Ministers review refugee problems

Following a closed-door ministerial meeting on Friday, delegates from 48 African countries are expected to recommend policies to their governments to enable refugees to become "active participants" in development rather than a burden on host communities, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has reported.

The delegates, meeting in Geneva a day after the international community had reaffirmed its strong support for the 1951 Refugee Convention, discussed legislation aimed at granting refugees long-term access to land and the right to employment.

The delegates also called for more investment in education and training for refugees, and the introduction of self-help projects at the very early stages of a refugee emergency, UNHCR said. Discussions had also centred on improving registration of refugees, and solving problems posed by the mixed flows of migrants and refugees.

Africa, with 3.6 million refugees, accounts for 30 percent of the world's refugee population. It also has half the world's 20 million to 25 million internally displaced people. Genocide and civil wars in the past decade have produced hundreds of thousands of refugees in Rwanda, Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan and Somalia, according to UNHCR.

The massive influx, the agency added, had caused security problems in camps near dangerous border areas. Moreover, armed militias "have had to be separated from civilians" in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. These situations have compounded to the point at which Africa absorbs at least one-third of UNHCR's annual budget.

At Friday's meeting, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers told the African delegates that "business as usual" was no longer acceptable on the continent, and that "work must start now" to solve the long-term refugee crises.

African states responded by saying they faced difficult choices over the refugee problem. For example, they risked domestic unrest if they allowed refugees to work while unemployment remained high. Some delegates said if they encouraged local integration of refugees, the uprooted people would have little incentive to go home. In turn, they said, states which had produced the refugees in the first place would be disinclined to change their ways and seek a permanent solution.

However, a UNHCR proposal to adopt a resolution to separate armed groups from civilian refugees won support from several delegations, which nevertheless sought to know who would monitor the armed groups.