Millionen in der Fremde gefangen
Flüchtlingsbericht der UNO mit pessimistischer Prognose *
Die Zahl der Flüchtlinge wird nach Schätzungen der Vereinten Nationen in den nächsten zehn Jahren weltweit deutlich zunehmen.
Neben dem Hauptgrund Krieg würden andere Fluchtursachen im kommenden Jahrzehnt stärker werden, sagte UN-Flüchtlingskommissar António Guterres am Donnerstag (Ortszeit) in New York bei der Veröffentlichung des aktuellen Weltflüchtlingsberichts.
Zu diesen Gründen zählte der Portugiese den Klimawandel, das Bevölkerungswachstum, die Verstädterung und den Mangel an sauberen Nahrungsmitteln, vor allem an Wasser.
»Die Welt sorgt schneller für Entwurzelungen als sie Lösungen produziert«, erklärte Guterres. »Das heißt, dass immer mehr Menschen über Jahre in der Fremde gefangen sind, unfähig zur Rückkehr nach Hause. Flucht und Vertreibung sind ein internationales Problem, und das benötigt eine internationale Lösung - und ich meine eine politische Lösung.« Die meisten der weltweit 43 Millionen Flüchtlinge seien im eigenen Land auf der Flucht, wird in dem neuen Report konstatiert. Das sind den Angaben zufolge etwa 26 Millionen. Die übrigen suchen Asyl in fremden Ländern und bleiben oft über Jahre oder gar Jahrzehnte dort. Weltweit gebe es zwölf Millionen staatenlose Menschen, ohne Dokumente oder einen Staat, der sie anerkennt. Diese Menschen seien in der Regel jahrelang in einer juristischen und oft auch humanitären Notlage.
Guterres betonte zudem, dass die Hilfe für Flüchtlinge immer schwieriger werde. Die Arbeit werde nicht nur aufwendiger, sondern in vielen Ländern auch immer gefährlicher. »In Ländern wie Somalia, Afghanistan, Jemen oder Irak heißt Hilfe für im Land vertriebene Menschen, dass man in einer schwierigen, gefährlichen Umgebung arbeitet, die ein tödliches Risiko sein kann.«
Als aktuelle Beispiele für die Zunahme der Zahl der Flüchtlinge nannte Guterres die Konflikte in Syrien und Mali sowie zwischen Sudan und Südsudan.
* Aus: neues deutschland, Samstag, 2. Juni 2012
Entwurzelte Flüchtlinge
Von Martin Ling **
Die Welt sorgt schneller für Entwurzelungen als sie Lösungen produziert. Dieser Satz des UNO-Flüchtlingskommissars António Guterres bringt das Dilemma des UN-Flüchtlingshilfswerkes UNHCR auf den Punkt. Seine Aufgaben und seine Mandanten wachsen schneller als die Kapazitäten, ihnen zu helfen, ganz zu schweigen von einer systematischen Ursachenbekämpfung.
Um fast 20 Millionen nahm allein seit 2005 die Zahl derjenigen Menschen zu, denen das UNHCR helfend beim Kampf ums Überleben unter die Arme greifen musste - mehr ist in der Regel nicht drin. Perspektiven auf ein würdiges, selbstbestimmtes Leben vermag das UNHCR nicht zu schaffen, das ist Aufgabe der internationalen Politik. Eine Aufgabe, bei der sie kläglich versagt. Nirgendwo wird das deutlicher als in der Klimapolitik. Allen Konventionen und Protokollen zum Trotz war der CO2-Ausstoß im vergangenen Jahr so hoch wie noch nie. Und längst sind laut Weltflüchtlingsbericht durch den Klimawandel forcierte Naturkatastrophen noch vor kriegerischen Konflikten Fluchtursache Nummer eins. Bereits jetzt sind Millionen von Menschen aufgrund sich ausweitender Dürre- und Überflutungsgebiete weltweit auf der Flucht. Prognosen reden von bis zu 200 Millionen Menschen, die deshalb im Jahre 2050 ihre Herkunftsregionen verlassen müssen.
Das UNHCR fordert internationale Lösungen, die seiner Meinung nach mit einem nachdrücklichen politischen Willen auch zu finden wären. Dem ist sicher so, doch allein die Tatsache, dass 80 Prozent der Flüchtlinge im Globalen Süden und nicht im reichen Norden leben, senkt den akuten Handlungsdruck im Norden. Im Zweifel wird in den USA und in der EU eher in Grenzzäune oder in den Ausbau der mobilen Flüchtlingsabwehr investiert als in Programme zur Bekämpfung von Fluchtursachen. Nicht die Solidarität nimmt zu, sondern das Ressentiment gegenüber den Armen, die angeblich an die Fleischtöpfe der Reichen drängen, dabei wollen sie nur nicht verhungern. Aus der 2001 in der Welthandelsorganisation in Doha ausgerufenen »Entwicklungsrunde«, die dem Süden faire Globalisierungschancen eröffnen sollte, ist nichts geworden. Stattdessen drücken USA und EU Ländern des Globalen Südens ein Freihandelsabkommen nach dem anderen auf, indem sie sie gegeneinander ausspielen. So werden Fluchtursachen geschaffen statt bekämpft.
** Aus: neues deutschland, Samstag, 2. Juni 2012 (Kommentar)
Global Appeal 2012-13
Im Folgenden dokumentieren wir das Vorwort des Hohen UN-Flüchtlingskommissars zur jüngsten Veröffentlichung des UNHCR: "Global Appeal 2012-13". Hier geht es zur ganzen Studie: http://www.unhcr.org/ga12/index.xml
Challenging Times - Dangerous World
by António Guterres, UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES
We live in challenging
times in a dangerous world. Events
causing displacement are happening
everywhere – except, it seems, where
we plan for them. In 2011, a quick
succession of new displacement crises in
Côte d’Ivoire, Libya, Yemen and Somalia, combined with
intractable existing conflicts in places such as Afghanistan
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, stretched our
capacity to respond to the breaking point.
The persistence of conflict in many parts of the world
has had a clear negative impact on durable solutions for
refugees. Fewer than 200,000 were able to return home
voluntarily in 2010, the lowest figure in more than 20
years. More than 7 million refugees (or two thirds of
all refugees for whom UNHCR has responsibility) find
themselves in protracted situations of exile, without a
solution in sight.
Many large-scale natural disasters in 2011 have occurred
in highly developed countries such as Australia, Japan
and the United States, but the developing world remains
much more vulnerable to their impact. The international
community needs to be prepared to respond in a fully
coordinated and effective way, while at the same time
building the resilience of States and communities to such
catastrophes.
SIMULTANEOUSLY CONFRONTED BY OTHER CHALLENGES
A number of well-known factors continue
to limit humanitarian space and our ability
to respond to the needs of refugees and the
internally displaced. The changing nature of
conflict – the multiplicity of actors, banditry,
the subordination of human rights to national
sovereignty, the blurring of the lines separating
civilian and military spheres – continues to pose
serious dangers for humanitarian principles and
workers.
At the same time, asylum space has long been
under threat, with populist politicians and certain
elements of the media promoting xenophobia
and scapegoating refugees and other foreigners.
Asylum-seekers increasingly face limitations
in their access to refugee status determination
systems, and rights long respected for refugees
begin to be scaled down. There have even been
incidents of expulsion and abuse.
As if all this were not enough, the nature of
displacement has also become more complex.
Population growth, urbanization,
food insecurity, water scarcity and
particularly climate change are
increasingly interconnected and are
combining with conflict and violence
to generate displacement. These
megatrends cannot be responded
to effectively in isolation, yet the
international community still lacks
the mechanisms – and often the will
– to respond holistically.
To take the most dramatic current
example, Somalia is an object lesson
in the consequences of a festering
conflict, drought and not always
consistent action on the part of the
international community. As a result,
hundreds of thousands of desperately
malnourished people are displaced
within and outside the country. The
vast majority of refugees continues to
go to Somalia’s immediate neighbours
Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Yemen,
for whom this influx poses significant challenges.
These countries are to be commended for
continuing to extend their welcome to the new
arrivals.
SOLUTIONS
In light of the increasingly difficult climate for
durable solutions for refugees, we will need to put
even more emphasis on achieving them as we
go forward. I have noted already the challenges
posed to voluntary repatriation by continuing
conflict. Nevertheless, some 118,000 Afghan
refugees voluntarily returned to their home
country, twice as many as in the previous year.
Given the limited opportunities for voluntary
return, resettlement has become an even more
vital solution. UNHCR submitted some 108,000
refugees for resettlement in 2010, and almost
73,000 departed to resettlement countries. The
volume of resettlement submissions has tripled
in the past few years, but we are committed to
doing even more, since the needs are still larger
than the number of resettlement places available.
It will not be easy, as our appeal for additional
places in response to the urgent resettlement
needs of refugees displaced from Libya into
Egypt and Tunisia made clear that many
resettlement countries are reluctant to enlarge
their programmes, even temporarily. Global
resettlement needs are estimated at 172,000
people in 2012 alone, compared to only 80,000
available spaces. The number of resettlement
countries, however, continues to grow. It stands
currently at 25. With continued advocacy
and support, such as twinning established
resettlement countries with newcomers and
more engagement with the municipalities to
which refugees are destined, I am confident that
even more countries will establish programmes.
With respect to local integration
and self-reliance, increased
international solidarity and
burden-sharing are the inescapable
prerequisites. Twenty per cent of the world’s
refugees are hosted in developing countries,
and more than ten per cent have found refuge
in countries with a GDP per capita below
USD 3,000 a year. The generosity shown by these
countries to refugees needs to be matched by the
international community, in particular through
development assistance to refugee-hosting areas.
The joint Transitional Solutions Initiative by
UNHCR and UNDP in eastern Sudan promises
to be an example for such assistance, targeting
more than 60,000 long-staying Eritrean refugees
and their Sudanese host communities.
The decision of the Government of the
Islamic Republic of Iran to make work permits
available to registered Afghan refugees and the
comprehensive Management and Repatriation
Strategy for Afghan Refugees developed by the
Government of Pakistan represent outstanding
examples of innovative responses to long-term
and seemingly intractable refugee situations.
Mobility and migration management policies
are another, particularly where none of the three
traditional durable solutions is attainable.
RESPONDING TO CHALLENGES
Responding to the challenges we face will require
not only a cost-efficient operating structure but
significant reinforcement of capacity.
The deep structural reforms UNHCR has
undertaken since 2006 are paying dividends.
Over the last five years, we have reduced our
staff costs from 41 per cent to 27 per cent of overall
expenditure. We have shrunk Headquarters costs
– including both Geneva and Budapest – from 14
per cent to 9 per cent in the same period. Without
this significant reduction and
the outposting of 30 per cent
of our Geneva-based staff, the
rapid rise in the value of the
Swiss franc would have made
responding to the multiple
emergencies in 2011 even
more difficult.
At the same time, we have
been steadily building up our
capacities in protection and
emergency preparedness.
New priorities are now being
developed in information
management and inter-agency coordination,
together with an increased emphasis on
accountability - both to beneficiaries and in terms
of oversight.
With respect to emergency preparedness
and response, the rapid succession of crises has
underlined both how far we have come and how
much further we have to go. More than 600
staff have so far been deployed on emergency
missions during 2011, two-and-a-half times
more than last year. At some point in June, more
than 300 staff were deployed at the same time,
including standby partners and volunteers.
While I am impressed by the willingness of
our staff to take up highly
demanding deployments on
short notice, every individual
who goes on mission leaves
a gap somewhere else in the
organization. The pressure
we have experienced is
not one we could sustain
indefinitely.
In consequence, we are
developing a staffing model
that will allow for faster
deployments at the outset of
an emergency and a more
structured way of transitioning to the next,
non-emergency staffing phase. Criteria for
defining, declaring and categorizing emergencies
will allow UNHCR to initiate a corporate
emergency response. We will increase the speed
with which financial resources are allocated
to new emergencies, aiming to issue the first
refugee funding appeals within 72 hours of the
declaration of an emergency, and exploring ways
of better coordinating with other organizations
around these appeals for refugee situations.
We will strengthen in-country leadership and
increase emergency training for staff at middle
and senior levels to ensure the highest possible
quality of emergency response.
With respect to protection, UNHCR’s
planning for protection capacity is becoming
more strategic. We are reviewing our plans for
strenghtening protection staffing, learning
and partnerships by projecting needs in these
areas for key operations over the coming five
years. Eighty-eight additional protection posts
were created in 2010 and 2011 in a number of
key structural protection areas in different
regions, as well as in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and Sudan. Meanwhile, the Global
Learning Centre in Budapest will soon be
completing a comprehensive review of protection
skills and competencies of UNHCR’s existing
workforce. Several new or updated training
programmes will focus on protection leadership
and coordination skills in both refugee and IDP
situations.
We will continue to emphasize protection
partnerships in 2012, with particular focus at
the national level. For example, UNHCR will
pursue a range of partnerships with local NGOs
and community-based organizations. The aim
of this is to help communities improve access to
protection for all their members, and to ensure
women and children actively participate in this
process.
Building on the lessons learned during
some of the large-scale humanitarian
emergencies of the past two years, we
will also invest more in the way we
manage inter-agency relations and provide
support and leadership to partners. We will
develop a framework, in consultation with our
key partners, for ensuring more predictable
and accountable inter-agency engagement
in refugee emergencies, under the overall
leadership of UNHCR. Reinforcing our capacity
in coordination and information management is
a key priority in this respect.
Finally, and critically, we will place even more
emphasis in 2012 on improving accountability
and control. The past several years have been a
period of intense focus on increased efficiency
and completing our structural reforms. During
the same period, the volume of our operational
activities has almost doubled. We now need
to invest strategically in accountability and
oversight to ensure we have the right structures
in place to properly and efficiently manage this
increased volume of activity.
PARTNERSHIPS/SOLIDARITY
In December 2011, we will commemorate the
60th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Earlier in the year we marked the 50th
anniversary of the 1961 Statelessness Convention
and the 150th anniversary of the birth of Fridjtof
Nansen, the first High Commissioner for
Refugees. The Commemorations process is
an opportunity for States to reaffirm core
values, pledge concrete actions to solve refugee
and statelessness problems, and fill gaps in
protection (notably those arising from new
forms of displacement). It is an opportunity too
for countering xenophobic and racist public
attitudes towards refugees and asylum-seekers.
Public debate in several countries continues
to be dominated by populist messages fueling
hostility towards foreigners, including refugees.
We need to find better ways of curbing the
influence of such messages. Solidarity is the
only viable response to displacement – both
with those who flee and with those who receive
them.
Stronger partnerships are vital to achieve our
goal of enhancing protection. We will continue
to build new and expanded partnerships with
governments, other UN agencies, the broader
humanitarian community – in particular NGOs
– and our people of concern.
Finally, a word on funding. I am deeply
grateful that despite these times of economic
turbulence our donors’ confidence in us is
stronger than it has ever been. In 2010, we
received a record USD 1.86 billion for our
programmes in 2010, from an increasingly
broadening donor base. Contributions from the
private sector have almost quadrupled in the
past five years, while a growing share of our
funding comes from non-traditional donors
and pooled funds. Given the increasing number
and complexity of the challenges we face, we
will need to continue to attract unprecedented
levels of support. We know we will have to earn
it, by bringing our reforms to full fruition and
achieving our priorities. We are committed to
succeed – given the unique trust of our mandate,
failure is not an option.
Source: http://www.unhcr.org/4ec230e90.html
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