Human suffering within the Horn has become endemic. The multi dimensional crisis that has surrounded the region for decades have been exacerbated by inter and intra-ethnic violence, conflicts and wars. These conflicts and wars have had disastrous social, economic, political and environmental consequences-in particular human displacement within the Horn.
It is often difficult to give clear answer whether displaced people in the Horn are Convention refugees, environmental refugees or simply economic migrants. The problem that they face in the first country of asylum and the resettlement is worth discussing.
The political, economic and ecological situation within the Horn of Africa has been gravely deteriorated during the last few years. Armed conflicts of all sorts have destabilized the region. For example, the policy og grouping forces of villages and enterprises by the former military government of Ethiopia has contributed to the destabilization of the region. Further, it has caused the political and economic instability.
Generally, within the Horn, there has been conflict after conflicts war, revolution, coups and counter coups since political independence. Thus, different factors have forced millions to leave their homes in order to either stay safe elsewhere until conditions get better to return home or establish military bases within nearby places in order to conduct armed struggle against the system they opposed or against the government that forced them to leave their country.
Those dictatorial regimes created natural destruction and degradation. As a result, for the local population, there was only one option left i.e. Flight from their place of origin or from their country of origin. The flight however was not easy.
There rests one question and that is: are those who left real refugees or simply economic immigrants? After the great drought of 1984-85, some dramatic incidence occurred within the refugee camps in Ethiopia in Wadkawli. Same thing happened In Sudan, in Itang which called for the international community to come up with decent and durable solutions to these new categories of refugees.
This region experienced man made and environmental cataclysms for a long period of time wars, conflicts along with dictatorial regimes, absence of democracy and immense persecution. Further, drought and massive flooding also provoked disorganization, massacre, premature death , mass exodus least to say. Turn by turn, the Horn has been known by policies copied from Soviet, Chinese and Cuban Marxist Leninist model.
There was no long term period of peace and stability that the region enjoyed. Wars between Ethiopia and Eritrea, Ethnic and religious violence between the North and South Sudan, civil war in Somalia led by former Somalian dictator Siaid Barre and his oppositions caused much distraction and destabilization of the region.
All those wars and rivalries caused economic, political, social and environmental destruction. States within the horn are geographically placed within turbulent climatic conditions and within an environment of drought and flood causing habitants to flee leaving their place and/or their country of origin to different places within the region or outside the region in order to find peace and tranquility and even to find a place less miserable to avoid death.
Those displaced people because of ecological destruction are the new categories of refugees and according to jurisprudence international, they qualify to be environmental refugees. They are victims of natural calamities such as drought, flooding, desertification or other catastrophic conditions. They are forced to be displaced and not voluntarily left, therefore, they need protection and assistance same way conventional refugees are entitled.
The first modern definition of international refugee status came about under the League of Nations in 1921 from the Commission for Refugees. Following World War II, and in response to the large numbers of people fleeing Eastern Europe, the UN 1951 Refugee Convention adopted (in Article 1.A.2) the following definition of “refugee” to apply to any person who: “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
In 1967, this legal concept was expanded by the UN Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.
The Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa expanded the 1951 definition, which the Organization of African Unity adopted in 1969:
“Every person who, owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality.”
The 1984 regional, non-binding Latin-American Cartagena Declaration on Refugees includes: “persons who have fled their country because their lives, safety or freedom have been threatened by generalized violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order.”
As of 2011, the UNHCR itself, in addition to the 1951 definition, recognizes persons as refugees:
“who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence and unable to return there owing to serious and indiscriminate threats to life, physical integrity or freedom resulting from generalized violence or events seriously disturbing public order.”
European Union’s minimum standards definition of refugee, underlined by Art. 2 (c) of Directive No. 2004/83/EC, essentially reproduces the narrow definition of refugee offered by the UN 1951 Convention; nevertheless, by virtue of articles 2 (e) and 15 of the same Directive, persons who have fled a war-caused generalized violence are, at certain conditions, eligible for a complementary form of protection, called subsidiary protection.
The same form of protection is foreseen for displaced people who, without being refugees, are nevertheless exposed, if returned to their countries of origin, to death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatments. There are crucial distinctions between the terms “refugee” and “migrant”: Refugees are persons who are outside their country of origin for reasons of feared persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or other circumstances that have seriously disturbed public order and, as a result, require international protection.
While there is no formal legal definition of an international migrant, most experts agree that an international migrant is someone who changes his or her country of usual residence, irrespective of the reason for migration or legal status.
Generally, a distinction is made between short-term or temporary migration, covering movements with a duration between three and 12 months, and long-term or permanent migration, referring to a change of country of residence for a duration of one year or more. By the end of 2017, there were 25.4 million refugee men, women and children registered across the world.
The convention and protocol has two merits. First, it defines refugees in terms of jurisdiction and the second one defines refugees in terms of clear legal terms and in relation to the assignments and obligations of refugees’ countries of origin.
Refugees have responsibilities within their host nations as well. They must respect rules and regulations of the host nation. In the same way, refugee’s rights and privileges must be respected by host nations as well. Fundamental rights of refugees such as the right not to be deported to nations where their rights are in danger because of their political affiliation and/or opinion and because of their race, religion, nationality or social grouping must be respected
It should be noted that the problem of refugees and displaced people in Africa in general and in the Horn in particular is associated within the absence of fundamental human right within the refugees’ countries’ of origin often exacerbated by direct or indirect foreign intervention mainly from the super power. Therefore, this problem is part of the global problem.
The solution to such problem should not be left to Africans alone, for only through the joint cooperation of the international community can a durably, long term solution to such problem be achieved. In a world where nearly 1 person is forcibly displaced every two seconds as a result of conflict or persecution, the work at UNHCR is more important than ever before. Although refugee movement may result of social and political upheaval in a society, it occurs mainly in the case of ethnic and ideological purity rather than economic gain.
The Ethiopian Herald July 27/2019
BY YOHANNES GEBRESELLASSIE (Ph.D)