New Zealand’s Obligations To 15 Million Refugees

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 5

New Zealand’s Obligations To 15 Million Refugees

(Specialty written for "The Press" by K D. COATES) Reaction to the New Zealand Government’s withdrawal and subsequent restoration of financial support for United Nations refugee relief has raised questions of what this achieves, the scope of the world refugee problem and this country’s obligations.

The most serious refugee problems are no longer in Europe and in our isolation, we New Zealanders are inclined to overlook the statistics which show that the world has more than 15,500,000 refugees.

Most of these are in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Because they are out of sight, these victims of war, intolerance and social unrest are inclined to be out of mind. The official figures for refugees in Vietnam stand at nearly 2 million, or more than 10 per cent of the population.

of the pace of life in today’s modern world. They do not often come under the spotlight of world attention, and unlike European refugees have no large and influential body of Americans related by blood or national origin, to plead their cause. Homeless, Hungry Those who argue that countries such as New Zealand have a duty to support United Nations efforts to help overcome the problem emphasise that refugees are more than just statistics. They point out that a refugee is a homeless, hopeless and hungry person. Whether man, woman or child, the refugee is the tragic result of the violent pace and ferment that characterises our time. Wherever the refugee is,

whether in Africa, Europe, Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East, he, by his rootlessness and need personifies modern man’s inability to cope with his personal life, his religions, his ambitions and his hungers, with due concern for his fellow man. What do the United Nations agencies to which New Zealand has contributed in the past achieve? One is U.N.R.W.A. (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). Established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1949, its task has been to relieve distress and promote rehabilitation among the Arab refugees who lost their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the conflict in Palestine in 1948. Over the years, while continuing to provide basic relief of food, clothing and shelter, it has developed a considerable range of technical services for the health, welfare, education and training of refugees. According to a recent report from the agency, since its establishment it has fed and kept in tolerably good health, a refugee population which now numbers about 1,300,000. It has established camps providing shelter for more than 500,000 people, served 120,000,000 meals to children and distributed 10.000 tons of clothing. There are today more than 250,000 children receiving fulltime education, either in 440 schools constructed or rented by U.N.R.W.A. or in government or private schools subsidised by the agency. Yet this help could hardly be termed lavish—assistance to the refugees averages 10c (U.S.) per person a day. Of this sum, about 5c is spent on relief, 1c on health and 4c on education. The emphasis has shifted more and more towards the provision of education for the children and youth of the refugee community. Renewed conflict and upheaval in the Middle East have brought a greater need than ever for these established services. About 130,000 of the refugees from the 1948 conflict have been uprooted for the second time, and the flow of refugees seeking new asylum still continues at a rate of thousands a month. The statistics give an idea of the scope of the problem—--200,000 people found refuge in East Jordan: 116,000 went Ito Syria and 38,000 in the i United Arab Republic. Urgent Need | U.N.R.W.A. reports that it is now faced with an urgent need to promote rehabilitation among the refugees. It believes that after meeting immediate needs to ensure survival and relieve distress, it should devote as much as possible of any special contributions to improving and expanding its education plant and apparatus. And the agency adds: “It presumes funds in the future will be forthcoming to meet increased operating costs arising from the investment in new, improved and enlarged schools, laboratories, libraries and training centres. “But this will not be the first time that U.N.R.W.A. has proceeded in faith. So far its trust in the resilience of Arab society, in the energy and ability of the refugees themselves and in the generosity and humane concern of governments and peoples elsewhere in the world has not been misplaced. “Indeed, there is no alternative if the refugees are not to be left to stagnate and fall back further in their struggle to recover their economic independence.” The second agency which

New Zealand supports financially is the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (U.N.H.C.R.). The decision (now reversed) not to contribute to this agency drew criticism on the grounds that as refugees highlight the denial of human rights, it was inappropriate in a year which has been universally accepted as the International Year for Human Rights.

In a special report the United Nations High Commissioner, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, said the observance of the International Year could be of major importance if we concentrated efforts on practical targets ancj, pursue standards of achievement which are within the compass of present-day realities.

Refugees in Africa and Asia are “invisible” partly because of their distance from us and partly because

“They are stepping stones towards the final objective, the more just and human society that will emerge from the universal adoption and application of the Declaration of Human Rights,” he stated. Human Rights Human rights and fundamental freedoms and their safeguards are of paramount importance for refugees. People will normally have become refugees because they have left their home country on account of violation of their human rights, or because of fear of such a violation.

For them, the right of asylum takes precedence over everything else, and may even be a corollary to the right of life. Having received asylum, it is essential for them that their human rights be adequately protected in the country which has given them refuge. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner, has since its establishment in 1951, been charged with the international protection of refugees. Concern with human rights is the very basis of its activities. According to a special report of the United Nations earlier this year, the promotion of refugee integration in countries of asylum is an activity of U.N.H.C.R. which has assumed major proportions.

The aim Is to help refugees to come assimilated in the country of asylum—by the provision of housing, or to ensure they are granted the necessary conditions to enable them to become self-sup-porting through employment Other functions involve promoting international conventions for the protection of refugees, special agreements with governments, assisting governmental and private efforts to promote repatriation or assimilation of refugees, promoting the admission of refugees and establishing contact and co-ordinating the efforts of private organisations concerned with the welfare of refugees. The U.N. High Commissioner says: “Refugees are by the very nature of their position in a precarious situation regarding the protection of their human rights. Yet through the agency of an international body backed by governments and founded on public good will, substantial progress has been made in furtiiering their rights. “We must view this as part of a continuing process which must be constantly reactivated and pursued. Now the International Year for Human Rights provides a splendid chance to highlight what remains to be done, and to stress the need to do it.

The photograph shows some of the children of the U.N.R.W.A. school in Yarmouk camp; Syria.