Call to review refugee laws, conventions

Existing refugee protection laws and conventions are outdated and the international community should urgently explore the possibility of setting up "safe havens" within countries in conflict, a Tanzanian minister said on Monday. Calling for a new approach to the refugee phenomenon, which Home Affairs Minister Omar Ramadhan Mapuri labelled "a potential threat to international peace and security", the Tanzanian government said refugees were a heavy burden on African countries, most of whom were very poor. "Tanzania is of the opinion that the international community should work out a strategy through which safe havens will be created for refugees within the borders of a country in civil strife," Mapuri said. "In so doing, refugees with their impending affects will be confined in a small area rather than allowing them to spread to other countries as is the case today," he added. The minister said that experiences in Bosnia during the 1990s and presently in the eastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), showed that it is possible to protect people within the borders of their own country under an international administration and protection. Mapuri was speaking during the opening of a three-day regional conference on the challenges of refugee protection in Africa. Tanzania is host to hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Great Lakes region. "The rights accorded to refugees under the UN 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to Refugees, far exceed the financial resources and integration capacities of host countries such as Tanzania, and indeed many developing countries," he said. Citing the example of Tanzania, he listed environmental degradation, retarded socioeconomic development, insecurity and, mistrust and strained relations with neighbouring countries as some of the costs of hosting refugees. He added that Tanzania was in a predicament over how to solve problems related to the refugee crisis - including the flow of small arms from the conflict spilling into the country while, at the same time, maintaining its responsibilities towards the refugees. Mapuri told the conference - attended by representatives from Burundi, the DRC, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia - that the 1951 Refugee Convention had been based on a less complex situation, more manageable number of refugees and victims of war between nations. "But today, we are dealing with refugees who are victims of war, internal hatred and gross political mismanagement," he said. A representative of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) acknowledged the issues of burden and responsibility, and said that through "special agreements," the UN agency was examining the matter. "This conference could, therefore, make a constructive contribution to furthering the objectives of Convention-Plus, while stimulating discussion on the very real and genuine concerns of refugee-hosting countries in Africa," Ngonlarbje Mbaidal, deputy director of UNHCR's Department of International Protection, said. Convention-Plus is a new proposal to help governments tackle current migration problems. However, Mbaidal reminded the conference delegates of the responsibilities that the international community had towards refugees. "Respect for refugees' fundamental rights as human beings is the first principle of human protection," he said. "These must be secured both in a legal sense [through legal protection] and a physical sense [covering the physical well being of refugees]," he said.