Hutu or a Tutsis, they were both. Take Immaculee for example, she was a mix. One becomes a mix when their parents intermarry, between tribes that is. “Another thing people have to understand is that if you intermarry between the two tribes there is no problem from the beginning, it is okay with everyone. So, it’s just a political thing people are using it to just be in power and that’s it” Immaculee believes (personal communication, April 4, 2008). A “physical description” of what each group looked like existed, which does not make a lot of sense considering the two groups spoke the same language. Immaculee is a refugee of Rwanda; she lived through things that one can only imagine. She left the country for her own safety, she was not asked to leave, and no one was feeling safe. She fled her hometown of Tigali because she did not feel safe, she heard someone being killed on either side of her house and she lived in fear wondering if they might come to her house. That is how everyone was living, in fear. She fled to Bhutali, yet when she arrived she saw people all around her being killed, including some of her family members so she once again picked up and left. “It was very emotional, I had no idea what to take, and I didn’t even know where I would end up. If you end up going to a random town you end up knowing no one. It was a very big decision to make and I was with my family. When we were leaving one of the towns my family and I had to take three separate cars because we wouldn’t all fit into one. I was traveling in the first car and I made it through yet, I looked back only to see the other two cars filled with my family being forced to turn back. It was so scary I did not know what happened to them or if they survived” (Immaculee, personal communication, April 4, 2008). She eventually left Rwanda and passed through the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, and finally Nairobi (Immaculee, personal communication, April 4, 2008). Leaving Rwanda, for Immaculee and many others, was extremely difficult. One has to register as a refugee at a department of the UN, where they receive clothes, money and food. One then has to go and get tested for disease, get shots, an interview, and lessons about the American culture. They are then sent to the U.S.. One might wonder how they afford to fly to the U.S.; the organization supplies the refugees with the money for the ticket. It isn’t just free money, a payment plan is set up for the person and he pays it off when he is able, once he has a job and can support himself. Refugees aren’t just sent to a completely unknown country to fend for themselves, at least not completely. Immaculee knew exactly where she was ending up because she knew before she and her daughter ever left the country (personal communication, April 4, 2008). Many churches in the United States offer their aid to refugees, supplying housing, food, clothes, and a car. Upon arrival in the United States, many refugees are completely in the dark to the entire American culture. Some of these people have never had electricity or running water, some had never seen a toilet. In this world of six billion people, with an estimated forty million refugees, we all somehow manage to each have our own unique and impressively intricate lives. However, despite this unavoidable separation, caused by experiences, opinions, and personalities, we are all connected, be it by 6 degrees or a simple sharing of beliefs, in essence, we are one. As human beings we share this earth, both with each other and all other life forms; because this earth is our one and only home, and because we, as humans, share an undeniable bond with all other humans, the forty-plus million of us who are without a home or protection directly and indirectly effect every aspect of our individual lives and all global issues. The economy, government systems, aid organizations, resources, the creation of boundaries and distribution of land, world and civil conflicts, the establishment of basic human rights, and international cooperation, to name a few, are all drastically affected by refugees every day. It is by working together, by sharing ideas, and by listening to others that we better ourselves and push each other into the future. The topic of refugees, like any global issue, is complicated and full of endless twists, turns, and circumstances, making it hard to navigate alone. While our group was not able to have many meetings, and each had individual research topics, we were able to bounce ideas off of each other, combine our collected information, and form a solid knowledge base for our topic. After discovering that one of our group members personally knows a refugee from Rwanda, our group was given the opportunity to combine history, statistics, and the personal account of a refugee living in the United States into our paper. As a group, we came to the conclusion that adding the personal account of a refugee would add insight and depth to our paper, as well as a unique and personal touch that would have not been possible had the projects been individual. As stated above, the topic of refugees is undeniably large with countless subtopics and examples, because we worked in a group however, we were able to examine more specific areas, in more depth than would have been possible alone

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