Open letter to Mr. Ruud Lubbers, UNHCR

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday April 04, 2003 13:09 by ifir - IFIR 0031613940534

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has once again revealed its obvious

Open letter to Mr. Ruud Lubbers, UNHCR
02.04.2003 16:26

You should be ashamed!

Maryam Namazie's Open Letter to Mr. Ruud Lubbers, UNHCR

March 31, 2003

Mr. Ruud Lubbers

UNHCR
Geneva, Switzerland

Dear Mr. Lubbers:

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has once again revealed its obvious disregard for the lives and rights of the Iraqi people, including refugees and asylum seekers. While the UNHCR's main focus over the past two decades has been one of assisting governments in migration control, since September 11, it has further regressed into overtly promoting USA-led policies, which disregard rights and norms; these are becoming the hallmark of the new world order.

The current war on Iraq is a good case in point. Even before the USA-led war on Iraq, the UNHCR's role in support of it became blatantly clear. While you yourself professed concern about the humanitarian consequences of a war, you urged Saddam Hussein to step down to avoid a conflict rather than urge the USA and Britain to stop war efforts against the people of Iraq. On March 18, you told the UN Human Rights Commission: 'Even at this very last moment, like many others I have no other option but to pray that Saddam Hussein understands that it is time now for him and his sons to go'. 'As high commissioner for refugees, I am obliged to speak out'. Though Saddam Hussein’s despotic rule, among many others, is known to everyone, the fact is that the humanitarian consequences you were 'concerned' about and the catastrophe we are witnessing today are the direct results of the USA-led war. Were your obligations to the people of Iraq and Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers, you would have rather urged the USA and Britain to cease their war efforts against Iraq. We are still waiting for you to fulfil your obligation in calling for an urgent end to the war on Iraq.

With regards to Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers, again, your office has only revealed its negligence towards and disrespect of Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers and their rights. Even though it is estimated that the war will create one and a half to two million refugees, your office has only made contingency plans for 600,000. Furthermore, your agency continues to fund regimes like the Islamic Republic of Iran for Iraqi refugee assistance when you know full well that they have refused entry to Iraqis and have closed their borders shut. Were your agency's main concern refugee protection, a proper contingency plan would have been drawn up and serious pressure exerted to ensure that borders were opened and remained open. You have even pulled back your working units from Iraqi Kurdistan, where a new refugee catastrophe is unfolding besides that which has been ongoing since 1991.

To make matters still worse, your agency has recently distributed new guidelines to governments advising a freeze on Iraqi asylum claims for three months, during which Iraqis will instead be granted temporary 'protection'. Rather than condemn and exert pressure on the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and United Kingdom governments for freezing all decisions on Iraqi claims, your agency has recommended that all governments do this. It is clear that temporary 'protection' is the code word for denying Iraqis asylum and long-term protection by keeping them in limbo so that when deemed 'safe', they can be returned to Iraq without delay just as has been done with Afghan refugees and asylum seekers. These guidelines may be helpful to Western governments that are focused on reducing numbers rather than protecting refugees and asylum seekers (Iraqis were the top group applying for asylum in 2002 in Western countries) and will get the UNHCR brownie points in this new order. But from our point of view and that of millions of refugees and people worldwide, your policies and actions only reveal the extent to which your agency has degenerated from one that assists in migration control in the post cold war era to an agency that is directly violating people's rights and helping to change refugee rights norms and standards for the USA's New World Order.

Needless to say, until your agency's mandate states that it promotes refugee protection, we at IFIR expect you to do so. We will organise public opinion to exert pressure on your office to ensure that you protect Iraqi refugees and refugees in Iraq. Our demands are as follows:

1. Stop the war and slaughter of the Iraqi people immediately.

2. Open all borders to Iraqi refugees. Closing of borders by any government is a crime. No group or government can prevent the movement of refugees.

3. Recognise the right to asylum for all Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers.

4. Stop all deportations to Iraq and the region.

5. Provide necessary food, shelter, health care and sanitation to Iraqis, refugees and internally displaced via non-governmental agencies.

6. Transfer 100,000 refugees in Iraq, including Iranians, to safe places.

Sincerely,

Maryam Namazie

Executive Director