Svake minute 20 ljudi ostavlja sve iza sebe kako bi izbjegli rat, progon ili teror. Prema UN-ovoj Konvenciji o izbjeglicama iz 1951. godine, izbjeglica je osoba koja je pobjegla iz svojeg doma i zemlje uslijed „opravdanog straha od progona zbog svoje rase, religije, nacionalnosti, članstva u određenoj društvenoj grupi ili političkog mišljenja“. Mnoge izbjeglice nalaze se u egzilu zato da izbjegnu posljedice prirodnih katastrofa ili katastrofa uzrokovane ljudima.

Međutim, ovaj je koncept bio proširen Protokolom iz 1967. na Konvenciju o statusu izbjeglica iz 1951., kao i regionalnim konvencijama: u Africi – Konvencijom o izbjeglicama iz Organizacije afričke zajednice iz 1969., i u Latinskoj Americi – Izjavom iz Cartagene iz 1984. Te su konvencije uključile u status izbjeglica i osobe koje bježe od rata, strane agresije, okupacije, dominacije stranih sila ili velikih poremećaja javnog reda.

Prema UNHCR-u, UN-ovoj agenciji za izbjeglice, trenutno je 79,5 milijuna prisilno raseljenih ljudi širom svijeta. Od toga je 45,7 milijuna interno raseljenih osoba, što znači da su bili prisiljeni napustiti svoje domove i otići u druge dijelove svoje države. Preostalo je 26 milijuna izbjeglica, a 4,2 milijuna tražitelja azila. Tražitelji azila su ljudi koji su podnijeli zahtjev za stjecanje statusa izbjeglice, ali im taj status država u koju su izbjegli još uvijek nije priznala, stoga nemaju ista prava kao izbjeglice. Prema tom istom izvještaju, trenutno je 3,6 milijuna ljudi iz Venezuele raseljeno u inozemstvu.

U vremenima u kojima širom svijeta imamo najviše izbjeglica, zbog krize stvorene prisilnim migracijama, države teže smanjenju kvota za useljenje, što smanjuje mogućnosti tih ljudi da pobjegnu od nesigurne situacije u koju su dovedeni. UNHCR, UN-ova agencija za izbjeglice, izvijestila je o padu broja useljenja od 54% od 2017. do 2018. – 163.206 preseljenih u 2017. u usporedbi sa njih 75.188 u 2018. godini zbog smanjenja kvota za useljenje donesene od strane države.

Vlada Sjedinjenih Država smanjila je kvotu za useljenje izbjeglica na 18.000, najnižu kvotu od kada je donesen Zakon o izbjeglicama iz 1980. Ograničenje je 2019. bilo 30.000, a to je samo fragment kvote od 110.000 koje je Predsjednik SAD-a utvrdio kao dopuštenu kvotu useljenja u Sjedinjene Američke Države u 2016. godini.

Drugi problem s kojim se treba suočiti tijekom ove krize su prisilni povratci. U Europi je nekoliko država protjeralo rastući broj Afganistanaca koji nisu stekli izbjeglički status ili druge oblike međunarodne zaštite, usprkos pogoršanju sigurnosne situacije u Afganistanu i UN-ovih izvješća o razmjerno visokoj smrtnosti civila. Prema podacima Amnesty Internationala, tijekom 2018. godine Finska je prisilno deportirala 75 ljudi, Njemačka 366, Nizozemska 28, a Norveška 15. Osim toga, gotovo je 10 000 Afganistanaca bilo protjerano iz Europe 2015. i 2016. godine.

Zanimljiv je slučaj Izraela, nacije koja je povijesno mnogo pretrpjela, i to posebno tijekom nacizma kada su Židovi morali tražiti azil kako bi spasili život. Izrael je trenutno jedan od glavnih „proizvođača“ izbjeglica zbog sukoba s Palestincima. I ne samo to, izraelska je vlada započela 2018. godinu objavom svog Postupka deportacije u zemlje trećeg svijeta, prema kojem će neoženjeni muškarci iz Južnog Sudana i Eritreje koji nisu zatražili azil do kraja 2017. ili kojima je zahtjev odbijen, biti obavješteni o deportaciji bilo u zemlju podrijetla, ili u dvije neimenovane zemlje trećeg svijeta, za koje se pretpostavlja da su Uganda i Ruanda, navodi Amnesty International. Oni koji odbiju otići bit će pritvoreni dok ne pristanu na to, a u slučaju da ustraju ne otići, bit će prisilno deportirani. Ovim se postupkom krši međunarodna zakonska zabrana protjerivanja.

Drugi je spor ono što se događa s Rohindžama u Mjanmaru, gdje vojska i policija poduzimaju akcije etničkog čišćenja ove manjine, dok važne osobe poput dobitnice Nobelove nagrade za mir Aung San Suu Kyi ostaju u tišini. Prema Reutersu, više od 140.000 od procijenjenih 800.000 do 1.100.000 Rohindža bilo je prisiljeno potražiti utočište u izbjegličkim kampovima nakon nereda u pokrajini Rakhine 2012. godine.

Sirijski građanski rat trenutno je sukob koji je stvorio najviše izbjeglica. Njih preko 6.000.000 u najvećem broju traže azil ili smještaj u sirijskim izbjegličkim kampovima uspostavljenim u Turskoj (3.614.108), Libanonu (929.624), Jordanu (662.010), Egiptu (131.433), kao i drugim zemljama koje su smještene dosta daleko od njihove domovine, kao što su Argentina (3000) i Brazil (9000).

Da bi se zaustavile izbjegličke krize, rješenje treba biti zaustavljanje oružanih sukoba i ratova koji proizvode izbjeglice. Države bi trebale poštovati svoje međunarodne obveze definirane međunarodnim ugovorima o zaštiti ljudskih prava, jer bi u brojnim slučajevima uskraćivanje statusa izbjeglice i njihov prisilni povratak u domovinu mogli imati strašne posljedice po njih, uključujući smrt.

Umjesto da promiču diskriminaciju i segregaciju prema izbjeglicama, mediji bi trebali pokazati više primjera zlostavljanja kojeg su oni pretrpjeli i koliko im je zapravo teško doći do sigurnih država. Solidarnost i izravno djelovanje ljudi mogu biti načini da se ojača svačije pravo na traženje azila i dostojanstven život. Važno je da shvatimo, nitko ne bi iza sebe ostavio sve što posjeduje, svoju kulturu, prijatelje, pa čak i obitelj bez dobrog razloga, već zato što njihov život može biti u opasnosti.

 

 

 

United Nations General Assembly, on December 4, 2000, in the Resolution 55/76 decided that, from 2000, June 20 would be considered as World Refugee Day. In this resolution, the General Assembly noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It is a day to honor all refugees, raise awareness and solicit support.

 

Every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.

However this concept has been expanded by the Protocol of 1967 to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 1951 and by the regional conventions of Africa, the Refugee Convention of the Organization of the African Unity of 1969, and Latin America, the Declaration of Cartagena of 1984. These conventions included the status of refugees by fleeing from War, foreign aggression, occupation, domination by foreign power and great alterations of the public order.  

According to the UNCHR, the United Nations refugee’s agency, there are currently 79.5 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. Out of those, 45.7 million are internally displaced people, which means they were forced to leave their homes and move inside of their own country. The remaining are 26 millions refugees, and 4.2 million are Asylum-seekers. Asylum/seekers are people who have applied to acquire the status of refugees but has still not been recognized by the country they have fled to therefore they do not have the same rights as a refugees would have. According to the same report, there are currently 3.6 millions Venezuelans displaced abroad.

In times where we have the most refugees worldwide, states due to the crisis created by these forced migrations tend to make cuts to resettlement quotas, which reduces the possibilities of these people to escape the dangerous situation they were put into. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, reported a 54% drop in resettlement placements from 2018 to 2017: 75,188 compared to 163,206 in the previous year due to a decline in resettlement quotas provided for by states.

The US government cut its refugee admissions quota to 18,000, their lowest since the domestic Refugee Act was enacted in 1980. The 2019 limit was 30,000 and it is only a fraction of the 110,000 that the Presidency said it should be allowed into the United States in 2016.

Another issue to be tackled during this crisis are the forcible returns. In Europe, several states forcibly returned increasing numbers of Afghans who had not obtained refugee status or other forms of international protection, despite Afghanistan’s deteriorating security situation, and the UN reports of record high civilian deaths. According to Amnesty International during 2018 Finland forcibly deported 75 people; Germany returned 366; the Netherlands returned 28; and Norway returned 15. This was in addition to the almost 10,000 Afghans forcibly returned from Europe in 2015 and 2016.

An interesting case is the one of Israel, a nation who had suffered historically and specifically during Nazism having to seek for asylum to save their lives, is currently one of the mayor “producers“ of refugees due to the conflict with Palestinians. Not only that, the Israeli government started 2018 with the publication of its Procedure for Deportation to Third Countries, under which single South Sudanese and Eritrean men who had not applied for asylum by the end of 2017, or whose application was denied, would be served with deportation notices to either their country of origin, or to two unnamed "third countries", widely understood to be Uganda and Rwanda, according to Amnesty International. Those refusing to leave would be detained until they agreed to do so; in case they kept refusing to return, they would be transferred forcibly regardless of their will. The procedure violates Israel’s international legal obligation of non-refoulement.

Another controversial case is what is going on with Rohingya people in Myanmar, where the the army and police are taking action in order to ethnic clean this minority, while important figures such as the Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi remains in silence. According to Reuters, more than 140,000 of the estimated 800,000 to 1,100,000 Rohingya have been forced to seek refuge in displacement camps after the 2012 Rakhine State riots.

The Syrian Civil war is currently the conflict, which created the most refugees with over 6.000.000 with most seeking asylum or placed in Syrian refugee camps established in Turkey (3,614,108), Lebanon (929,624), Jordan (662,010), Egypt (131,433), and other countries really far away from their homeland such as Argentina (3000) and Brasil (9000).

In order to stop refugee crisis the solution should be to stop armed conflicts and wars, which produce them. States should respect their international obligations subscribed in Human Rights International treaties, as in a number of cases a denial of the refugee’s status and a enforced return to their home country could have horrible consequences for them, including death.

Instead of promoting discrimination and segregations towards refugees, media should show more the abuses suffered by them and how difficult it is to reach safe states. Solidarity and direct action by the people may be the way to strengthen everyone’s right to seek asylum and live in dignity. It is important to remember no one would leave behind everything they own, their culture, their friends and sometimes even family without justification but rather because their lives might be in danger.