IASFM Resources
Abstracts submitted for the 6th IRAP 1998 in Jerusalem
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IASFM Resources Abstracts submitted for the 6th IRAP 1998 in Jerusalem |
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Abstracts submitted for IRAP 1998 Theme A: Current issues in forced migration: changes in the right to asylum and the right to remain. The Najaho-Hopi land dispute and the relocation and resistance to relocation that has emerged from it. Mark Davidheiser University of Florida Center for African Studies I propose a presentation on the Navajo-Hopi land dispute and the relocation and resistance to relocation that has emerged from it. Currently, the disputed land has been partitioned with part of it going to each group. Over 10,000 Navajo and about 100 Hopi have been relocated from land which was ceded to the other party, and approximately 200 Navajo families are continuing to resist relocation. The majority of these families have recently signed an accomodation agreement with the Hopi which will allow them to sign 75 year leases which will allow them to remain at their homesites for that period. The focus of my presentation will be the data which I collected while attending meetings between Navajo relocation resisters and my ethnographic field study on young Navajo relocation resisters' attachment to their homesites and land on the Hopi Partitioned Land (land claimed by both the Navajo and the Hopi and which has been ceded to the Hopi by the federal government of the US). This presentation and case study would bring out the human consequences of forced migration and would present a parallel case (in relation to the Palestinian-Israeli situation) of the dynamics of land negotiations and forced resettlement scenarios and would also highlight the difficulties of reaching agreements between all sectors of the involved parties in land disputes. Community Development through educational projects: Internal Migrants from North Eastern Brazil in Sao Paulo. Heloisa Szymanski Pontif®cia Universidade Cat"lica de Sao Paulo Programma de estudios pos-graduados em Psycologia de educacao Brazil I will describe briefly a project of educational development that hasstarted in 1993,in a favela on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Its people come from Northeastern States of Brazil, flihting from drought, poverty and unemployment. I beleive that an educational project can help peopl to access more information and opportunities in serch of better conditions of life. We have been working with families, teachers and community leaders aiming to learn how to build a programme of educational intervention, on a participant basis, considering a joint intervention in family, school and community. The first and perhaps the more important lesson I was taught is that the nature of changes and the knowledge of the reality that are necessary in educational devolpment projects require long term projects. Alternative Strategies for Resolving and Managing Refugee-causing conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa. Wilson Nyaoro Department of Environmental Planning and Management Nairobi, Kenya The intractable problem of the emergence of millions of refugees and displaced persons in sub-Saharan Africa will not go away in the near future unles alternative conflict resolution and management strategies are put in place to address their root causes. The cause of their flight is to be found in the govenments themselves, in the deficiencies in existing institutions and political processes and, in many instances, in a significant violation of fundamental human rights. Refugees are products of civil war and internal disorders, insecurities, violence, persecution, coup d'etats, communal uprising, oppressive conditions, political frustration and discontent or specific acts of the government in power. Consequently, the political and social upheavals in most African countries invariably result in refugee outflows. Most of these refugees are women and children who carry with them an unbearable burden of a memory of traumatised experiences, dejection, oppression, depression, isolation and other forms of personal and psychological disorders. However, the genesis of refugee crisis lies in the manipulation and exploitation of political, religious, ethnic, social en economic difference which usually results in the cration of conflicts. Conflicts, of whatever nature, and the emergence of refugees are therefore inextricabley linked. But such conflicts may lead to refugee situations only when the exiting political system or institutions fail, or are unable, to resolve and mange such conflicts peacefully. Based on these observations, this paper discusses alternative strategies for conflict resolution and management. The paper starts with a brief overview of the refugee dilemma in sub-Saharan Africa. A critical analysis is then given to the causes of conflicts in terms of interst, value, structure, data and relationship. The paper further identifies and examines appropriate interventions that may effectively be used by govenments and any other interested and affected parties for conflict resolution and management. Current Issues in Forced Migration: The Right of Asylum in South Africa. Jeff Handmaker Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa Amsterdam Following a long and bitter history of refugees which were generated by the instability within the Southern African region, South Africa only began formally receiving applications for political asylum in 1994. This was largely the result of diplomatic intervention by UNHCR, following which the government introduced procedures for the processing of asylum claims and established a refugees directorate under the Department of Home Affairs. Procedures are implemented by way of various departmental regulations, all issued under authority of the Aliens Control Act No. 96 of 1991. This Act is considered to be unconstitutional and exceptionally restrictive in its enforcement, placing all undesired foreigners (including asylum seekers and refugees) into the category of "prohibited person" and treating them accordingly. In spite of these and other difficulties there has been an interesting and wide-ranging debate in South Africa over the urgent need for a new refugee policy and refugee legislation, raising the interest of researchers throughout the Southern African region and internationally. This paper will discuss some of the content of this debate and the possible implications which such has for the future of refugee protection in South Africa and elsewhere. Asylum and the Need for Control? (which is about the preoccupation with controlling the entry) Liza Schuster South Bank University Faculty of Humanities and Social Science London It is argued in this paper that asylum policy is becoming increasingly preoccupied with issues of control - utilising 'safe haven' policies and border patrols in order to control the numbers - and kinds - of people entering states, as well as detention centres and finger-printing to control those who manage to gain access to the territory of the state. This preoccupation with controlling the enty of a particular group, to whom state acknowlege a 'limited' obligation, reflects other state concerns, which will be explored within the paper. The Refugee Studies Programme (Oxford) Digital Library. Dr. Marilyn Deegan Refugee Studies Programme Queen Elizabeth House University of Oxford The Refugee Studies Programme (Oxford) Digital Library. has received funding from the Mellon Foundation (500,000 dollars) and from the EU Organization Phare to digitize a substantial part of the grey literature collection held in the RSP Documentation Centre. This collection of some 25,000 documents in the largest in the world and is growing daily. It is consulted by scholars, students, and practitioners from many countries, and its provision in digital form will enable valuable information to be brought to the desktop of these workers instead of their having to travel to Oxford. Currently we are just finishing a feasibility study which has profiled the documents in terms of format, size, binding, condition etc, and we are about to start a substantial pilot of some 10,000 pages which should be ready for demonstration by the Autumn of 1998. I propose to show this pilot at the IRAP conference and discuss a number of aspects of the Digital Library which I am sure will be of interest to the participants. The Erosion of the Right to Asylum in Australia: Defensive Liberalism or an Authoritarian Turn? Claudia Tazreiter School of Sociology, University of New South Wales Australia This paper explores the displacement of the right to asylum in Australia in the 1990s within the context of the obligations liberal democracies have toward those entering their territory. In doing so the paper addresses the first key theme of this conference 'current issues in forced migration', as well as the issue of gender. In order to contextualise the changes to the right to asylum, some commonalities with European asylum practices, particularly those of Germany, will be drawn on specifically the practice of detention of undocumented persons. The paper first identifies asylum within the immigration quota system of Australia and the current politicisation of asylum, resulting in an erosion of rights. Secondly the paper turns to the empirical evidence of legislative and funding changes which have impacted on this right to asylum. The paper will explore in particular the practice of detention in Australia, specifically the detention of unaccompanied women, and women with children, lengthens the violence which they have sought to escape, as it diminishes the society which has been asked for protection. Peace processes, refugee rights and population transfer: A comparative analysis of the peace processes in N. Ireland, Palestine and South Africa. Mustafa Mari Faculty of Law National University of Ireland at Galway Co. Galway Ireland The phenomenon of peace processes, which arrived at its beak at a time the Cold War was coming to its end, has issues related to refugees (particularly their repatriation), and population transfer at the core of these processes, in the search for resolution, or at least management of these conflicts. In certain examples, the outcome of peace processes has been the affirmation of the rights of refugees to repatriation or increasing their expectations in this respect, and agendas were adopted for their integration, while in other examples such peace processes may in fact increase the potential for future population transfer. This paper will examine the peace processes in the three jurisdictions to establish the role peace processes have in this respect, and assess the effect possible scenarios may have on the final outcome of the processes. Asylum in the Arab World: an analysis of recent Arab instruments on human rights and refugees. Khadija Elmadmad University of Casablanca, Faculty of Law, Casablanca Morocco Despite the large flows of refugees and forced migrants in the Arab world, few Arab states have become party to the internaional universal conventions relating to the human rights and refugees. However, at the regional level, three instruments have been issued recently in the Arab world. These are: 1. The Cairo Declaration on the Protection of Refugees and Displaced Persons in the Arab World of 19 November 1992 2. The Arab Convention on Refugees of 3 September 1994 3. The Arab Charter on Human Rights of 10 September 1994 None of these decuments has enteredinto force at the moment, because of the Arab states' reluctance to ratify them. The texts of these international instruments need to be studies and promoted in the region. This might urge the Arab states either to adhere to them as they are or to review them so that they will be acceptable to most of the states of the Arab League. Few studies seem to have been conducted on these three Arab documents. The aim of this paper is to analyze these documents and compare them with other international instruments relating to asylum and refugees. The forced migrations in South Asia: the new human rights dilemma. Riyaz Punjabi Centre for peace studies, New Dehli India. The forced migrations of human beings is a terrible reminder of the dark days when humans lived like savages and 'might was the right'. We are entering the next millenium with a vigorous agenda of human rights and democracy. However, the inhuman practice of forced migrations is continuing in different parts of the world. The forced migrations have two dimensions. One we are witnessing in Palestine where people have become refugees in their own homeland. Another is where forced migraions are motivated by the fact to deny the other ethno-cultural groups the access to resources and participation in socio-political developments. The second type of phenomenon is taking place in South Asia. Since the forced migraions and displacement of human settlements have become strategic, therefore the problem of refugees has to be viewed from a different perspective in international law as well as in international humanitarian law. This paper aims at proposing a new legal paradigm to deal with the problem of refugees and forced migrations, with special focus in South Asia. Post Soviet diaspora politics: the case of the Soviet Greeks. Efithia Voutira Research Officer Refugee Studies Programme/School of Geography, University of Oxford Historically identified with the exodus of Jews from Babylon the concept of a `diaspora' has witnessed an unprecedented popularity among social scientists in the last 2 decades. As used in social science research the concept has typically referred to ethnic minority groups who live outside their `historical homelands'. During the 1990's the term has attracted the attention of anthropologists, sociologists and cultural critics, who are in search of more comprehensive analytical terms to accommodate the acknowledged complex transnational and global linkages among economies, cultures and people. At the core of this concern is a critique of the underlying assumptions concerning the `natural' bonds that connect traditional anthropological concepts such as kinship, membership and territory or place. Often, under the influence of post-modernism, scholars have employed the term to express notions of `hybrid' identities and loyalties. While acknowledging the need to rethink basic concepts and categories used in forced migration research and to capture the changing patterns of social relations on a global level, such developments tend to undermine the important and urgent need to study and understand the formative processes of new diasporas and the redefinition of old ones at the end of the Cold War. The creation of a massive post-Soviet Russian diaspora of approximately 25 million Russians outside Russia's borders is one dramatic case of an ` unintended' diaspora creation occurring overnight. Both within and outside former Soviet space there is now more than ever an urgent need to rethink some basic assumptions about displacement per se. Specifically, in discussing displacement we are not merely referring to people moving across borders but also to borders moving across people. The consequence of this type of `border displacement' is the radical dispossession of those who are found not to 'belong', the divorcing of populations from their ostensible homelands and the creation of another crisis of identity and responsibility that also includes the impact of reshuffling populations along `ethnic' lines which entail a redefinition of `repatriation' as the `right to return' to one's historical homeland. The paper will focus on the emergence of a `new' post-Soviet diaspora: the Greeks of the former Soviet Union. Significantly, although the Greeks belong to the classical or historical diasporas, their presence in the former Soviet Union has only recently been formally acknowledged by the `host state' and their status as a `diaspora' group has only just been recognised by the `homeland'. The focus of the analysis will be on this processes of politisation of post Soviet Greek identities since 1991 and their progressive mobilisation into different corporate groups (eg cultural associations and ethnic guilds). The main empirical context of investigation are the international diaspora congresses that have become the new fora for the articulation of diverse elite interests, and the main arenas where political and economic deals are struck and transnational relations between `homeland' and `abroad' are forged. A new perspective on an old problem: Post Soviet forced migration and the russian-speakers' position in the NIS. Natalya Komarskaya Senior Researcher Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow The largest share of the Russian-speakers (more than 60 per cent) who have returned to their historical Motherland since the breakup of the Soviet Union, were repatriates from the Central Asian states. This influx represents a population helpless in the face of new ethno-political and social realities and disturbed by discrimination, or what is perceived as discrimination, on the part of the titular nationalities. Since 1995, however, out-migration from the region has tangibly slacked up. This fact is usually explained by the academics and politicians in Russia by the so called "exhaustion of migration potential" in the countries of exodus: "those who have stayed behind also want to go but are not able to". Author's six years' research in Kirghizia, with its Russian-speaking community still being one of the largest in Central Asia and Transcaucasia, and in the receiving areas of Central Russia testifies that situation is far less simplistic. The 'push-pull' model relevant for the first years after disintegraion of the USSR, is hardly applicable nowadays. Many of the 'pushing' anxieties of the Russian-speakers in Kirghizia have ben neutralized by the 'time heals all' factor, and more so by the natural evolution of socio-political regime and growth of the Russian's adaptive potential both launching here the process of post-imperial minority diasporiation. According to the survey of 300 Russian-speakers in Bishkek in 1996, about half of the sample comprised the people 'who wanted to stay' in Kirgizia not because 'there was nowhere to go' but as a result of a rational choice; those who not just 'survived' or 'lived out their days' but tried to and did live a normal life, looking for proper social niches in a society not so friendly as ever. As for the 'pull effect' of the Motherland, its attractiveness has substantially been undermined, in the eyes of potential repatriates, by the growing amount of negative information about conditions of life in Russia. Assimilation difficulties and lack of state support have been reported to the Russian-speakers in Kirghizia not only by the forced migrants living in Russia, but mainly by the so called 'returnees'. The flow of the Central Asian Russians from the historical Motherland back to the countries of exodus is a new migrational phenomenon on the post-Soviet scene, and Kirghizia is the only Central Asian state with a comparable number of 'repatriates' and 'returnees'. New trends in the post-Soviet pattern of forced migration might add new interpretations to the popular notions of 'repatriation' and 'diasporisation'. Given contradictory official policies towards the 'compatriots in the new abroad' (welcoming politicial declarations and absence of legal barrriers to entrance versus miserable state support), repatriation should be taken not just as a 'right to ruturn to one's historical homeland' (see abstract of dr. E. Voutira), but rather a right to have one's civil and social rights observed by this homeland and the right, in case of return migration, to be accepted by the country of exodus. The author's observations also challenge approach to post-Soviet diasporas in an undifferentiated and uncontextualized way, with regard to all the Russian-speakers living in the 'near abroad'. The paper focusing on the emergence of the Russian-speaking diasporas in the NIS and their specificity in comparison with modern incipient diasporas in the West, is based on the author's extensive field research in Kirghizia (1996, 1998) and in the receiving areas of Central Russia (1995, 1997). The Creation of Refugee Law: the South African experience. Patrick Matlou Chief director - migration. Department of Home Affairs, Pretoria South Africa Until 1993, when the South African government and the United Nations HIgh Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), signed a Basic Agreement governing how asylum seekers and refugees would be treated, the framework for dealing with these groups had been ad hoc and somewhat arbitrary. Since then there have been various positive developments towards developing an internationally acceptable refugee regime in South Africa. From the mid 1980s to 1994 when a democratic South Africa was born there was a gradual dismantling of the pillars of Apartheid, amongst these were the Group Areas Act and Influx Control Laws. This meant greater internal migration and then of course external migration. By the time South Africa became democratic we had become a destination for thousands of asylum seekers and refugees. Many of them from the sub-region which had been destabilized and underdeveloped by Apartheid and from much further afield. The inherited Aliens Control Act of 1991 which was amended in 1995 was the instrument utilized for dealing with asylum seekers and refugees. Many people have criticized its inadequacies for dealing with these groups of people and furthermore that it was a hangover of Apartheid. The government recognized this and took the bold step to develop new migration policy but in the mean time utilized the laws available to it. The government also recognized that in doing this it was bound by Chapter Two of the Constitution which guarantees certain rights to everyone. Furthermore, South Africa in 1996 acceded to the 1951 UN Convention; the 1967 Protocol and the 1969 OAU Convention. So there was a definite framework within which these matters were dealt with; there being procedures and structures for handling same. The development of new international migration policy was initiated through the composition of a task team to develop a green paper, by the Minister of Home Affairs in 1997. One of their recommendations which was accepted was that there should be a separation of refugee matters from those of general migration. Consequently, in early 1998, the Minister of Home Affairs constituted a team to develop a white paper and refugee bill. It submitted both these documents to the Minister on 18 June 1998, two days before Africa Refugee Day. Public comments will accepted until late July. After this the team will convene again and eventually a refugee bill will be developed. This will go through scrutiny by Cabinet and Parliament and hopefully by the end of the year we will have a Refugee Act. My paper will give a historical overview of the above developments and then analyze the refugee situation in South Africa highlighting the issues the country has had to deal with. My thesis is that the South African state has grown increasing tough with asylum seekers because many of the claims presented do not qualify for refugee status even under the broader OAU definition. Many people have taken advantage of the dawn of democracy in South Africa to migrate to this country, when they fall foul of the immigration laws they they try their luck by applying for political asylum. Cultural stereotypes and policing immigrants: new terrorist laws in the U.S. Avram Bornstein Department of Anthropology John Jay College, City University of New York; New York In 1997, the U.S. federal government passed new laws that allow for the deportation of non-citizens accused of being terrorists without the due process guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Government prosecutors can win deportations with secret evidence that cannot be adequately defended in a court of law. This paper describes these changes in U.S. law and argues that the deterioration of civil liberties is shaped largely by stereotypes pervasive in American culture, especially television and print journalism. An increasingly authoritarian police force thrives with the cultural support of carefully constructed images and narratives in the media. CIREFCA: Evaluation Central America's regional approach to resolving internal crisis? Sean Loughna Refugee Studies Programme, University of Oxford In 1989 the International Conference on Cecs and Social Sciences. Amsterdam The rhetoric of 'mainstream' politicians around the industrialised world is, where asylum is concerned, increasingly falling back on what are traditionally seen as extreme right wing views. Attempts to grab the right wing vote are motivating increasingly restrictive approaches to the protection of forced migrants, and confusing the questions of immigration generally, integration and the specifically seperate issue of forced migration. Drawing in particular on the European casse, but with references also to the Asia Pacific region, this paper will seek to expose and explode the practical political myths attached to questions of security and forced migration and plead for a wiser approach to the issue - beneficial to all sides. The right of return of Palestinian refugees in international law. Abdallah M. Abu-Eid International Law & International Relations, Faculty of Law An-Najah National University Nablus Westbank The paper will discuss the right of return of the Palestinian Refugees in international law. It will include the following main topics: 1- A historical short background of the Palestinian refugee problem. 2- The thematic right of refugees to return back to their homeland. This will include the examination of two main issues: a) whether the right of return is a right of individual, or, it also could be applied to the collective (the group of refugees); and b)are the Palestinian refugees entitled in international law to return home to a State in which they are not 'nationals' ? 3-The paper will also examine the most practical ways of solving the dillema of the Refugees in the light of the" Oslo Accords " of 1993 . Refugee situation in South Asia: Critical issues in perspective. Mahendra P. Lama Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi a: Israel's residency policies aimed at the forceful eviction of Palestinians from Jerusalem. b: Current refugee positions and organizing in relation to UN Resolution 194 (right to return). Ingrid Jaradat Gassner (managing director); BADIL Bethlehem West Bank 1) This is one of the fields on which Badil does legal research and on which it is one of the main sources of information for local and international organizations, journalists, etc. 2) The Union of Youth Activities Centres/Refugee Camps-Palestine ( a refugee grass-roots organization, cooperating with Badil in the Campaign for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights & Development will present a paper on current refugee positions and organizing in relation to UN Resolution 194 (Right of Return). The 50the anniversary of this Resolution is in December1998. In Search of Enemies: US Immigration and International Criminal Law and Policy in the Post Cold War. Rex B. Wingerter Maryland A theme throughout US history has been the search for enemies, both domestic and internationl, both real and imagined. The social function of such enemies has been to mobilize support for questional policies, quiet dissent and deflect critical attention from fundamental issues to emotional side shows. For more than 40 years, the Soviet Union was relied upon as the principle enemy to provide idological support and justification for US policies. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, a variety of competing enemies have emerged. Two critical enemies have arisen to replace the role of the Soviet Union: drug trafficking and international terrorism. The war on drugs has emerged largely as a domestic issue and resulted in an aggressive expansion of police powers. But since one aspect of the war on drugs is to cut off the overseas supply of drugs (largely cocaine and heroin), there is a foreign enemies component to the war. Similarly, international terrorism, "state sponsored" or not, has emerged as a key force to mobilize support for military action overseas and its foreign enemies component is obvious, notwithstanding the Oklahoma bombing. The domestic war on drugs and the international fight against terrorism often overlap. Furthermore, they manifest themselves in specific policies as reflected in recent changes in US immigration law and US criminal law. And while the laws are race and nationality nuetral, the social reality of law enforcement reveals that the laws have hit hardest individuals from the Arab and/or Islamic world. Specifically, the Arab world is seen as the source for international terrorism and certain countries within the Arab world, eg. parts of Lebanon and Afganistan, is seen as a sourse of cocaine and heroin. This paper would review the laws passed by Congress in its fight against drugs and terrorism, dealing with immigration and criminal acts, but which tend to effect Arab Americans. Specifically, the paper would review (1) Secret courts dealing with foreign intelliegence gathering and deportation of aliens (eg. the Iraqi and Palestinian LA 8), (2) declaration that the US has jurisdiction foreign criminal acts involving US citizens and the right to kidnap perpetrators and bring them to US courts (3) immigration laws making numerous criminal convictions, many of them petty offenses, cause for automatic deportation without a defense, regardless of how long the person has resided in the US, (4) new regulatory restrictions on the applicaiton for political asylum, including expidited removal where an alien can be summarily kicked out of the US at the airport if there is suspicion that he does not fear persecution or is involved in criminal activity, (5) anti-terrorist legislation specifically aimed at US domestic support orgaizations, eg. Hamas or Palestinian groups outside the mainstream. In short, the paper would demonstrate that the US sees many domestic problems caused by foreign enemies and has taken steps in its immigration and criminal laws to defend/attack such enemies. A consequence, however, has been a general devolution of individual rights and privacy for the population, a more restrictive and mean-spirited immigration policy, and an aggressive investigation and survillence of Arab Americans. End of Asylum in Africa? Bonaverture Rutinwa Refugee Studies Programme Oxford University Queen Elizabeth House The evolution of asylum policy in post independence Africa may be divided into two phases. The first is the 1960s to 1980s when most states in Africa pursued what has been referred to as an 'open door policy'. This policy was characterised by willingness to admit all persons in search of safety and to accomodate and support them until such time as they were able to repatriate in safety and dignity. The second phase is the post 1990 where many African states adopted more restrictive policies towards refugees as manifested by frequent border closures to prevent refugees from seeking asylum into their territories, refoulment of refugees and denial of the most basic rights to refugees. It is argued that while the change in the political context of the refugee problem has contributed to this chane op policy (e.g. the fact that refugees in the 1960s and 1970s were fleeing from oppressive, racist and colonial regimes while todays refugees are fleeing civil wars), the main reasons for the change in the policy are the grown in the magnitude of the refugee problem, coinciding at it does with the decline in the capacity of most host countries to cope with the impact of refugees. If these problems are not addressed, the end of asylum in Africa could be nigh. Thwo steps could be taken to address these problems. Th first is to address the root causes of forced migration so as to avert or at least to reduce refugee flows. The second is to devise a sound system of burden shering to ensure that the refugee burden is shared more equitably among the members of the international community. Surviving the Asylum Process in the United Kingdom: Destitute Asylum Seekers and their Rights Under International Human Rights Law Monica Feria-Tinta London School of Economics and Political Science Contrary to the system of protection envisioned by the drafters of the Convention Relative to the Status of Refugees, asylum seekers in the modern world face challenges in the country of protection that are often as great as those in the country of persecution. In the United Kingdom, an asylum seeker who has managed to flee from persecution in his own country may be subjected to indignant, degrading and inhuman treatment of being denied food, clothing, housing. This paper considers the impact of the United Kingdom removal of social security benefits from a significant number of asylum seekers and evaluate it by the standards of international human rights law. It is the result of two years of research on the effects of the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act in the lives of those seeking asylum in the UK: By analysing cases brought before the English Courts and first hand information recollected in the context of one year work with destitute asylum seekers it is argued that the failure to ensure asylum seekers have access to the basic means of survival constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of asylum seekers and a violation of the right to life of asylum seekers. It is also contended that as a consequence, English law fails to provide for a real right to seek or claim asylum and to allow theappropriate review of individual's challenges to loss of the civil right to social security entitlements and to the violation of the right to life and prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment. Finally it is held that failure to provide asylum seekers legal entitlements constitutes prohibited discrimination. The paper highlights a contadiction between those values central to the human rights doctrine and a reality which shows that asylum seekers are likely to be some of the most abused individual human beings on earth, both in teh country of persecution as well as in the country to which they flee. It finally points out that if the international community does not want to get rid of 50 years of developments in the area of human rights law it will need to reinforce rather than weaken the notion of protection and respect to fundamental individual human rights, including those of refugees. Calculated Kindness: The Linking between National Security and Refugees Policy Aimed at Keeping the Sudanese Refugees in the First Country of Asylum. Dr. Saleh Al Bander Director Sudan Civic Foundation Cambridge United Kingdom This paper is an overview of the trends which influenced the overall interaction between the regional factors in terms of national security and the internal ones reflected generally as policy on dealing with Sudanese refugees in Egypt in particular and the Horn of Africa in general. It focuses mainly on the major challenges which confront extrenal aid as a tool to control the Sudanese refugees flow to the West from Egypt and the Horn of Africa within the concept of the "first country of asylum", and their impact on the stability of a united European and American front towards refugees in general. The final section of the paper will focus on the lessons of immediate relevance to the current and strategic state of refugees affairs in the Horn of Africa. Statelessness among Palestinian refugees Abbas Shiblak Barnet Herts U.K. In 1948, the Palestinian not only lost the homeland but also the citizenship. Fifty years after the mass exodus of 1948, the majority of the seven million or so Palestinians are stateless living in limbo. A lot is known about losing the homeland but very little known about their the non citizenship or the statelessness of the Palestinians. I would like to touch briefly on this aspect of the Palestinian experience. How the statelessness of the Palestinian came about and why it is ongoing from generation to generation, what it means to be stateless for a Palestinian refugee, the prospect of ending the statelessness among the Palestinians and the significance of the Palestinian state and the Palestinian citizenship. My main thesis is to emphasis the need to put an end for what one might call the legal Ghettos imposed on the Palestinian communities; wither they are in Israel where apartheid is an over-arching legal reality that determines the quality of every day life. or in the occupied territories of 1967 considered by their occupier as non-citizens. I would also argue against the long standing view tin the Arab world that Palestinian refugees should remain stateless holders of travel documents subjecting them to all kind of discrimination until they go back to their original homes in mandatory Palestine. Theme B: Host responses: opportunities for participation and integration Whither Palestinian Refugees? Palestinian Refugees' Uncertain Future. Dr. Najeh Jarrar The Academic Programme for the Study of Involuntary Migration; An-Najah National University Nablus West Bank This paper will attempt to explore three aspects of the Palestinian refugee problem - legality, economics, and politics - and what impact these aspects have on reaching a lasting solution to the problem. According to UN decision, the Palestinian refugees receive assistance from UNRWA, however it has no real decision-making powers and does not have the full cooperation of the host-countries or the refugees. The economic situation in the host-countries, in cluding the West Bank and Gaza Strip, is poor, which hinders the refugees' integration. The refugees' political experience, however, has strengthened their influence and made it clear that their participation in the political process is crucial. In conclusion, this paper considers three potential solutions to the refugee problem: settling in the camps, integration in the host countries, and repatriation to the refugees' places of origin. Whatever the ultimate solution to the Palestinian refugental departments; limitations and opportunities of residents' involvement in the upgrading process; building with local traditions and skills; methods and techniques to improve local management and planning procedures in refugee camps. It will identify a set of workable recommendations, that could help develop a practical, sustainable and adaptive system for use in areas of urban regeneration. The paper will conclude by proposing a set of guidelines which would help decision-makers, professionals (architects, planners, engineers, etc.) and community leaders to ensure that more effective tools and methods are adopted to enable inhabitants overcome their problems of upgrading, including cultural and psychological aspects. 3. Research Methodology. The study plan consists of three stages. It seeks to explore the study area 'the Hitteen Camp', in order to identify possible regeneration implications by comparing it with the case study of East Whadat. Stage 1 (accomplished): Existing knowledge is supplemented by a more detailed literature review related to: a) historical and political background of the Palestinian refugees. b) social and economic structure of the host country- Jordan. c) regeneration policies, approaches and technologies used for low cost housing in urban communities in the Third World, focusing on upgrading schemes that involve refugee communities. d) refugees in protracted exile, perception of security, continuity and repatriation. Stage 2: (accomplished) Developing fieldwork methodology, planning and design of surveys and questionnaires. Stage 3: (accomplished) Two parallel activities were conducted in this stage: 3.1. Primary data collection in the areas of study to identify: * social, economic and cultural characteristics of the refugees and how it is reflected in their living environment. * city and regional development policies and how they are related to refugee camps; government officials and bureaucrats to review capacity, options, objectives and aspirations for regeneration from the professional perspective. * factual information on services and facilities available to the community. Research methods in this stage were a documentary and statistical review, key informant survey of members of the community (e.g. local leaders, school teachers and community workers) and officials in the UN, the Department of Palestinian Affairs and the city council. 3.2. A qualitative environmental survey was conducted to determine physical elements of houses such as, architectural styles, how people built their shelters and adapted them to future expansion and infrastructure supply for dwellings. A stratified random sample of 100 and 30 households in Hittin and in E. Wahdat respectively, grouped according to their location in the Camp, a random sample was then selected from each part. This investigation included: * a checklist, to make a general record of physical conditions of houses and shelters i.e. , building materials and techniques, size and plots regulations, * a questionnaire survey of households to collect basic data such as, age, gender, income, employment, family size, health andeducation, and * semi-structured interviews to generate information on inhabitants' attitudes and opinions concerning sensitive topics such as, how they perceive their future and capacity to upgrade and regenerate. In addition to the above descriptive and observation methods, the researcher will explore opportunities to undertake an action research method in the form of a study workshop in the study Camp. The idea of arranging a workshop titled: 'Building local regeneration organization and network' was strongly supported by local organizations. The proposed workshop will help to investigate, from a community perspective, the awareness among residents and working groups of the resources and needs and the ways in which local groups can enhance their action to achieve better planning and effective contributions in improving their living environment. Interaction between the participants which include, local leaders, planners, officials, the UN and the residents will help to reveal underlying data about the local reaction to regeneration and planning processes. A useful by-product for the community will be to help local groups define their goals, opportunities, limitations and set their agenda. The information generated by such event will provide a significant feedback for the PhD study. Stage 4, (stage of research, on going): Analysis of the data collected in the surveys, this includes checking forms and correcting errors, editing and coding work, preparing data tables, calculating summary statistics, studying tables and drawing conclusions from the data and writing up the dissertation. 4. Obstacles in Developing the research: Analyzing the collected data by using complicated computer softwares such as the SPSS is a major difficulty, learning it is time consuming and the feeling of being not in control is not encouraging. Variables affecting planning policies: 1. Refugees and camps legal status 2. Disasters, 1948, 1967,1976 and 1991 3. Socio-economic environment 4. Political uncertainty Sudanese Diaspora in Egypt: Issues to be Revisited and Resolved. Sarah Cleto Rial Office of African Studies American University of Cairo Cairo, Egypt The Sudanese quagmire sent millions out of their homes, many across international frontiers. Egypt, which prides itself on being the 'second home for Sudanese' hosts thousands of these exiles. Legally restricted from gainful employment, occasionally harassed by state institutions and saddled by a host of other predicaments, these Sudanese increasingly see little sense in the popular slogans. Thus, many opt for resettlement in a third country as teh panacea to their woes in this foreign land. Informed by my experiences as a women activist and researcher, relevant published and unpublished materials on the Sudanese Diaspora and perceptions of individuals and focus groups in the Sudanese community in Cairo, the paper delves into te issues of resettlement and local integration or accomodation. It suggests that local integration is desirable, possible and likely acceptable if targeted local and international assistance exists; and such support must necessarily empower the people economically and socially. Protection of Persons Fleeing Conflict and Oppression: The Case of Sudanese in Egypt. Leben Moro Office of African Studies American University of Cairo Cairo, Egypt Egypt hosts numerous victims of the Sudanese war and repressive regime. Politically, these persons are regarded as being in their 'second home', implying not deserving the type of protection accorded to refugees under the relevant asylum laws or protocols, at least until recently. However, in law and practise, Sudanese have limited rights, especially in the vital areas of employment and social welfare. Accordingly, it is argued that the ambiguous position of Sudanese asylum seekers is behind their predicaments in Egypt. Informed by my research among Sudanese in Egypt and literature on protection of refugees, the paper examines conditions of Sudanese and the nature of protection afforded to them in the country. Refugees in The Gambia, West Africa: A Study of Mental Health Status. Steven Fox, PhD New Mexico Highlands University Dept. Of Behavioral Sciences Las Vegas, New Mexico USA Studies have consistently indicated that refugees frequently experience considerable trauma in their countries of origin as well as enroute to their host countries. Such trauma can result in debilitating physical and psychiatric sequelae which require specialized intervention. The literature clearly demonstrates that persons who have been forced to migrate exhibit poorer mental health as compared to the indigenous population of the host country. While there exists a number of studies addressing the mental health status and needs of refugee populations from a variety of regions throughout the world, there are no published studies of the psychiatric status and needs of West African refugees. Such investigative lacunae exist in a context rife with massive movements of humanity associated in recent years with civil conflict. The study presented in this paper is a survey of the mental health status of adult African refugees residing in four refugee camps in The Gambi, West Africa. A procedure of probability sampling was employed combining systematic and stratified sampling techniques to assess refugee-related trauma and their psychiatric sequelae. The Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Sympton Checklist 25 served as survey instruments. Refugee Problems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for Social Work Practice. Robert Tembo Dept. Of Social Development Studies; University of Zambia Lusaka Zambia The paper describes the extent of the refugee problem in Sub-Saharan Africa, examining official statistics from different parts of the continent. The statistical analysis is accompanied by a typology of the refugee problem on the continent, and also identifies a range of emergent needs in this connection. It examines existing social work involvement in refugee issues and finds that social workers in Africa are currently considerably under utilised in dealing with the problem. The paper explores potential social work roles and argues for the inclusion of refugee issues in all social work training, and for closer co-ordination between social workers and other professionals in meeting growing needs more effectively. Refugee Children in Africa: Psychological Impact and Issues Involved. Prof. A. Nweze (dean) Faculty of Social Sciences; University of Jos Jos Nigeria The continuing escalations of ethnic conflicts, wars and violence in many parts of Africa constitute the major social, economic and political upheavels in the continent. It is difficult to estimate the costs in human tragedies and suffering. It is however believed that women and children are the most affected. It is also believed that children more than adults are represented in the refugee populatio;n in Africa. Unfortunately, various analysis of the needs, provisions and services for the refugees in Africa have glosed the psychological needs and support of children in refugee camps.The children have not only been victims of fragrant violation of their rights but the refugee situation has morgaged their health educatio;n and normal growth and development. This paper overviews the situation of refugee children in Africa. Drawing from the experiences of the Liberian refugee children in Oru camp of Ogun state Nigeria the paper examines the special psychological predicaments and needs o;f children in refugee camps. It highlights the patterns of traumatic experiences, the problem acculturation and adjustment to camp life and camp environment. The paper conclude with recommendations aimed at improving the opportunities for development and services for the special needs of refugee children in Africa. Refugees and Civil Society: A Case Study of the Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh. Dr Imtiaz Ahmed Dept. Of International Relations University of Dhaka In 1978, a total of 167,000 Muslim Rohingyas of Myanmar were pushed into Bangladesh, transforming the latter for the first time into a refugee-receiving nation. In July 1978, however, following international pressure, particularly those provided by the Muslim countries, Myanmar signed an agreement with Bangladesh to repatriate all the refugees. But this was only the first push. The second push came in 1991 in the midst of an anti-military struggle in Myanmar. The second push, however, saw more refugees flowing than the first one. By October 1992 more than 260,000 refugees were pushed into Bangladesh. With the exception of 21,000 refugees, the bulk of them were repatriated under UNHCR supervision by 1996. Talks between the two countries, however, got stalled regarding the repatriation of the remaining refugees, the bulk of whom still languish in refugee camps in Bangladesh. While there has been some studies regarding state/governmental responses to such refugee movements, little attention has been given to the issue of civil response to the refugee flow. In fact, the relationship between refugees and civil society of the refugee-receiving nation has always been contentious. On the one hand, members of the civil society play a critical role in welcoming and making room for the refugees, while on the other hand, a section of them resent the arrival of refugees and want their return at the earliest possible time. What factors motivate such reactions? What do the local population gain out of it? How does it affect the long and short-term (social and cultural) relationship between members of the host nation and refugees? Does the crime rate increase due to refugees? Is there any impact on local politics? What kind of role do the NGOs play? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in the paper. More concretely, the paper will concentrate on the role of civil society, particularly the manner in which the local population, including political parties, local NGOs, intellectual and scholars, reacted to the arrival of the Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh. It will also reflect on the long- and short-terms impact of the refugee flow on Bangladesh society. Papers for East African Breakout Group (these abstracts are not only on host responses, but also on current issues and on repatriation): Refugee camps as the least safe and least secure places for refugees. The Case of Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Kate Reuer St. Peter USA When one enters a refugee camp, the devastation caused by previous separation, torture, rape and murder is often assumed to be the only cause of trauma. Refugee camps are supposed to be a place where safety and security are felt. However oftentimes the same political movements or religious factions which cause refugees to flee their country of origin follow them to the camp. The paper is based on case studies gathered at Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. The evidence suggests that living in a camp is often one of the least safe and least secure places to be. The Place of UNHCR in the Culture of the Walking Boys: Some Observations. Lucy Bingham McAndrews Binghamstown House Binghamstown Ballina County Mayo Ireland This paper studies the experience of refugee Southern Sudanese 'young boys', mostly Dinka, who came to Kakuma refugee camp between 1993 and 1996 (and who have therefore been in the camp for between 2 and 5 years). The underlying justification for this research was to find out more about the main group for whom Kakuma refugee camp has been set up. Its aim was to address the question: what has the experience of coming to and living in a UNHCR refugee camp been for this group? More particularly, what is the effect of living in a UNHCR refugee camp on their psychological (personal) and cultural (social) development and what are the implications, therefore, for the future of the group, as individuals and as a society? These questions were investigated using qualitative methods. The paper is based on research done and observations made over a 6-month period spent living and working in Kakuma refugee camp. The methods used for the research were mainly participant observation, oral testimony collection and a research programme undertaken by students of the researcher. Refugees are People with Souls: Towards a Humanistic Legal Framework and Practice. (on the individual right to asylum) Christopher Mulei (lecturer in law) University of Nairobi, college of humanities & social sciences. Faculty of Law, Parklands Campus University of Nairobi Nairobi, Kenya The paper is boldly ambitious: it seeks to heighten and amplify the voice from the South in the emerging debate on how to humanise, and at the same time strengthen, the international refugee law and practice, as well as the nascent legal regime impinging on the internally displaced persons. The debate revolves on two standpoints: Supporting a new refugee regime as an alternative to asylum, steering away from political factors by engaging only in 'pure' law and using (albeit in a muffled way) different criteria in apportioning blame vis-.-vis the North and South; and A human-rights-based approach based on the right of individual refugees to asylum. This paper opts for the later. It will analyse the relevant empirical data on the state of refugees and internally displaced persons in Eastern Africa (including the Horn of Africa) and the Great Lakes. The place of the domestic law, and the parallel African regional arrangement will also be assessed. It is Better to be a Refugee than a Turkana in Kakuma: Relationships Between Hosts and Refugees. Ekuru Aukot Nairobi, Kenya Since 1991, wars in the Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Rwanda and other parts of Africa have found some 55,000 persons representing more than eleven nationalities living in Kakuma Refugee Camp which is situated in Turkana District, North-western Kenya. The Turkana themselves are so impoverished that the presence of refugees who are receiving assistance, no matter how inadequate, is seen by them as a threat. The paper will argue that good relationships between hosts and refugees enhances the refugees ability to enjoy their rights under international law and promotes local integration. It will discuss the areas of conflict between refugees and the local population living near Kakuma and how these factors endanger the physical safety of refugees. It will argue that even the enactment of domestic legislation in Kenya (which currently does not exist) to 'give force' to international conventions will not improve refugees enjoyment of their rights as long as refugees are targeted for assistance without due regard and compensation for the negative impacts of their presence on the local economy and its residents. Refugee Education in Uganda and Kenya: Education for Who? Education for What? Dr. Jill Craig Kampala, Uganda This paper will address the education available to refugee in and out of camps in Uganda and Kenya. It will cover primary, secondary, vocational, tertiary, and adult education in the two countries; what curriculum is offered; and who is teaching the refugees. It will also address the self-help efforts of refugees who wish to either supplement or replace the education provided by NGOs and/or the government in each country. This paper will compare education available to refugees with that of nationals and also with the education available in their own countries at this time. I will look at the different success rates in examinations of refugees in settlements and those self-settled, as far as this information is available. The paper will conclude with recommendations for refugees, host governments and NGOs involved in education Gender Issues in a Refugee Setting: A Study of Sudan Women's Refugee Experiences in Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement Ms. Deborah Mulumba Research Associate Makerere Institute of Social Research Makerere University Kampala Uganda This papers is based on a study which took place in Masinki District Uganda. It was motivated by the concern which was raised over the security of Somali women refugees in Kenya after 1991. The paper will examine the extent to which the lessons learned there had been transferred to other situation. Have UNHCR and other humanitarian organisation become more sensitive to gender specific needs? The examination of gender roles, physical security of women, food and nutrition found that women refugees still remain at the periphery of their concerns. The study included 120 women heads of households and was conducted in May/June 1995. `Death of Asylum': Fallacies and Dangers and Human Rights and Refugee Camps Guglielmo Verdirame Department of Law London School of Economics and Political Science London Some recent academic literature on asylum, as well as the propositions for re-formulating the international legal regime applying to refugees, are based on the assumption that 'asylum is dead', and that alternatives need to be sought. This paper will argue that, by to give in so hastily to some State practice, academics and intellectuals are, on the one hand, offering States a justification for continuing to violate the current legal regime, and, on the other, they are creating a dangerous discourse that could become a tragically self-fulfilling prophecy. 'Death of asylum' theorists base their analyses on the fact that violations of the current asylum regime do ocs become a reality which can no longer be ignored. The institution of refugee camps is one important example in this trend. Refugees and Access To The Justice System In Host Countries: Experiences from Uganda Zachary A. Lomo Social Legal Study of Refugee Rights in Uganda Refugee Health and Welfare Project Makerere Institute of Social Research Kampala Uganda Refugees are often associated with images of sprawling camps where distressed and impoverished people live. They lack food, clothing, housing and health services and death is an inevitable common visitor. Although providing for the material needs of refugees is important rights, there are other rights enshrined in international human rights and refugee law. This paper will examine the right of access to the courts of the host country and equal treatment before the law. It is based upon qualitative fieldwork in Uganda which demonstrated the limited access refugees have to 'justice'. The paper will also discuss the plight of refugees caught up in Uganda's criminal justice system in the light of their right to bail, dysfunctions in the judicial system, the level of access to legal representation by practising advocates in criminal, civil, and asylum status determination cases. Refugee Welfare Committees (RWC's) as parallel organs of dispensing justice to refugees in camps will also be discussed. Women in Difficult Circumstances: Sexual Violence i the Kakuma Refugee Camp. North Western Kenya. Gilbert Lukhoba Nairobi Kenya This paper reports on an investigation of sexual violence against refugee women in Kakuma camp. The 'environments in which social services are delivered were isolated and the manner in which they influenced or reduced the incidence of violence against women are discussed. Further, the paper critically examines the policy framework within which assistance is provided for refugees. Its effect (real and potential) on the problem is considered. Although the incidence of sexual violence against refugee women in Kakuma does not compare in scale to that of other camps in Kenya, its prevalence is sufficient to warrant intervention. Such violence is largely unreported or misunderstood. Inadequate food rations, lack of means for confidential reporting, stereotyping, and the prevailing sense of deprivation all combine in ways to make more vulnerable. A number of measures are suggested to mitigate these problems. What Determines Host Responses to Refugee Flows - Consensus and Challenges For Camp Policy Anna Schmidt London School of Economics and Political Science Development Studies Institute London United Kingdom Refugee camps are maybe the most conspicuous feature of refugee assistance in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper discusses reasons for the persistance of large-scale refugee camps over an extended period of time despite the fact that both practitioners and researchers have increasingly documented the deficiencies and negative consequences of camp-based policies. Factors influencing host country responses to refugee inflows are discussed, as well as the extent in which these responses may be structured by govenment interaction with international agencies, specifically the UNHCR. Recent challenges to traditional policy (towards integration) may arise from demands for participation of both refugees and local population at national level but also through changes within the organisational environment of UNHCR. 'Refuge from Refuge': Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Masindi District, Uganda Tania Kaiser Linacre College University of Oxford This paper argues that the Sudanese Refugee Settlement at Kiryandongo functions conceptually and literally as a 'refuge from refuge' for its population. As such it exists in opposition to previously experienced insecure environments, namely Southern Sudan during the conflict, transit camp in Kitgum District, and in relation to vicariously experienced alternatives such as camps at Achol-pii, Adjumani and in West Nile. One of the consequences of this has been the reconfiguration of residence patterns by the refugee community whose intention is to sustain an ideology of non violence. The decision not to self settle is explored, notably in terms of the complex political relationship which exists between the Ugandan and Sudanese Acholi populations in the context of rebel activity in both countries. Refugees and Social Policy: An analysis of the Contribution of Governmental and Non-governmental Organisations in Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees in Uganda. Mushemeza Elija Dickens Dept. of Political Sciences and Public Administration Makerere University Kampala Uganda This paper evaluates the contribution of government and NGOs in humanitarian assistance to refugees and whether this support reflects social policies of Uganda. Indeed, the main obstacle of government and NGOs in addressing refugee problems is not lack of staff, but rather, the lack of adequate finances and social policy focused programmes. In this analysis, variables will include social services and infrastructure, for instance schools, health facilities, water, electricity, housing and agricultural extension services. People in Government Gazzeted Land: A Case Study of Kibale Game Corridor Evicted Victims. Patrick Mulindwa Research Fellow Makerere Institute for Social Research Makerere University Kampala, Uganda The paper is a case study of the people who were displaced from the Kibale Game Corridor and resettled in Kibaale District. The group under study had settled in the area during the colonial period as a result of population pressure in their place of origin. They were forcibly displaced as a consequence of external funding for environmental protection. The paper will critically look at the Uganda government's policy on settlement of the displaced in light of the World Bank policy on resettlement of persons uprooted from government project areas. The paper follows the victims from where they were evicted to the place where they are now relocated. The main issue to be considered is how they managed to cope up with their new environment. Issues to be analysed include: - The host community and their attitude towards the new comers. - The impact of the new comers to the socio-economic status of the area. - The land question - Ethnicity. '... the Right to Seek' but not 'Enjoy ... Asylum ...' Dr. Alfred Buregeya World Scout Bureau Africa Regional Office Nairobi KENYA International law asserts that refugees have the rights to seek asylum in other countries and employs the word 'enjoy' to describe the security this status is to provide. This paper will describe the experiences of refugees seeking asylum in one country, Kenya, from the point of view of my own experience as both a seeker of asylum and, as a social scientist, an observer of the experience of others in the same situation. In Kenya, this experience includes dealing with a complicated and inefficient and inhumane bureaucratic system, a system which leaves all too many refugees without valid identity papers to face a sometimes hostile law enforcement system. Most endure destitution. Seeing this experience from the perspective of the 'consumers' of humanitarian law is a useful way to analyse the problems within the humanitarian system. Non-material well being and gender among the urban refugees in Kampala Ellen Lammers, MA International Development Research Associates (InDRA) University of Amsterdam This paper discusses the findings of research being carried out in Kampala, Uganda. Self-settled refugees are less visible and less easily targeted than those living in refugee camps, which may partly explain the unfortunate fact that in the academic field of refugee studies little attention has been paid so far to their plight. The main objective of this research is to learn more about the non- material (i.e. psycho-social, personal, emotional) aspects of well-being and thee insecurity of those refugees who are self-settled in the urban environment of Kampala; about the refugees' perceptions of their well-being and (in)security; and about their ways of coping. The gender- aspect of this research includes a primary attention to the situation of women refugees, and among them especially the female-headed households (FHH's), and a careful examination of the vulnerability often ascribed to them. The main groups participating in this research are the Sudanese, Rwandan and Congolese refugees. Community Response to an Refugee Influx: The Case of Congolese Refugees in Rukungira District, Western Uganda Dr. Christopher Orach Institute of Public Makerere University Kampala, Uganda This paper argues that local community responses are crucial for the health and survival of refugees in the emergency phase of settlement. It reports on research conducted in Western Uganda in late 1996 when some 5,600 Zairian (now Congo) Hutu refugees crossed into Rukungiri District, Western Uganda. Immediate reception and assistance was provided by the local community and the district authority. The health of the refugees remained in a good state. Morbidity was mainly due to such diseases as malaria, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea, malnutrition, and anaemia. Mortality was low. From Kisoro Camp to Kyangwali: Effects of transfers on refugees and the host population. Stella Neema, Ph.D Research Fellow Makerere Institute of Social Research Kampala The paper explores the effect of the transfer of refugees from a camp to an agricultural settlement on both the refugees and the host population. It tries to understand the implications of such effects to policy. By taking a Kisoro camp and Kyangwali settlement in South and western Uganda as examples, the paper provides information on the effects on the refugees health and welfare. Kisoro which is near Rwanda border was a transit camp for Rwanda and Zaire refugees. It had basic facilities of a transit camp and health care services. Some refugees decided to freely go back home but others opted to remain and were tranfered to Kyangwali settlement where they had to fend for themselves with reduced rations of food. The services which were also helping the local population had to be stopped and dismantled (e.g water tank). Local population were having access to some of the services e.g health care. The refugees provided casual labour to host population and sold some items hence booming the area. With the transfer to Kyangwali some of the benefit the host population were getting stopped. The new area was hostile and most of the refugeees suffered from malaria. What are the effects of such issues to the refugees and the host population and their implications to policy? This is some of the questions the paper will try to address. Data for this paper is based on the field assessment study carried out in 1996, using rapid assessment procedures. The overall study was looking at the health and welfare of refugees in and out of camps in Uganda, sponsored by European Union. The Complexities of Drafting a Progressive Refugee Law: A Travaux Preparatoires of Uganda's Refugee Law Reform Process R.M. Wafula Administrative Officer and Chair, Joint Drafting Committee Director of Refugees Office of the Prime Minister Kampala In the 1990s, the refugee crisis in the great lake's region of central Africa created a complex refugee situations resuting in a crisis of international norms and host nation responses to the detriment of refugees. Uganda, unlike other countries, responded with a policy reform process to bring the national refugee law into conformity with its international obligations. This papers draws from the travaux preparatoires of this process to examine the complexity of this reform, considering the reservations to these instruments, the political and constitutional changes and attitudes to refugees. These contemporary and complex issues are fundamental to refugee protection and will characterise the patterns of host nation resopnses itno the next millenium. The long-term perception of forced uprooting and the persistence of trauma through generations: the palestinian experience. Samir Qouta & Bradley Brigham Gaza Community Mental Health Programme Gaza City The 1948uprooting has ben, and remains, a central point in the Palestinian psyche. Stories of life pre-1948, and of the forced flight and its aftermath continue to live on through and across generations, indicating that the trauma of uprooting and loss endures in a very dynamic way in Palestinian society today. The majority of the original refugees have, over the years, continued to relate stories of their experiences to all of their descendants, either directly or through intervening generations. Whenit became possible after 1967, membersof all generations genarally visited the site of thenatal villagees. together. It is estimated that, even now, approximately 70% of those who experienced the uprooting continue to evoke, in moments of difficulty, the suffering they underwent at that time. Thus the memories, the attachements and the trauma of their loss remain so deep and indelible that they do not seem to fade over time, but remain alive not only for those who experienced them directly but for their childrn, grand-children and so on. This paper will serve to relate some of these stories and to discuss the dynamics of the prominent place that they continue to hold in the Palestinin psyche. In addition, it will explore the nature of these stories and how they are perceived by today's youth. The talk will also include a short film of survivors recounting their experiences of the uprooting. Development of asylum policy in Germany: the change of article 16 basic law - background and consequences. Wolfgang Bosswick European Forum for Migration Studies, University of Bamberg, Germany The paper as a report from ongoing research will give an overview on the development of the German asylum policy, cumulating in the change of article 16 basic law in 1993. It will report on the various actors involved into the heated debate about the change of the basic law, on the factors which led to the compromise of December 6, 1992, and on the discussion after the change and the effects of the change. This development will be analyzed related to the background of the general migration situation in Germany and discourse on immigration, integration and citizenship in Germany. The Ambiguous Nature of Thai Immigration Policy and Asylum Regime: A Case Study Of Burmese `Refugees' in Thailand. Danielle Sepulveda The United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies Tokyo Japan This paper examines the impact of Thailand's ambiguous immigration and asylum policies on the adaptive strategies of different Burmese refugee groups living within its borders. The focus of the research is on the Bangkok caseload or Burmese students, a broad category of displacees, some of whom exist under the protection of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the 'Burmese Student Safe Area,' and others of whom exist in Bangkok, outside any formal network of assistance or protection. Given the varieties of displaced Burmese and the differences between rural and urban settings in terms of status allocation and refugee entitlements, the main hypothesis is that three variables ethnicity, locality and temporality constitute the key determinants of identity and differential access to resources and types of livelihood in Thailand. Thus, ethnic membership, regional accommodation and time of arrival each entail distinct entitlements used by Burmese to improve their conditions in exile. Key words: displacement; adaptation; protection; repatriation; resettlement; identity; Burmese refugees; Thailand. Evolution of health characteristics of forced migrants. Ronald Waldman, M.D., M.P.H. Program on Forced Migration and Health, Columbia School of Public Health, Center for Population and Family Health, New York New York Forced migration has been shown repeatedly to have significant adverse effects on both physical and mental health. The emergency phase, the stablilization phase, and the resettlement phase of migration are characterized by changes in crude, age-specific, and gender-specific morbidity and mortality rates. This paper describes in general terms the health characteristics of forced migrants as they evolve over time and pays special attention to the effect of primary and secondary re-settlement schemes on health status. Recommendations are made regarding the most important interventions and the most important mistakes which are made in providing acute- and long-term care to forced migrants. The local settlement approach in hosting refugees in Uganda. Douglas Asiimwe Settlement Officer (Protection) Department of Refugees Office of Prime Minister Kampala Uganda Assisting Rwandan street schildre: an analysis of characteristics and intervention models. Angela Veale, Giorgia Dona, Felix Muramutsa, Bernerdine Mukazima, Innocent Iyakaremye & Charles Kalinganire. Child Studies Unit (Rwanda) Department of Applied Psychology University College Cork Ireland Over 85% of Rwandan street children have joined the streets after the genocide of 1994 and the massive repatriation of refugees in 1996. This paper draws attention to the link between conflict, displacement and street life involvement. Interviews with 290 children highlight changes in family structure, especially loss or unknown whereabouts of one or both parents, neglect, and poverty as the main causal factors of street children. Perceptions of street children by key informants as unaccompanied or abandoned have resulted in interventions based on models of dation of certain articles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the process of fostering is problematic. In theory, fostering is considered a temporary solution. However, in the Rwandan context, it is perceived as a durable solution, thus creating a gap between legal tools and customary practice. This paper will conclude by offering some suggestions towards a working definition of fostering for Rwanda within the framework of the Convention of the Rights of the Child. Anthropometric and fitness measures of Rwandan Schoolchildren T. Kenneth Porter, Institute of Biological Anthropology, University of Oxford. Ethnic Hutu Rwandan refugee schoolchildren, age 8-15, in a camp in Burundi were measured for height, weight, performances in standing vertical jump, standing horizontal jump and distance run in a 3 Minute Shuttle Run. All children were small, light and had very low body-mass-indices (BMI) compared with US children of African origin and with some other groups, but were not greatly different from earlier studies of Rwandan children or of other African groups. While comparable to US children in horizontal jump, the subject group was significantly poorer in the vertical jump suggesting a cultural bias to the test. The subjects outperform US children in the endurance test, though delayed onset of puberty in the subject population is thought to affect comparative performance among the older children. Creativity - a potential danger of psychotraumatised children Mladen Knezevic, Law School, Social Work Department, University of Zagreb Dr. Mladen Knezevic University of Zagreb Law School Social Work Department Zagreb Croatia The survey was carried out in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the course of the Serbian forces offensive, both the Muslims and Croats successfully defended the city. In 1993 the two ethnic groups clashed and waged the war, which has devastated the city and took its death tool as high as thousands of human lives. The city nowadays is profoundly separated along theethnic divide. Over 60% of the city population are newcomers, displaced persons, who fled from the neighbouring villages. Generally speaking better-educated people have left, particularly from the East-Muslim Bank. The goal of our project was to improve human resources potentials in such a divided city. During the was, almost all children have suffered a severe trauma experience, whereas the students from the East-Muslim Bank ware subjected to a trauma even more. A large number of them have demonstrated the trauma-related symptoms. As anticipated, in questionnaire on creativity, the children who demonstrated anxiety and depression due to the trauma experience, have shown slightly lower results. However, the especially interesting point of our survey was the relation between creativity and oppositional behaviour as the post-traumatic symptom. We find out a moerate positive correlation between oppositional behaviour and creativity. The results of our suvey are the preliminary results only and we do not think they are to be regarded as the basis for a competent generalisation of the issue, but we find them very significant for further research studies in the field. The creative children, anyhow, according to our results, tend towards oppositional reactions if traumatised. Since the oppositional behaviour can be significantly related to the different forms of delinquent behaviour, in the relation between creativity and oppositional behaviour, we do anticipate a potential danger for the children, as much as communities they have lived within. Social adversities and anxiety disorders in the Gaza strip. Abdel Aziz M Thabet, Mental Health Services, Gaza; Panos Vostanis, Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Birmingham. A. Thabet & P. Vostanis University of Birmingham Parkview Clinic Birmingham United Kingdom Aim: To investigae the rate and nature of childhood anxiety symptoms and disorders, and their relationship to social adversities in a cultural sample not previously researched. Methods: A sample of 237 children of 9-13 years living in the Gaza strip was randomly selected in a school-based study. Children completed the Revised Manifest Anxiety Scale and teachers completed the Rutter Scale. Results: Children reported high rates of significant anxiety problems (21.5%) and teachers reported even higher rates of mental health problems (43.4%) that would justify a clinical assessment. Anxiety problems, particularly negative cognitions, increased with age and were significantly higher among females. Low socio-cnomomic status was the strongest predictor of general mental health problems. Living in inner-city areas or camps, both common among refugees, was strongly associated with anxiety problems. Conclusions: The rate and nature of anxiety disorders were similar to those established in western societies. Factors reflecting social adversity and lack of stability were also similarly involved. There may be more similarities in the presentation of mental health symptoms across cultures than previously believed, due to lack of cross-cultural research. Keywords: anxiety, child mental health, deprivation, adversity. The use and misuse of biblically based ideals influencing Israeli society in regards to Palestinian claims of forced migration. Gregory Bliss, Cross cultural studies, Fuller Theological Seminary. Pagosa Springs Co. A historic overview and present assessment of religious ideals influencing Israeli (non-arab) society in Israel and abroad concerning reconciliation with Palestinian people in regards to the Palestinian claim of forced migration. The paper will deal with four main segments of religious ideology in Christian and Jewish thought. 1) Pro- Zionist Christian, 2) Pro Zionist Jewish (orthodox) thought, 3) Ultra orthodox non- Zionist position, and 4) different forms of Christian non-Zionism. The historical overview will be broken down into 3 different periods 1948 - 1967; 1967-1992; 1992-present. Conclusion of the paper will offer the author's own assessment of a biblical based response to the Palestinian claim of forced migration and offer an assessment the strengths and weaknesses of the four major positions outlined. Refugee settlement in Britain: The impact of policy on participation. Alice Bloch, Faculty of Social Sciences, department of Sociology, University of East London. Essex U.K. This paper will examine the social and economic participation of refugees in Britain. Drawing on data from a survey of 180 refugees from the Somali, Tamil and Zairian communities in London, the paper will explore the relationship between the structural and personal factors that affect efugee participation in the host society. Structural factors include: access to welfare, eligibility to work, citizenship rights and immigration status. On the personal side factors to be examined in relation to participation include: gender, age, lenght of residence, migration aspirations and the presence and involvement in an ethnic community. Myanmarese refugees in India Sreeradha Datta South Asian Centre for Strategic Studies New Delhi India Close historical and cultural ties across 1760 Km. Indo-Myanmar border has faciliated the flight of thousands of Myanmarese nationals, mainly Chins and Arakanese into Mizoram and Manipur, two of the north eastern states of India since 1988. The exodus of political dissidents and ethnic minorities followed the crackdown on pro-democracy movement in Myanmar by the military Junta and continues unabated. In the absence of official recognition, non-existence of any refugee status determination procedure, and growing anti-foreigner sentiment in Mizoram, refugees are exposed to harassment, human rights violation and deportation. Inspite of Government of Indias assurances, instances of refoulment have occurred, especially in the backdrop of cooperation between the two governments to contain insurgency in the border areas. The UNHCR and other International agency do not have access to the region and the plight of the victims has neither received International attention nor assistance. Drawing on primary sources, the paper documents the plight of the uprooted people, analyses their situation and suggests measures to ameliorate their suffering. Ethnicity and gender aspects in (forced) resettlement policies vis-a-vis internal refugees belonging to the Tamil and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka. Prof. dr. Joke Schrijvers Dept. of Development Studies University of Amsterdam The paper to be presented is based on anthropological research in Sri Lanka on (forced) resettlement policies vis-a-vis internal refugees belonging to the Tamil and Muslim communities. How have the politics of ethnicity and gender coloured these policies, and how have male and female refugees themselves reacted to (forced) resettlement? The research is situated in the context of the ongoing civil war between the Sinhalese-dominated government and the LTTE (the 'Tamil Tigers'). It was carried out in short periods between 1993 and 1998, in refugee camps in the capital of Colombo, in Batticaloa district in the east, and in Vavuniya in the north. a. A medical anthropological approach towards the problems of forced migration - a firm stance for an authentic and emotional response. b. Is there a place where peace resides? What can answers of those in exile teach us - an example from Croatia. Sanja M. Spoljar-Vrzina Institute for Anthropological Research Zagreb Croatia a). A body of important research has been dedicated to the study of ways in which refugee health is being understood. There are two identified paradigms according to which a refugee is either objectified as part of a political class of excess people or reduced to being a carrier of disease and pathology. It has been suggested that alternatives should be created to these approaches that would take the polyvocality of refugees into account and possibly construe refugees as prototypes of resilience. This paper deals with suggesting that neither of these new paradigms can be carried out without the recognition that refugees have become just one more reference group for projections of synthetically construed false emotions and that without a retraction in the manipulation of emotions, on a world-wide level, no change is possible. This paper is based on the insights gathered through conducting a long-term research carried out among exile families in Croatia. b). The question of peace is loaded with meanings and has become a hallmark of contemplating the good wishes for a world of the 25th century. The International media of our days is filled with politicians and journalists that use "peace" in their everyday speech, and there is a fair amount of scientists that tend to abuse it, as well. Yet, to speak of peace in any context we need to learn its value. Those in exile have earned their knowledge in the most painful way, and yet they are not those to which the answer-seekers turn to upon making decisions. This paper deals with one of the most important duties of anthropology in the 25th century - to be an honest "translator" of the meanings hidden behind complex values, such as this one, to those that can make use of this comprehension in their worldly-wise decisions. Collective memory and national identity: the refugees of Barbarah in Gaza Strip. Christine Pirinoli Ahmed Universite de Lausanne Institute d'Anthropologie et Sociologie Lausanne The important social and political disruptions that followed the partition of Palestine led into a process of constant reinterpretation of memory, identity and national symbols. At present, a new disruption is provoked by the Oslo Agreement : the perspective of a nation-state fixes a new political frame, which provokes a restructuration of the Palestinian society on new social and economical bases. In this context, my research concentrates on three generations of refugees native of Barbarah village and living in Gaza Strip. It focuses mainly on the symbolic work of construction of the village memory, its transmission, and its importance in the process of identity building. The unifying threat behind it is the question of the refugees future : will they abandon the dream of return to their land and reconstruct their life as citizen in a Palestinian territory in which they are at present economically and socially marginalised? Will they hold a local identity and keep their refugee status, being then refugee in their own state ? (1) Barbarah was a village of 2900 inhabitants between El Majdal (the present Ashkelon) and Gaza. It has been totally destroyed by Israel. 95% of its people are refugees in Gaza Strip. Sorry policy: four ways president Clinton and Congress can help African refugees. Bronwyn Lance, Senior Fellow The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution Arlington USA Sorry Policy: Four Ways President Clinton and Congress Can Help African Refugees Refugee admissions to the United States have dropped 58% during the Clinton presidency. Of the 83,000 refugees allowed admission into the United States this year, only 8% may be from the entire continent of Africa. Africa is home to more than 3.5 million refugees, one of the largest concentrations of displaced persons in the world. At the same time, the Clinton Administration is issuing profuse apologies for not having done more during recent African conflicts, there remains a concrete way in which the president and U.S. Congress could truly help those most in need in Africa: they could raise the number of African refugees allowed into the United States. This paper recommends four actions that could be taken to alleviate this problem. It also discusses the need to increase mainly concentrated about the local historiography of a small Palestinian village, Lubieh, from the end of the Ottoman Empire, through the British Mandate period 1917-1948, and the fate of its inhabitants in exile after its total demolishment in 1948. Violent displacement and Extra social compulsion: North South civil war, the de-humanistion of southern Sudanese women and children by the so-called war efforts. K.M. Safwat, consultant to GMHP. Oxford no abstract received yet a. Redefining Gender Roles and Relations in Exile: the case of Sudanese exile in Northern Uganda and displaced persons in Southern Sudan. Benaiah Nyaing Duku b. Current situation of the forced Sudanese migrants, refugees and internatlly displaced persons: the case of the Sudanese refugees and internally displaced Sudanese in SPLM/A controlled areas of the southern Sudan Lee Samuel Lamua. exile and internally displaced persons. Benaiah Nyaing Duku d. Ethnic relations: the case of the Sudanese refugee in northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of congo (DRC) and internally displaced persons in the SPML/SPLA controlled areas of the southern Sudan. Michael Abat Elikana. Sudan Cultural Digest Project. Office of African Studies, American University in Cairo. Cairo Egypt Forced Displacement and Resettlement in the Great Lakes Region Pierre Claver Ngezahayo Christian Association of Friends of Refugees; Nairobi Kenya The great lakes region is made up of: Burundi, Rwanda, R.D. Congo, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It is a part of Africa with continuous wars. It is registering alot of displaced people in each country without refugees. One of the examples is Mutabila, Muyovozi refugee camps that are sheltering about 300,000 Burundians just to name a few. All of these people live in critical conditions and are exposed to different diseases especially Malaria, Diahorea, Kwashiorkor, Hunger etc. The war is continuous in this region because now I record a lot of groups fighting the governments and causing people to feed and to be displaced. Uganda: The Lord Resistance Army fighting in the Northern part of the country. Allied Democratic forces in Western part of the country. Rwanda: Interahamwe fighting the government troops in Kisengani region. R.D. Congo: Mai-Mai fighting in Kivu Eastern part of the Country. BURUNDI: FDD - Forces for Democracy Defence, FROLINA, and PALIPENUTU. The Role of Critical Theory in Palestinian Cultural Reconstruction: Prespectives grounded in Educational Thought Dr. Blair van Dyke, Brigham Young University, Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations Cedar Hills, Utah Cultural fragmentation has been a deterrent to the progress of Palestinian people for centuries. Political and cultural domination by foreign powers has stripped many Palestinians of th ability to view their circumstances critically in order to initiate thoughtful change and reform. This research will provide: 1) a brief overview of how edcation has been used by occupying governments in Palestine to control and fragment Palestinian culture; 2) A consensual vision of how educational leaders in the West Bank and Gaza believe the effects of the occupaion can be minimized; and 3) Recommendations on how Palestinian educational and civic leaders may utilize the tenets of critical theory to heighten awareness and potentally overcome the effects of decades of cultural infringement. Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon Elham Bayour (Amnesty International Women's Rights Committee) Downey, Calif USA A systematic analysis of the the Lebanese Palestinian relationship since the Palestinian uprooting in 1948. The Lebanese institutionalized racism agaisnt the Palestinians in regards to their civil and human rights, education, employment housing and health care. The systematic daily oppression that the Palestinians endure in Lebanon for their refugee status. The Fallacy of Participatory Emergency Response: The Case of Agency Relations during Emergencies in Kenya and Uganda Monica Kathina Juma Pembroke College Oxford This work is premised on the assumption that politics, which is by definition exclusive, rather than ultrusim, is the determinant of agency relations at both policy and implementation levels during emergency response. To safe guard their interests and survival, agencies of necessity do, even when they profess to be apolitical, engage in both "high" and "deep" politics. Thus, translation of assistance into programme activities is an inevitable political process. Of necessity therefore, actors are continuously engaged in processes of manipulation and negotiations in an attempt to increase their utility and make themselves indispensable. Such an environment calls for constricting rather than expanding the participation base. Networks and links, both formal and informal, are the means by which to ensure survival in a politically charged arena. By comparing Kenya and Uganda this research argues that participatory responses would logically lead to unsustainability and unjustifiability of the current humanitarian system. Thus, politics at policy and implementation levels are geared towards dogding the advancement of participatory responses during emergencies. A Child-centered Approach to Investigating Refugee Children's Concerns Colin MacMullin, Jumana Oden. Maryanne Loughry, Eyad El Sarraj, Samir Zagout Refugee Studies Programme Queen Elizabeth House University of Oxford Oxford The refugee literature is dominated by adult focussed investigations of children's concern. This paper reports a study that asked children in Beach Camp, Gaza to list and describe the things that worry them. Focus groups were established in which children elaborated upon these worries, discussed their own coping strategies, suggested advice they would give other children, and provide thoughts on how adults can best help children deal with these worrying circumstances. Current Changes in Resettlement Policy Max Meis, Community Medicine Specialist COV Foundation Apeldoorn The Netherlands Resettlement is a vital instrument of international protection. It is considered to be a durable solution for individual cases in need of protection outside countries of origin and countries of first asylum. Resettlement under UNHCR auspices is geared primarily to the special needs of refugees. Ten countries are involved in resettlement. However, due to local integration problems of resettled refugees and the persistent influx of asylum seekers, host countries are changing their policy, resulting in:
From Displacement to Disorder: The Medicalisation of the Refugees Marita Eastmond, Dpt. of Social Anthropology, G"teborg University, Sweden Dpt. of Social Anthropology, Göteborg University, Sweden The reception in many European countries of refugees from areas of violent conflict has given rise to a concern with the mental health status of refugees. With Sweden a a point of departure, the paper concerns the growth of a specialised sector of refugee health and the discourse emerging in policy and practice concerning traumitised refugees. It explores the social and political contexts of the tendency towards medicalising refugee's experience of suffering, and the generalised notions about refugees and trauma that underpin such tendencies. In similar ways both tend to become markers of significant difference that feed into and undermine other processess of social exclusion of immigrants. Ethnographic examples are drawn from Bosnian refugees, a category made nearly synomynous to traumatised refugees in media, policy and practice. In contrast to such representations of het host society, refugees's own interpretations provide a more complex and multi-faceted view of the sources and solutions to suffering in the post-war struggle to recover normality. Internally Displaced Persons in Uganda Godard Busingye Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) Faculty of Law Makerere University Kampala Uganda no abstract received yet Conflict-Generating Refugee Diasporas: The Case of Eastern Congo Koen Vlassenroot Centre for Third World Studies University of Ghent Ghent Belgium It is very well documented that the presence of the former Rwandan army and ethnic militia among the hundreds of thousands of Rwandan and Burundan refugees in the former Eastern Zaire posed a growing security risk for the regimes in Kigali and Bujumbura. Intensiying political action in these camps finally lead to an intervention on an informal basis of both regimes in an effort to neutralize the extremist Hutu militia harbored in the refugee camps. Less well known, however, is the exact influence of the presence of a highly politicised refugee population on the development of existing local dymanics of conflict. This paper, grounded in the researcher's recent five month stay in Eastern Congo and comparing the case of Eastern Congo with other cases, investigates how refugee populations can become conflict-generating political actors. They become reservoir for a diaspora-based political opposition-movement. In a highly politically volatile host environment, however, their presence can also become an additional source of internal destabilisationl. Their situation being inherently vulnerable and uncertain, refugees can be exploited by local political entrepreneurs in need for a following. In the case of South Kivu e.g., the exodus of refugees from neighbouring countries further nourished loal conflict hat itself was a consequence of growing state collapse. The presence of mainly Hutu refugees contributed to the growing local political fault-lin on ethnic terms and to the formation of armed movements. Although the direct link between the presence of refugee camps and the civil war that in 1996 broke out in Eastern Zaire is very clear, it will be argued that actual conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is partly a consequence from the same logic. The Right To Wait: Irelands's Answer To Asylum Seekers Teresa Galvin Dept. of Sociology Trinity College Dublin Ireland Based on reseach among asylum seekers and refugees in the Republic of Ireland, this paper is concerned with Ireland's failure to develop clear and coherent policies to deal wiht its new and more extensive role as a refugee host society. In the period since 1994, and for the first time, the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland has increades significantly. Existing Irish policies tend to portray asylum seekers as a temporary phenomenon while inadequate procedures leave individuals waiting for periods of over three years for the outcome of their application for refugee status. This paper examines the response of asylum seekers to prolonged periods of uncertainty and the strategies employed by asylum seekers in coping with host governement policies which reduce 'the right to asylum' into little more than the individual's 'right to wait'. Health Nutritional Status Of Refugees: Case Study of Kakuma Camp, Kenya Duncan Ngare Senior Lecturer Department of Behavioural Sciences Moi University Eldoret Kenya The health and nutritional status of refugees in Kakuma Camp was researched with the aim of seeking to improve their status. The research also examined the underlying causes of these problems. Review of hospital data and field data collection revealed that both morbidity and mortality levels are at times as high as expected during emergency phase. The nutritional status of the refugees shows a deteriorating trend over the last four years. Closely related to nutrituon is the problem of anaemia which is highly prevalent among some minors. Further research has shown that minors who have foster parents seem to suffer most from this problem. Results of this study have raised several research questions which will be addressed during the second year of the study. These questions include: Are the morbidity patterns observed in the camp any different form those of the host population? What are the major determinants of the high mortality rates in the camp and how can they be prevented? What are the underlying causes of aneamia among the minors? What are the main causes of malnutrition in the camp, especially wasting among school aged children. These questions and others addressed by the study will provide a framework from which recommendations will be made to improve he lives of refugees. Theme C: 'Re'patriation, reconstruction, and social reconciliation. Social and Economic Reintegration of Refugees in Post-War Mozambique: Rural Development Struggles in Zambezia Province. Robert Mazur Sociology Department; Iowa State University Ames, Iowa USA Resuscitation of the rural economy provides the framework for social reconciliation in post war society. Zamb'zia was one of the most remained. The destruction of the economy that was basically agricultural in nature left Nicaragua as the second poorest nation in the hemisphere after Haiti. Today, unemployment stands at 70%; infant mortality is at levels not seen since the 1950s; and, the societal conflict is high due to the political turmoil and desperate poverty. With this backdrop, I decided in 1996 to design a study of refugees who had returned to Nicaragua after the war to see how that had adjusted and what if any psychological problems they were experiencing. My original plan was to study refugees in the city and also the country-side and compare the economic, social, and emotional status with rural and urban control groups and with each other. However, the reality of the situation altered my intentions. First, I was not able to travel to the country-side to access study and control groups since there were a number or rearmed bands of soldiers terrorizing the area. Second, I soon discovered that in addition to refugees (person who had actually left the country and lived in United Nations camps), there were other groups that should be included in the investigation. These were: demobilized soldiers and their families, displaced persons (those who did not cross a national border), economic migrants from the county-side ( a major occurrence in underdeveloped nations, and economic migrants internal to the city (those who move constantly in search of work. The study, the first phase of which was completed in August , 1997, focused upon the economic, social, and psychological adjustment of forced migrants and voluntary migrants since Nicaragua's civil war. Conceptualization The literature on refugees and displaced persons identify a number of key factors that influence psychological adjustment. These include loss (Drachman, 1992 and Bernier, 1992), separation of family members (Ager et. al., 1991, Eisenbruch, 1992, and Masser, 1992), stress (Tran, 1993 and Orley, 1994), coping abilities (Eth and Pynoos, 1985, Bromley, 1988, and Timberlake and Cook, 1984), trauma (Hjern et. al. And Duingtraan, 1996). Too, there is considerable evidence that one's economic situation ( Hirayama et. al, 1993) and the individual's or families system of social supports (Glassman, 1984 and Mui, 1996). In other words, one's adjustment following displacement is influenced by stress, loss, and trauma as mediated by self-esteem and social support systems. Methods The first phase of the study completed in 1997 emphasized both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Participant observers spent five months in a selected neighborhood of displaced persons in Managua, Nicaragua. They kept of diary of daily activities. Key informants focus groups assisted in the review of the questionnaire and the development of a Stress Scale. Trained interviewers administered a questionnaire to a group of 235 randomly drawn participants, representing forced migrants (refugees, demobilized soldiers, and displaced persons) and voluntary migrants ( economic migrants from the country-side and urban economic migrants). Finally, four life histories were recorded from each of the migrant samples, that is 20 life histories collected in total. These data are currently being analysed. It is my intention to report the preliminary findings of my study to IASFM members at their bi-annual meeting in Gaza, Palestine. I believe that this research has significant implications for policy, services, and future research. Chakma/Hajog Refugees and India Dr. Saradindu Mukherji Dept. of History Hansraj College University of Delhi Delhi India Facing genocide non-Muslim tribals of Bangladesh (earlier East Pakistan) have entered India over the years. About 100000 refugees are dependent on the Indian government but no one in India has internationalised their plight. European ngo's have hightended their tragedy and rendered help. Chakmas want justice. Neighbouring population and local administration resent their presence considering them as burden. India's policy is to repatriate some of them now camping in Tripura. Bangladesh promises to accept some of them. But there is great uncertainty over those living in other parts of India. Experiences of those repatriated recently being bitter, the rest are not prepared to return. They want guaranteed security and restoration of land. Bangladesh and th tribal refugees are negotiating. How can one solve the problem? To return or not to return: gendered decision-making of Eritrean women and men contemplating repatriation. Lucia Ann McSpadden, Senior Research Fellow Life & Peace Institute, Richmond, CA U.S.A.. Liberation of Eritrea from Ethiopia was achieved in May 1991 after 30 years of trench warfare. It was then possible for Eritreans in resettlement to return as the conditions which caused their flight no longer existed. Eritrea was at peace and the liberators were the government. Several western countries have either initiated programs to enable Eritreans to return or have, by refusing to grant asylum, insisted that the Eritreans return. Although in earlier research all of the resettled Eritrean refugees interviewed insisted they would return to Eritrea as soon as liberation was achieved, very few, in fact, have done so. This paper is a componet of collaborative, longitudinal research with Eritreans in resettlement. Based upon interviews conducted in Western U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Eritrea, the paper analyzes the decision-making of a selected group of Eritrean women and men refugees resettled in western countries as they confront the possibility of returning to Eritrea. Issues of education, employment, marriage and children's education, access to land, and protection of individual rights are salient. However, the identification of issues, the priority and nuancing given to these issues are importantly gendered. The costs and benefits in resettlement and in repatriatiion are analyzed by the refugees from a gendered perspective such that, although few are deciding to return permanently, the reasons are importantly different for women and for men. The research contributes to our understanding of gender in the refugee experience and points to some issues which need to be addressed by policy makers if refugees in resettlement are to be enabled in their desires to return. The need for longitudinal research in refugee studies is premised upon the understanding that the 'refugee experience' is a process with shifting priorities, issues, and responses. Ehtics and forced migration. Gabriela Rodriguez, psychologist El Productor San Jos' Costa Rica In 1998 in Central America, the situation of forced migrants and mental health calls us to reflect, especially after the signature of the Peace Agreements. Democracy is not sustainable when thinking about the thousands of migrants in search of survival, given the maintenance of the root causes of conflict: poverty, injustice and unequal opportunities, and the exclusion of forced migrants without identification papers and refuge seekers without recognized status. Our ethic challenge is to accompany directly the people excluded of categorizations and narrow mandates. The social support component for female Africans in returnee programmes. H. Carew Moi University Department of Educational Psychology Eldoret Kenya Social support is a known significant buffer against poor mental health because it fosters psycho-social adjustment among individuals. Despite the acquisition of certain valuable skills in camps, camp life is not the best particularly for women and children who form the majority population. As voluntary repatriation is considered in the light of hard evidence of continuous hazards in the native land, social fears and poor mental health is likely to increase. Commendable medical and social work experiences among former female sex slaves,combatants and civilian refugees in war torn African settings are cited. The need for regular and adequate funding of social support programmes to help females cope with perceived risks is raised. The contributions of healthy female returnees in their national social reconstruction process cannot be under-played. Home is a dream in your head: themes of aleination among returned South African exiles. Zonke Majodina Rivonia South Africa Based on a survey of South African exiles who returned to South Africa following the events that changed the political future of the country, this paper examines the factors that influenced the adaptation of these former exiles. The paper also integrates the conceptual framework of Transition cycle theory, which conceptualises adaptation as a transition that takes place in stages. It argues that the three psychosocial variables: re-entry difficulties, social support and coping operate to influence adaptation outcome, subject to the psychosocial demands that characterise each of these stages. In the case of the South African sample under study, results of the survey show that re-entry difficulties played a dominant role in predicting adaptation outcome. The influence of these re-entry difficulties far outweighed that exerted by social support and coping. Repatriation and self-settled refugees in Zambia: bringing solutions to the wrong problems. Oliver Bakewell, Centre for Development Studies University of Bath Bath United Kingdom In the literature there is a wide gulf between refugee studies and migration studies which can give rise to very different understandings of the needs and interests of the people who are moving. A case study of Angolans in Zambia examines how the movement of rural people across the border into Angola is perceived by villagers and the government and international community. It finds that most of those perceived as repatriating refugees by the government and UN bodies actually see themselves as villagers moving in search of better livelihoods in resource rich Angola. The wide gap in understanding is a reflection of very different interests in the processes of integrating newcomers and controlling nationality and refugees. It results in interventions which are inappropriate as they aim to solve refugee problems seen by outsiders rather than responding to the priorities of local people. The role of internally displaced women int he reconstruction of the social tissue affected by the political violence in Peru. Ana Maria Rebaza Suyasun Lima Peru Internally displaced women developed a main role in the emergency phase as well as in the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase in the urban and rural context. Traditionally their social and political role was almost not considered in their rural communitties of origin. They were exposed to a very intensive social learning process, impelled by the motivation to look for survival strategies. Nevertheless, their self-consciousness not always reflects the importance of the role they played, with the risk to lose level in their negotiation power in the community process. And though, the future process cannot exclude their social and political participation. The social responsibility of the medical profession in post-war conditions and possibilities for actions. Dr. Anica Mikus Kos Center for Psychosocial Help to Refugees; Ljubljana Slovenia The post-war period is accompanied by tremendous social problems like tensions between groups in the population and poverty. These problems require social commitment of the medical professional establishment, which has a huge impact on the quality of life of the population and on its feeling of security. On the other hand, in such circumstances there is a great danger for health and mental health workers to be trapped in personal or institutional interests. From his/her professional position, the health worker - phycisian, nurse or member of allied professions - has plenty of possibilities and occasions to disseminate the ideas of humanity, to prevent tensions among groups and to protect hman rights. Social activism can be performed through usual everyday professional work and through broader social activities. As a member of the national elite the medical worker can act as a role model, become a spokesman for the deprived groups, for friendly coexistance and solidarity. Advocacy, lobbying and other public activities are a part of social reconstruction of the country. The social involvement of health professionals requires new modes of behavior, openness towarrd the community, capacity to establish partnership in collaboration with various institutions, services, ngo's, groups of citizens and political fora. The ethic, the philosophy, and the know how of social involvement should be and essential part of curricula of education of medical workers. To fulfill a socially active function in communities wiht manyfold tensions requires energy and courage. Therefore, a supportive network is very important. Repatriation can be a succesful new migration for asylum seekers. Abdelhak Elghezouani Appartenances Lausanne Switserland New developments in Swiss asylum policy has made social workers and therapists face up a new challenge which could be summarized in few words: going back cam be worked out as a new migration with chances of success. Amongst and in combination with other activities, the Men's Center of association 'Appartenances' in Lausanne (Switserland) wants to: - Promote the possibilities for asylum seekers to reinforce identity often fragilized by migration - Help asylum seekers face up the difficulties to adapt and integrate - Develop a possible future project, including going back We would like to show how it is possible to answer these questions by - Giving concrete meaning to the staying of asylum seekersBrighton United Kingdom This paper address those challenges posed by return of refugees from western Europe to Bosnia- Hercegovina since the Dayton Peace Accords. It focuses on the question of when, and on what basis, different actors consider it safe or appropiate for refugees' exile to end. In addition, it addresses how the success of refugee return has been evalutated by these actors. After an initial discussion of how the principle of a return home fits into the pattern and nature of forced migration within and outside Bosnia, the paper analyses in particular the return policies adopted by European Union members states for Bosnians with temporary protection, and evaluations of their success and failure. Whilst it is accepted that return of Bosnians may be a desirable outcome for individuals, communities and states, it is argued that in many cases, policies to promote return home have been based on inappropriate assumptions about the constraints to return, and the political geography of post-war rconstruction. The importance of psychosocial counselling regarding repatriation. Patricia Schell Stichting Pharos Utrecht The Netherlands The evens leading to a forced migration, the forced migration itself and life in exile cause an overload of the psychic resources of refugees. This makes them vulnarable for health problems (physical and mental). Studies of health organisations in different asylum countries have shown that refugee populations are a high risk group. Repatriation is by definition a new migration. Some of them make th decision voluntarily, others are forced into this new migration. The stress and emotions involved in this process may cause psychological problems or worsen preexisting ones. There is some evidence that psychosocial guiance at different levels (individual, family system and group) can help prevent further psychosocial deterioration and will enhance the chance of a well prepared return and of a successfull reintegration. Different experiences with psychosocial guidance of returnees will be discussed.v Reverse Migration as a Development Strategy: The Case of Palestine. Mohammed Almbaid Ramallah West Bank This paper indicates that successive waves of migration from Palestine have been a major cause of its underdevelopment. The social, political and economic consequences of outmigration from Palestine are analyzed in light of their contribution to the Palestinian underdevelopment since 1948. A gradual and reverse migration is then proposed a potential viable strategy to remedy some of the negative outcomes of the previous outmigration. By applying a selective reverse migration in the short term, I argue that potential return migration can provide the technical skills and capital needed to advance the Palestinian economy in the years to come. This proposed paper will rely on an extensive library research that the author conducted while preparing for an earlier draft. Local Dimensions of Violence and Post conflict Repatriation: Observations form the Mozambican Case Stephen Lubkemann Brown University, Population Studies and Department of Anthropology Brown University Providence RI USA Refugee displacement processes characterize many conflict contexts where the nation-state's authority is tenuously recent. This paper examines how conflict and reactions to violence in Mozambique (1977-1992) were structured primarily by community and family-level social tensions rather than by national-level politics. It demonstrates how alignment with national factions was primarily a strategy for engaging in local-level politics and delineates how migratory decisions were shaped by these micro-level socio-political considerations. It particularly considers how post-conflict return patterns have been affected by the irresolution of local social conflict despite the war's resolution at a macro-political level, suggesting that repatriation policies in these contexts must vitally address conflict resolution at local and not only macro-political levels. "Express Lane" Repatriation: Opportunity or Obstacle to Development inh Post-War Somaliland. Laura Hammond UNDP (Hargeisa Office) Nairobi Kenya It has become almost clich' for migration specialists to recommend that, particularly in post-conflict situations, repatriation of refugees should not take place until infastructural, social and economic preparations are made. The practical reality is that such advise continues to go unheeded. This paper examines reasons for this gap between theory and practice, as seen through the lens of the repatriation experience in Somaliland (NW Somalia). Repatriation from Ethiopia has been carried out in the absense of reintegration policy and planning and with inadequate preparation or coordination, despite a generally high level of theoretical awareness of the prerequisites for successful reintegration. Recommendations for improvements are offered. [Home] ..
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