id21 news release

June 25, 2003

The allegations, made by Professor Barbara Harrell-Bond, Founding Director of the Refugees Studies Centre at the UK's Oxford University, are reported in an article published by the development research reporters id21 at http://www.id21.org/id21-media/refugees/refugeecamps.html . The article also reports the response from Jeff Crisp, Head of the UNHCR Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit, that he "would not try to discount the possibility" that miscarriages of justice and collective punishments had taken place in UNHCR refugee camps. He further admitted that the UNHCR's own research had found that the traditional forms of justice practised within camps often flout international human rights standards. Crisp went on to explain that the UNHCR does not have the capacity or expertise to manage the size of the refugee populations - up to 200,000 - which have fled to their camps in Africa over recent years.

Despite their inadequacy in providing for the basic rights and needs of refugees, camps cost millions of dollars in international aid. This money would be better spent, Professor Harrell-Bond argues, if instead of building separate camp infrastructures for refugees, the UNHCR enabled host countries to absorb refugees amongst their own populations by using international aid to expand and improve their already existing hospitals, schools and welfare services. Harrell-Bond argues that such an approach - which is currently being pursued in Zambia - brings improvements in the welfare of not just refugees, but also of local communities in the host country. "If you think of all the millions that are spent on camps, if that were spent on schools, hospitals, and so on, I think it would transform many African counties," Harrell-Bond said.

When id21 put these arguments to the UNHCR's Dr. Jeff Crisp, he agreed that the local settlement of refugees was a policy the UNHCR should be pursuing more creatively. He argued however that the UNHCR is currently hindered in its exploration of alternatives such as this by the fickle nature of international aid. Even though it means they lose-out on aid to improve their own infrastructure and public services, host governments in Africa often prefer refugees to be kept in camps, because camps make refugees more visible. "If refugees simply go out amongst the local population, they become essentially invisible. And when refugees are invisible, it's much harder to mobilise international support for them" Crisp explained.

Professor Harrell-Bond further explained that international governments and agencies strictly divide their budgets between 'development' and 'relief', considering refugees only under 'relief'. Initiatives which seek to use aid donations more sustainably, by combining better provisioning for refugees with infrastructural development in the host country, are thus currently ignored by many donor bodies: "if you go with an application to ECHO (the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office) that smacks of 'development', you wont get money," Harrell-Bond complained.

Harrell-Bond and Crisp both argue that improving the lives of refugee populations in Africa now depends on whether or not international aid agencies and donor governments are willing to reconsider their assistance to refugees as part of a package of sustainable regional development.

This story was reproduced in South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper: http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=16261&t=1

The interviews from this feature were also broadcast by Australia's 3CR community radio station http://www.3cr.org.au/

NOTES TO EDITORS

The full text of the article 'Is the UNHCR doing its job? Combining refugee relief with local development in Africa' is available at http://www.id21.org/id21-media/refugees/refugeecamps.html.

The article is part of a multimedia feature, and includes sound clips from the interviews with Professor Harrell-Bond (2 mins, 7 secs) and Dr. Crisp (5 mins, 31 secs). As with all id21 features, the written article and sound clips may be freely reproduced, provided id21 and the original authors are acknowledged and informed. Kindly inform Sally Gainsbury (details below) if you intend to reproduce any id21 articles.

High quality audio files are available for broadcasters and webmasters. See 'notes for broadcasters and webmasters' further below.

For more information, or to arrange an interview with Professor Harrell-Bond or Dr. Crisp, contact Sally Gainsbury, id21 Research Editor, on +44 (0) 1273 877305, or s.gainsbury@ids.ac.uk

Professor Barbara Harrell-Bond is the founding Director of the Refugees Studies Centre at Oxford University, UK. She currently lives and works in Cairo, Egypt, where she is Acting Director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Programme at the American University in Cairo. Professor Harrell-Bond was interviewed in her home in Cairo, January 22, 2003. Dr. Jeff Crisp is head of the UNHCR Evaluation and Policy Analysis Unit. Dr. Crisp was interviewed at the UNHCR headquarters in Geneva, March 11, 2003. Both interviews were conducted by Sally Gainsbury, id21 Research Editor.

NOTES FOR BROADCASTERS AND WEBMASTERS:

Professor Harrell-Bond's clip is 2 minutes, 7 seconds long. Dr. Crisp's clip is 5 minutes, 31 seconds long. Broadcasters and webmasters may download high quality formats of both sound clips from the id21 website. For WAV format (uncompressed, high quality, large files - 7.76MB & 20.2MB ) go to http://www.id21.org/id21-media/refugees/wavfiles.html. For Windows Media and Real Audio format (513KB - 2874KB, at 32Kbps) go to http://www.id21.org/id21-media/refugees/compressed.html

Please contact id21 if you need any assistance in downloading these files.

- ENDS -