THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSION FOR REFUGEES

They have fled from their country because of a well-founded fear of being persecuted. For racial, religious or nationalistic reasons, for their political opinion or for belonging to a certain social group. Their governments do not protect them either because they can't or worse still because their aim is precisely that, to marginalise them and wipe them out. They can no longer return to their own home. Or don't want to return. They are refugees, tens of millions of people forced to live far from their roots, in poverty, under continuous threat from aggression, blackmail, humiliating violence, particularly for woman and children.
The UNHCR, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees takes care of them. Since 1950, when the General Assembly of the United Nations was established to bring help to the European refugees who had escaped during the second world war, this body has come to the aid of millions of refugees across the planet. Protection and assistance, as foreseen by the body's statute. On the one hand, the UNHCR ensures international protection, guaranteeing that the refugees are never sent - against their own will - to countries where they have reason to fear persecution, protecting first and foremost, their physical safety. On the other hand, they provide material assistance which includes:

There are three solutions sought by the High Commission to permanently resolve the refugee question. The first, and most auspicious, is repatriation in their countries of origin, an inalienable, sacred right of each individual. But this is only possible when the conditions which forced them to flee into exile have changed. If this is not the case, the UNHCR has two alternatives: either integration of the exiles in the countries where they found initial exile or new insertion in a third country.
Despite UNHCR's continuous work over the last 50 years - for which it has received a great deal of recognition, such as the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1981 - the problem of refugees gives no sign of diminishing. In January 2002, there were almost 20 million refugees and other subjects under the care of the High Commission, of which 12 million were refugees, 940,000 asylum seekers, 460,000 repatriates and 6.3 million evacuees and other such people. This means that one in 300 people in the world are forced to flee because of war or persecution. We can add to these figures an extremely high number of evacuees - people forced to flee from their homes while still staying in their own country - who receive no form of international protection or aid. Figures show that there are between 20 and 25 million evacuees in the world, 5 million of whom receive UNHCR aid. To sum up, there are approximately 50 million uprooted people - refugees and evacuees - who presently cannot return to their own homes.
The UNHCR based in Geneva, is financed almost entirely by voluntary contributions from governments, non-government organisations and private individuals. A modest financial contribution - the equivalent of 2% - aimed at partially covering administrative costs, is provided by the United Nations. In 2002, the body received contributions of approximately 920 million dollars as opposed to a request for approximately 1 billion and 60 million dollars. This difference - approximately 13% - has caused the agency to reduce and sometimes cancel, important aid programmes for refugees in different parts of the world. For 2003, approximately 836 million dollars have been requested. In July 2002, the High Commission employed 5,523 people in 286 offices spread across 114 countries. 84% of the staff (4,654 people) operate on location, often in remote, high risk areas, so much so that since the start of the '90's, 20 UNHCR operators have been killed while carrying out their job.
The post of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was held for ten years by Mrs Sadako Ogato. Then, in January 2001, - with a 3 year mandate - Ruud Lubbers, former prime minister of Holland and university professor took over.

A refugee is "someone who, for fear of persecution on grounds of race, religion or nationality, for belonging to a certain social group or for their political opinions, finds themselves out-with their Country or who, having no citizenship and finding themselves out-with their regular Country of residence due to such events, can't or won't return for fear of the above".
[Art. 1A Geneva Convention, covering the status of refugees, 1951]

BENEFICIARIES OF UNHCR

19,762,000 people presently come under the care of the UNHCR. They are mainly refugees from foreign countries and people who return to their own land after a forced stay abroad. We can add the evacuees within their own country to this: the United Nations High Commission for Refugees has also been caring for some of them for a few years now. But how do we distinguish the different categories of people forced to leave their own home? Where do they come from?

Refugees. International law defines refugees as those who are out-with their own country and cannot return because of a real fear of being subjected to violence or persecution. Refugees are recognised as such by the governments who signed agreements on their judicial status with the United Nations, or by the UNHCR itself under the definition contained in the High Commission's statute. At present, approximately 12,030,000 people in the world come under the status of refugee. Of these, 5,800,000 are in Asia, more than 3,300,000 in Africa, 2,200,000 in Europe, approx. 650,000 in North America, 37,000 in Latin American countries and the Caribbean and 65,000 in Oceania.

Repatriates. Refugees are forced to abandon their own homes under extreme threat and, almost always, want to return there as soon as circumstances allow. The UNHCR helps refugees to voluntarily return to their homes. Once this has taken place, the organization helps them reintegrate into their country of origin and supervises their safety. The duration of this work varies from case to case but rarely lasts more than two years. At present, the High Commission is helping more than 460,000 people at the re-entry stage. The most demanding repatriations over the last ten years have been with citizens from Afghanistan, Mozambique, Iraq, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Angola, Liberia and in 1999, Kosovo and Timor.

Asylum seekers. This category covers those who have left their own country of origin and, having requested asylum, are still waiting for a decision from the authorities in their host country on whether their status as refugee will be recognised or not. There are approx. 940,000 of them, mostly resident in North America and Europe. The UNHCR helps them with the practicalities of obtaining this status.

Evacuees in their own country and other such people. The protection and aid from the High Commission, following a request from the Secretary General of the United Nations, has gradually expanded to include categories of people not mentioned in the body's original mandate, covered at the Geneva Convention in 1951 and in the 1967 Protocol on the rights of refugees, for a total of 6,328,000 people, 5 million of which are evacuees.

Protecting the refugees:

questions and answers

Who is a refugee?
A refugee is someone who "due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, for belonging to a certain social group or political opinion, is out-with the country where they hold citizenship, and can't or, for fear, won't accept protection from that country"[Geneva Convention 1951 on the status of refugees].

Is everyone fleeing from war considered a refugee?
In Africa, anyone fleeing from armed conflict - and not subjected to personal persecution - is considered a refugee under the extended definition of the term refugee contained in the Convention of the Organisation for a United Africa (OUA), 1969. The UNHCR hopes that every country will adopt this liberal definition on the status of refugee.

What is the difference between a refugee and an economic migrant?
Refugees flee their country of origin to save themselves and require particular care. Migrants leave their country of their own volition in search of better economic conditions.

What rights do refugees have?
A refugee has the right to safe asylum. Refugees must have their fundamental rights respected - personal freedom, freedom of thought and movement - and social-economic rights - health care, the right to work and study - on the same level agreed for foreigners already legally resident in the country of exile, and sometimes on an equal level with the country's citizens. In countries where the state cannot provide aid, the UNHCR provides for their needs. Refugees are obliged to comply with and obey the laws in their country of exile.

What is meant by international protection?
Refugees flee because they feel their lives are in danger and because their rights are not protected by their country. The UNHCR deals with protecting refugees and collaborating, on this matter, with the receiving governments. One of the UNHCR's duties is to encourage governments to comply with international law. Countries cannot return refugees to a country where their lives would be in danger and must try and ensure they receive their fundamental rights and an acceptable standard of living.

What is meant by temporary protection?
Temporary protection is a mechanism which countries make use of when faced with huge influxes of refugees which makes the individual examination of each asylum seeker's case, unfeasible. Temporary protection can be revoked when it is safe for the person to return to their own country of origin.

Does the UNHCR also help evacuees?
Evacuees are forced to abandon their homes for the same reasons as refugees but do not cross over recognised international boundaries. The UNHCR does not have a general mandate to provide protection and aid to evacuees; however, over the last few years, they have done so on request from the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Can someone avoiding conscription be a refugee?
Those avoiding conscription or deserters who, for strong personal reasons and for fear of being persecuted because of their decision to avoid conscription or desertion, flee their country, can aspire to refugee status.

Can a soldier be a refugee?
Those who carry on armed fighting against their country of origin from their country of exile, cannot be considered refugees until they lay down their arms. Refugees are civilians by definition.

Can a criminal be a refugee?
Someone accused or convicted at a legal trial for a serious crime cannot normally be considered a refugee. However, if those who have been accused and convicted also fear persecution for political, religious or ethnic reasons or for belonging to a social group they can be considered refugees, unless their crime is so serious that they do not deserve protection.

Can a war criminal be a refugee?
Those involved in war crimes and gross violation of human rights - crimes against humanity, genocide - are refused the protection and assistance offered to refugees.

Can a woman who fears violence for refusing to conform to the regulations imposed on her society, apply for refugee status?
A woman who flees her country because of serious discrimination or inhuman treatment for refusing to comply with strict social codes (refusing to accept having a dress code imposed or the wish to choose her own husband), can aspire to refugee status under certain circumstances.

Can a woman who fears genital mutilation on herself or her daughter if she returns to her country of origin, request refugee status?
Genital mutilation is recognised as a form of persecution; if a woman decides to flee for fear of being subjected to it or having it inflicted upon her daughter, she could have a valid reason for aspiring to refugee status.

Can anyone who fears persecution because of their sexual tendencies aspire to refugee status?
Homosexuals can have the right to refugee status if subjected to persecution because they are homosexual.

THE FIGURES

(1) Approx. 3.8 million Palestinians come under the mandate of the United Nations Work and Aid Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), and are therefore not mentioned in this table. Palestinians who find themselves out-with the UNRWA's operating area such as those in Iraq and Libya - 349,100 - are regarded as being the responsibility of the UNHCR .
(2) As far as industrialised countries are concerned, the table includes the UNHCR's estimates on recently arrived refugees and on the approval of asylum requests.

(1) UNHCR's estimates based on the average number of cases (1.28 persons/case).

(1) Refugees in the country. Figures as of January 2002.
(2) Total of persons under charge of UNHCR. January 2002.
*This figure does not include minors, refugees recognised before 1990, nor those who have obtained humanitarian protection.

CHILDREN

"Now I need to look after my little brother Rukundo. We are in a tent in the camp for children on their own. He is always sad because he is thinking about our mother, but I try to behave like a big person because now I am head of the family".
Yankurije comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire). He is seven. But he is already a refugee. And life has forced him to think like an adult. Yankurije is not the only one. His story is similar, in many ways, to that of so many other young children of his age around the world. More than half of the 20 million people who come under the care of the UNHCR is made up children and adolescents under the age of 18. In some areas, the figures reach as high as 70% of the total. Every day, approx. 5,000 children become refugees.
It is these minors who are the most exposed victims when fleeing and in the refugee camps. They are the first ones to be deprived of their basic rights: the right to life, health, survival, development, the right to grow up in a family environment, the right to an identity and a country, the right to education and a prospect for the future. Many of the conflicts last throughout their childhood and adolescence: that is, from birth to maturity, millions of children only see exodus and fighting.
During the conflicts, minors become the most vulnerable targets for unexpected attacks, mines, bombings and snipers. Physically weaker than adults, they are the first to die when food resources run short and when illness spreads. In the chaos of fleeing, many children and adolescents run the risk of being separated from their families. When fleeing, their education is interrupted and often, particularly for young girls, it stops completely. Not only. Some countries deny children born as refugees, the right to have their birth and nationality registered in the country of exile, condemning them to a life as stateless persons.
The United Nations Convention on the rights of children in 1989 sanctioned that "no matter what the circumstance, children must be the first ones to receive assistance and care". Protect and assist refugee minors is one of the UNHCR's main priorities. Children, in fact, are not only individuals in particular need of aid, but represent "the future of a community and country". And a youngster deprived of his childhood, once an adult, can be responsible for new violence, new cycles of conflict and forced exodus. Based on this, the aim of the UNHCR is to help children, both as far as immediate needs are concerned - living, accommodation, medication - and for caring for those hidden wounds, such as psychological traumas, which can produce resentment towards other human beings.
It is in this scenario that the High Commission has aimed its work at five key sectors: the specific needs of children and adolescents, sexual violence and the exploitation of minors, education, enrolment of young soldiers and the problem of minors separated from their family.
Among the special programmes set up by the UNHCR, are ones regarding education and reconciliation of children on their own with their respective families. In 1996 for example, a programme was set up aimed at promoting the presence of refugee children and adolescents at school in Uganda, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Kenya, which brought about an increase of 40% in school attendance. The High Commission concentrates particularly on educating refugee children and youngsters: in 1990 there were approx. 320,000 children around the world who attended schools sponsored by the UNHCR. According to the latest figures in 2000, the number has increased to approx. one million out of 5 million children who should be benefiting from these programmes. Even this improvement hides certain unresolved problems, particularly in the sector of secondary education, where very few refugee boys and girls are given the opportunity to continue studying.
In 1994, the UNHCR also set up a large programme, in collaboration with other international organisations and non-governmental ones to identify refugees and help reunite families, in the wake of the conflict in Ruanda and the massive migration which took place in the area of the Great African Lakes. To date, more than 55,000 unaccompanied children have been reunited with their families.
There is, however, an alarming tendency. According to the latest estimates, there are approx. 300,000 minors enrolled in national armies or armed opposition groups. Under the United Nations Convention on the rights of children in 1989, the minimum age for enrolment was fixed at 15, although the United Nations Commission for human rights recently adopted an optional Protocol on the Convention of 1989 - to be proposed for signing - which foresees raising the minimum age to 18 for participation in military action. In many of the 36 countries where minors are armed, the minimum age falls dramatically: in Guatemala, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka, for example, child soldiers can be between the ages of seven and ten. In the Khmer Rouge army in Cambodia, according to some eye witnesses, children as young as five have been involved in military action. And if the male children are used in combat, female children are often used for sexual activity by the troops.
In Liberia, the UNHCR collaborated with a non-governmental organisation to identify the former combat children from among the recently arrived refugees from Sierra Leone. Psycho-sociological aid, training and peace education programmes were set up.

CHILDREN IN FIGURES

Refugee children

- 50% of all refugees are children and adolescents. In certain situations, this figure reaches as much as 70%. Every day, approx. 5,000 children in the world become refugees.

- Generally speaking, unaccompanied minors represent between 2 and 5% of a refugee population in an emergency. Only 25% of refugee children receive an education.

Children in war

- Almost all of today's conflicts rise up within the confines of a country and 90% of war victims are civilians, mostly woman and children. Over the last 10 years, more than 2 million children have been killed during armed conflict, another 6 million have been seriously injured or left permanently invalid, while more than a million have been left orphans or separated from their families.

- Every year, between 8 and 10,000 children die or are left mutilated because of mines.

- At present, children in at least 68 countries live under the permanent threat of 110 million mines disguised as toys or coloured in such a way as to attract the attention of little ones.

- It is estimated that approx. 300,000 children and adolescents are forcefully enrolled or kidnapped for fighting or in some way involved in wars, murders and deaths for reasons which they can only just understand. The number or age of these children is unknown, because the data is not registered or distributed by governments or armed groups.

- Investigations carried out show that in at least 62 countries the governing armed forces or paramilitary groups enrol young volunteers under 18.

Under the United Nations Convention on the rights of children in 1989, the minimum age for enrolment was fixed at 15, although an optional Protocol on the Convention of 1989 has been recently adopted - to be proposed for signing - which foresees raising the minimum age to 18 for participation in military action.

Children and poverty

- More than 600 million children around the world live on less than 1 dollar per day.

- One child in five in the developing countries is born weighing less than 2.5kg.

- Every year, approx. 12 million children under 5 die, mainly due to easily curable child illnesses.

- Looking at the latest estimates, there are 80 million children living on the streets around the world.

- Every year, 2 million children are subjected to genital mutilation.

- Every year, more than 1 million children lose their mother due to complications at birth. The probability of surviving is lower for these orphans than for children with a mother. Around the world, a woman dies every minute from pregnancy or birth complications, 600,000 every year. Almost all these deaths take place in developing countries.

- More than half of African woman and approx. one third of those in Latin America give birth as adolescents and are twice as likely to die during labour than an adult woman. Their children are more likely to be underweight.

Child slaves

- In the developing countries, 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 work. 120 million of these work full time and 130 million, part-time. 60% of these children are in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America.

- In the developing countries, between 60 and 70 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 work in dangerous conditions.

- In certain countries, children under 10 make up 20% of children working in the countryside and 5% of those working in the city.

- More than half these children work for 9 hours a day or more, while approx. 80% work 7 days a week. There are children who work 56 hours a week.

- More than 4 out of 5 children work for free. On average, female children work longer hours than male children and earn less than their male counterparts, despite doing exactly the same work.

- In Myanmer, on average, a child earns between 600 and 1,200 lire a day, and almost 90% of them said they spend between 200 and 600 lire per day on food.

- Approx. half the children in less developed countries have no access to education.

- Every day, 130 million children in the developing countries do not go to primary school. More than half of these - 73 million - are female children.

Children and Aids

- It has been calculated that 1.2 million children under 15 live with Aids.

- Every month, 250,000 children and adolescents are infected with Hiv. This means that every day in the world, 8,500 children and youngsters are infected, approx. 5 a minute. In 1998, there were approx 3 million.

- Of the 14 million Aids victims around the world, more than 11 million are African, of which one quarter - 2, 750,000 - are children. In 1998 alone in Africa, 2 million men, women and children died. 5,500 funerals a day were being celebrated.

- In 1998, Aids killed 510,000 children under the age of 15.

- In sub-Saharan Africa, 22.5 million people live with Hiv. In 1998, out of a total of 590,000 children found to be HIV positive - the highest figure ever recorded - 530,000 live in the African Subsahara. Most of them were infected either before or during birth or through breastfeeding. That same year, fewer than a thousand new born children in North America and western Europe were infected.

- Around the world, more than 11 million children have grown up without their mother due to Aids. More than 90% of these orphans live in sub-Saharan Africa.

WOMEN

If you visit a refugee camp, the image which hits you most is that of women with their children. Women, often alone, together with their children, make up 80% of refugees and evacuees around the world. They are the ones who suffer the greatest abuse when fleeing from their home and in the camps.
The refugees leave fathers, husbands and brothers behind to fight in the war, who lie low underground or are imprisoned. While fleeing from a war zone, they risk rape or other violence from soldiers. In the most recent conflicts, rape was used as a deliberate and strategic weapon of war to encourage ethnic cleansing. The suffering caused by rape does not end when the violence stops. Women carry this psychological trauma with them throughout their lives. Sometimes they are rejected by their own families and communities, have to put up with unwanted pregnancies or become ill from sexually transmitted diseases.
The protection and aid of these refugee women is a priority for the UNHCR, which has introduced medical and psychological aid programmes in different countries for women who have been subjected to violence. For 2001, the UNHCR requested 1 million dollars specifically for use in helping women refugees, while it is setting up a 1.6 million dollar programme - more than 3 billion lire - donated by the Turner Foundation, the American IT magnate, to combat sexual violence and harm to woman refugees in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In Kosovo, using the example of a programme already successfully tried out in Bosnia, is the Kosovo Women's Initiative (KWI), an initiative aimed at the reducing unequal treatment towards women, by means of professional training and education.
Women refugees represent almost the only hope of survival for their children, right at a time when they are least capable of coping with this burden alone. Every day is a challenge. It starts at sunrise, queuing for water in the mud in the refugee camp. Then, the cans to carry them to the tent. And then kilometres and kilometres of walking to pick a few dry sticks with which to cook the ingredients of their food rations. Food which, very often, is distributed by men according to arbitrary criteria, sometimes rerouted for other means or to be sold on the black market.
Apart from supplying basic essentials, the UNHCR tries to directly involve the women in running the aid programmes. Unfortunately, the participation of women in this kind of activity can be blocked by cultural obstacles such as inability or low self esteem. The UNHCR organises reading and writing courses for the women and basic training, as well as lessons in basic economics, with the double aim of involving the refugees in running the aid programmes and providing them with the opportunity to work once they return home. For example, women are taught trades which will help them earn a living such as repairing bicycles or carpentry.
Even during the repatriation stage, the UNHCR continues its work alongside the women. In the case of Rwanda, a training programme was set up for parliamentary women who returned from exile and which included the creation of legislation on equal opportunities. In Liberia, the UNHCR supports the non-governmental bodies (Ong) and the civilian society in promoting the rights of repatriated widows who by law are excluded from their inheritance. In Guatemala, there is pressure to respect the rights of repatriated women in the area of land owning rights and the promotion of their involvement in credit projects for buying land.

REFUGEES IN EUROPE

In Europe, at present, 4,855,000 people are covered by the UNHCR mandate as opposed to 8,820,000 in Asia and 4,152,000 in Africa. The European continent, therefore, comes after Asia but incredibly before a continent with such dramatic problems as Africa. The European situation is, however, considerably different from those two continents:
Europe, particularly in the west, is the destination and reception region for hundreds of thousands of people who flee from those more unfortunate continents, while the east - and particularly the Balkans - is still theatre to events which produce refugees and evacuees.
Overall, at the beginning of 2002, there were 2.2 million refugees in Europe. Of these, more than 1.6 million alone are to be found in the European Union (EU) member states and make up less than a tenth of the entire immigrant population, estimated at around 20 million people. The distribution of refugees within the Fifteen member states is by no means even: it ranges from countries like Sweden which hosts more than 15 refugees for every thousand inhabitants, to countries like Denmark, Germany and the Low Countries, where there are between 9 and 14 refugees for every thousand inhabitants, right up to the southern European countries which host fewer than 1 refugee for every thousand inhabitants. In Italy, there are approx. 9,000 refugees, one for every 6,200 inhabitants (0.16 for every thousand inhabitants).
Over the last few years, the number of asylum requests made to European countries has grown, mainly due to the conflicts which have taken place over the last ten years in the Balkans, but also requests made by citizens from non European countries. The number of requests has gone from 255,000 in 1996 - 226,000 of which in EU countries - to almost 480,000 asylum requests in 2001, 390,000 of which sent to European Union countries. In 2002, 465,000 requests were made in Europe, 381,000 of which in European Union countries. The requests made in European Union countries in 2002 came mainly from Iraqi citizens (50,000), followed by citizens from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (32,000), Turkey (28,000) and Afghanistan (25,000). There is also a steady flow of requests coming from the Russian Federation, China, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, India and Iran. the United Kingdom is the European country which received more asylum requests than any other in 2002 with 110,000 requests, followed by Germany with 71,000 and France with 51,000.
Every European state adhered to the 1951 Geneva Convention regarding the status of refugees or its additional protocol from 1967. With a view to establishing closer collaboration as far as asylum is concerned, the western European countries stipulated further agreements: one of these was the Schengen Agreement covering free circulation of people - signed by an initial nucleus of countries in 1985, which came into force in 1995 and was inserted in the European Union structure in 1997 - and the Dublin Convention of 1990, ratified by Italy in 1992 and which came into force in the EU countries in 1997. The latter represents one of the most concrete forms of collaboration between EU countries, as it establishes the rules for identifying the state responsible for examining the asylum request presented in a European Union country. These rules foresee that the person requesting asylum can be transferred at a later date to another of the Fifteen member states, considered responsible for the examination of the request. One of the consequences of this harmonisation process is that greater restriction in admission policies has been recorded for those requesting asylum at a border. Moreover, because refugee status - according to the Geneva Convention - is determined on an individual basis, in the case of a large flow of asylum seekers fleeing war and serious disorder, the EU countries have created a form of temporary protection to avoid overloading the normal asylum procedure, which ensures protection for all those coming from a particular region.
Despite this considerable effort with which the EU countries have made notable progress towards harmonising legislation and the procedure for granting asylum, there is still a great deal to do before having a real common policy in one of the key sectors of justice and home affairs. Another step forward was made at a summit of EU Prime Ministers held in Tampere in Finland in October 1999. Here, the EU countries reconfirmed freedom of access to European countries for all asylum seekers, offering them guaranteed assistance and, above all, they recognised the fundamental difference between asylum and immigration, recommending the adoption of a relative common policy based on the total application of the Geneva Convention, thus ensuring that no one be sent back to their country of origin or to another country where they fear persecution.

REFUGEES IN ITALY

There are almost 10,000 refugees in Italy. This figure does not include minors, refugees recognised before 1990, nor those who have obtained humanitarian protection status. As far as asylum requests are concerned, the increase which has been recorded over the last ten years in the whole of Europe due to war, political wranglings and widespread violation of human rights in different parts of the world, has also been recorded in Italy in a proportionally high percentage, though in overall terms, much lower than that of other European partners: from approx. 2,000 asylum requests made in 1997, it moved up to over 11,000 in 1998 until it reached 33,000 in 1999. In 2002, Italy received 7,281 asylum requests.
Italy has much lower figures both for the number of its refugees and the number of asylum requests it receives, compared to other European Union countries both in absolute and relative terms. Making a comparison, Germany hosts more than 900,000 refugees - 11 every 1,000 inhabitants - the low Countries, United Kingdom and Sweden, approx. 150,000 - 9.58, 2.49 and 16.64 refugees respectively every 1,000 residents against the 0.16 in Italy. Moreover, in 2002, the United Kingdom received 110,000 asylum requests, Germany 71,000, 1.9 and 0.9 every 1,000 inhabitants compared to 0.1 in Italy.
Over the last ten years, the asylum situation in Italy has changed drastically reflecting new crisis, new situations and new international and legal relations. In 1990, with the Martelli Law, Italy abolished the geographical reserve it had towards the Geneva Convention of 1951 - which limited the recognition of the status to refugees coming from Europe - and adopted a law which also partially regulated the matter of asylum.
At present, while waiting for full enforcement of the new laws governing immigration and asylum (law 139 of 30 July 2002, changes to regulations covering immigration and asylum, the so called "Bossi-Fini") the procedure for recognising refugee status - from when the request is made up to the final decision being taken - takes more than a year. During this time, the person seeking asylum has the right to financial aid limited to only 45 days, health care and education for children. They do not, however, have the right to work which is recognised only after obtaining refugee status.
In the absence of adequate aid, in April 2001, the UNHCR, the Home Office and the National Association of Italian Communes (ANCI) launched the National Asylum Programme (PNA), aimed at creating a welcoming network for asylum seekers and projects to help the integration of recognised refugees.
The programme - financed initially by the extraordinary Fund of the 8 per 1000 granted by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the European Commission's European Fund for Refugees - represented the first integrated intervention aimed at providing services to asylum seekers and refugees who were looked after throughout the whole process of status recognition, from welcoming them to voluntary repatriations. In less than a year, the programme has managed to create - via the Communes - a welcoming network at national level to the point where it allows for an organic and co-ordinated management of the phenomenon and identifies as quickly as possible, the number of asylum seekers and refugees in the country and where they are located. Thanks to a network of 150 communes - 58 of which have presented projects - and 226 welcoming centres, 3,034 people have been helped between April 2001 and 15 December 2002.
The success of this programme - started up as an experimental project and which was threatened with closure because of a lack of funds - was officially recognised under the new legislation on immigration and asylum - the so called "Bossi-Fini" - which has set up the National Fund for asylum policies and services. Moreover, the National Asylum Programme, despite its lack of funds - 12 million Euro for 2002, compared to 15 in 2001 - has obtained institutional status which allows it to continue its work and consolidate it. The new laws governing immigration and asylum, which came into force in September last year, heavily influences the subject of asylum, changing some procedures, without, however, providing all the necessary guarantees for asylum seekers.
In particular, territorial Commissions have been set up, with the job of determining refugee status and they have also introduced the opportunity to re-examine a previously negative decision made by the same territorial Commission, by the same "integrated" commission, that its, with the addition of a member of the national Commission for the right to asylum.
The institution of the territorial Commissions who accelerate the procedure for determining refugee status - a maximum of 20 days from the presentation of the request for asylum to a decision in the first instance - will, however, change the PNA's work, which will be aimed not so much at the asylum seekers and their welcome, but more at recognised refugees and those covered by humanitarian protection, with particular attention given to their integration into Italian society.
To regulate the whole asylum situation and bring about substantial improvements to the situation faced by refugees and asylum seekers in Italy, systematic legislation is required - Italy is still the only EU country which does not have any - which guarantees those seeking protection in Italy, procedures in line with international standards, which reduces the operational difficulties for local administrations, voluntary organisations and the police forces, and which ensures Italy a more important role in future negotiations for a common EU policy on asylum.

Note:
(1) Data supplied by the Home Office
(2) Data supplied by the central Commission for the recognition of refugee status.
(3) It is estimated that in 1999, 18,000 asylum requests were sent to the central Commission.
(4) 39 of which were suspended and 97 not taken into consideration.
(5) 76 of which were suspended and 4 not taken into consideration.

Refugees in Italy:

questions and answers

Immigrants, illegal immigrants, exiled persons, evacuees, refugees... Are they all the same?
Sometimes we talk about these people as though they were all the same thing, while, in reality, the only thing they have in common is that they left their homeland. A refugee is obliged to flee from their own country because of war or because they are victims of persecution. Refugees are, therefore, exactly the same as us except they have no choice. People who before being carried away by dramatic events, had a family, home, job; professionals, farmers, teachers, workers who, on fleeing their homeland, lost everything and became refugees. They are, therefore, people who, if helped to integrate, can offer a considerable social and cultural contribution to their country of exile.

How many refugees are there in Italy?
There are almost 10,000 refugees in Italy. This figure does not include minors, recognised refugees before 1990, nor those who have humanitarian protection status, alternative measures imposed in emergency situations and aimed at providing a certain amount of protection in the event of a huge flow of people fleeing from war.

And in Europe?
In the whole European continent, at the beginning of 2002, there were approve. 2.2 million refugees, 1.6 million of whom were in EU countries. 903,000 of these were hosted in Germany alone. The distribution of refugees within the Fifteen member states is not even: it ranges from countries like Sweden which hosts almost 15 refugees for every thousand inhabitants, to countries like Denmark, Germany and the Low Countries, where there are between 9 and 14 refugees for every thousand inhabitants, right up to the southern European countries which host fewer than 1 refugee for every thousand inhabitants. There are approx. 9,000 refugees in Italy, the equivalent of 0.16 per 1,000 inhabitants or one refugee every 6,200 inhabitants.
How many people sought asylum in Italy in 2002?
In 2002 in Italy, almost 7,300 people sought refugee status. The previous year, there were almost 10,000 requests for asylum made, while in 2000 there were more than 15,000. The increase in the number of asylum requests being made to Italy at the end of the '90's was directly determined by the flow of a huge number of people fleeing the war in Kosovo.

Where do the refugees who arrive in Italy come from?
Most of the 100,000 asylum requests made to Italy between 1990 and 2000 came from people coming from Albania (21,300), the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (12,197), Iraq (12,132), Romania (6,114) and Turkey (4,250). They are, therefore, mainly Albanians, Albanian Kosovans and Kurds coming from Iraq and Turkey. In 2002 the Singhalese were in first place (1,354), followed by Iraqis (1,170), Yugoslavians (1,104), Turks (519) and Pakistanis (305).

How and where do they arrive?
To flee the dramatic situation in their homelands, refugees resort to any means. Obviously, they all prefer to reach a country of exile by legal routes but the lack of expatriation documents forces asylum seekers to rely on unscrupulous people who bring them into another country illegally. There are three main routes through which these people reach Italy: from the Albanian coast and Montenegro to Puglia; from Turkey, Greece and Albania to the Ionian coast of Calabria; across the Italian-Slovenian border by land. Moreover, in the last few month, the number of people arriving has increased considerably, most of them fleeing war and persecution, who arrive along the coast of Sicily or on their islands.

How does one receive refugee status? Who decides?
Italy ratified the Geneva Convention covering the status of refugees in 1954 and in 1990 it eliminated the geographical limitation which only allowed European citizens to present a request to the Italian authorities for asylum. Presently, the requests for asylum are examined by the territorial Commissions, recently created by the "Bossi-Fini" law. The legislation also introduced the possibility of re-examining a previously negative decision made by the same territorial Commission, by the same "integrated" commission, that its, with the addition of a member of the national Commission for the right to asylum.

What laws govern the right to asylum in Italy?
The new law covering immigration and asylum - the so called "Bossi-Fini" - came into force in September of this year. Up until August 2002 in Italy, the procedure for recognising refugee status - from the moment the request was presented to the final decision being taken - lasted over a year. During this time, the person seeking asylum had the right to financial aid limited to only 45 days, health care and education for children. They did not, however, have the right to work which was recognised only after obtaining refugee status. The creation of the territorial Commissions should speed up the process for determining refugee status, which should last no more than 20 days from the time the request was presented for asylum to a decision in the first instance being taken.

What rights do refugees in Italy have?
Once recognition of refugee status has been obtained, the refugees have a right to reside in their country of exile, which allows them to work, access education at every level, register with the national health service and, in certain cases, receive social assistance. After five years of being resident in Italy they can apply for Italian citizenship.

IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Amidst the tragedy of the refugees, alongside human suffering, there is always another wound: the environmental one. The large refugee camps can, in fact, threaten the surrounding ecological balance. And this not only creates hostility towards the exiled people, but compromises their living conditions both in the refugee camps and the local communities. The destruction of the forests surrounding the camps, for example, can force women, who generally see to the food requirements of her family, to cover huge distances on foot before finding wood for cooking. As much as 12 kilometres a day, in countries such as Pakistan or Sudan. Running the daily risk of suffering aggression, rape or exhaustion. Not to mention damaging their health: smoke caused by too many forest fires damages the respiratory system and causes eye infections, especially among children.
The data on this phenomenon is alarming. It is also difficult to quantify. According to certain estimates, in Malawi, in the early '90's, 20,000 hectares of forest were cut away each year to supply wood to camps which hosted refugees from Mozambique. The economic costs are also enormous: the restoration of decaying forests and the savannah in sub-Saharan Africa costs 500 dollars per hectare. To repair the environmental damage produced in the refugee camps in Africa alone, at least 150 million dollars per year is needed.
At the height of the Great Lakes crisis, near Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), the refugees removed approx. 800 tons of wood and grass per day from the park.
Despite efforts made to limit the negative effects, approx. 113 square kilometres of the park were eaten away at, 71 of which were completely deforested. In another area, in southern Kivu, approx. 38 square kilometres of forest were destroyed within three weeks of the refugees arriving.
In December 1996, more than 600,000 refugees from Burundi and Rwanda were put up in Kagera in north east Tanzania. More than 1,200 tons of wood were used for burning per day - a total of 570 square kilometres of forest eaten away at.
A series of problems therefore, from deforestation to water pollution, which can exacerbate tension between refugees and local people. The UNHCR, therefore, tries to prevent, mitigate and, if necessary, decontaminate the negative effects of refugee camps on the environment. They do this by inserting impact evaluations in each project, favouring prevention over curing, calculating the cost-benefit relation of each single operation. involving the local population in planning aid intervention. High technology intervention is not necessary. In most cases, the UNHCR's job is to promote the simple reduction of energy consumption in the camps: for example, encouraging people to soak their grain in order to reduce cooking time. Or supplying pot lids in order to prevent heat dispersion.
There are also camp projects which make use of innovative save the environment systems: such as the distribution of low energy consumption stoves (Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya) or the repairing damage to the forests (Guinea, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Burundi). Experimental projects in central-east Africa foresee the use of solar panels or straw for cooking. Moreover, in Nepal and Zimbabwe, biogas techniques were tested. In countries such as Uganda and Tanzania, campaigns to educate people and make them more sensitive towards the environment, were launched.
Some of the more significant works carried out recently were: the re-forestation of the areas around the Bassikounou camp in Mauritius; health checks on refugees in Kirghizistan, located near mercury mines; the use of rice shells to create alternative energy in Bangladesh; the re-forestation of 3,000 hectares near the camp in Sudan. Finally, to check on the environmental impact in the camps, the UNHCR monitor images via satellite, use geographic information systems (Gis) and global position systems (Gps).

FUNDS

The United Nations guarantees 2% of the UNHCR's budget, financing only a third of administrative costs. For the remaining 98%, the organisation has to raise funds, drawing on donations from donating governments, non-governmental associations, companies and private individuals. The UNHCR requested approx. 1 billion, 57 million dollars for 2002, 921 million of which were donated. This remaining amount - 136 million dollars, the equivalent of 13% of the funds requested - has forced the Agency to reduce and even cancel important programmes for refugees in different parts of the world. For 2003, approximately 836 million dollars have been requested.
Most of the UNHCR's budget - more than 90% - is financed by governments. Other donators are intergovernmental organisations, non-governmental bodies, companies and private individuals. Leading the donator countries, in 2002, is the United States of America with almost 260 million dollars, followed by Japan with approx. 120 million dollars and the European Commission with more than 70 million dollars.
Last year, the Italian government - in 12th place - contributed approx. 14 million dollars. In 2002, almost 6 million dollars were donated by Italian citizens to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, mainly for the crisis in Afghanistan which also involved bordering countries and for specific aid programmes in other parts of the world. As happened in 1999 - when Italians donated more than 14 million dollars to the UNHCR - the highest private donation in the world.
At the end of 1999, the organisation's budget was divided between financing general programmes and funding for special programmes. In the first instance, funds were set aside to aid refugees already in exile, while in the second instance, they were set aside to cope with emergencies and unforeseen situations. Since January 2000, all the programmes have been joined together under the same budget, in order to provide governments and those donating to the UNHCR a clearer overall view of the work while also giving more flexibility in managing financial resources.
During more serious emergencies, the UNHCR receives extra help from a lot of donators in the form of goods or services. Food, medicine, utensils, air services, logistic and specialised staff who integrate the Organisation's limited resources. These are fundamental contributions which must be evaluated in each individual case and which require a specific agreement between the High Commission and the donators to ensure the best use is made of them.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Her parents were forced to flee twice from Czechoslovakia. Firstly under the Nazi regime, then at the time of Stalin. On both occasions they were completely without human rights. In the end, they fled to the United States. And from there, for her, a magnificent university and political career began. Today, Madeleine Albright, former American secretary of state said "I totally love freedom, I never take it for granted and each time I catch the eye of a child refugee, I see something of me in him".
Unfortunately, Mrs Albright's happy ending is fairly rare in the history of today's refugees. But the former US secretary of state's story is significant of how solidarity towards those in exile is connected to protecting their human rights. In the western world, where the right to freedom of thought and movement are an acquired right, no one thinks about it very often. In developing countries, however, just like in Hitler's Europe or the Europe behind the Wall, these rights are unknown to so many. And yet, human rights are the keystone to modern society and our own future.
The UNHCR, founded in December 1950, has helped more than 50 million people over half a century to settle in a new country or repatriate them. Its work has, in fact, always crossed paths with the theme of people's basic rights. The end of apartheid in South Africa, the conquering of political freedom in the former Soviet Union, the return of 1.7 million refugees to Mozambique are as much victories in the history of man's human rights. Unfortunately, with a chilling numerical symmetry, another 50 million refugees and homeless are still fighting today to rebuild their life and reconquer their basic rights. Even if the Holocaust and other atrocities from the Second World War inspired the Declaration of the rights of man and the Geneva Convention in '51, the threat which hangs over those in exile around the world is still unchanged.
If, on the one hand, man's basic human rights have conquered a place in international negotiations, it is equally true to say that they are often the first to be sacrificed in the corridor of political negotiations. Just like it seems that western countries worry more about their own safety than human rights. Not only. In the face of increased asylum requests, European governments are imposing stricter restrictions.
Over the last few years, the organisations which deal with aid and those specialised in protecting rights are increasing their reciprocal collaboration. Increasingly they are trying to combine the two strategies, humanitarian work and the protection of rights. The road is still long and strewn with obstacles. But the need for change is manifest. Because as one top humanitarian official complained "if, as is written in the Declaration of man's rights, each individual has the right to asylum in another country, why then is the simple fact of wanting to leave your own country such an insurmountable problem? What happened to that basic right?”

The Dublin Convention:

questions and answers

What is the Dublin Convention?
It is a Convention open only to members of the EU signed in 1990 which came into force in 1997 in EU countries. It aims to establish the country capable of examining a request for asylum presented in a EU member state, foreseeing, among other things - the opportunity for the asylum seeker to be transferred to another EU country, considered capable of examining the request. The Convention, however, leaves single states free to send asylum seekers to countries out-with the EU, depending on the criteria and procedures defined by the respective national legislation.

Who signed the agreement?
On the 15 of June 1990, eleven countries signed the Convention: Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Low Countries, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Spain. A year later, Denmark joined them. When Austria, Sweden and Finland joined the EU, they also signed the Convention. The Convention came into force in these countries between September and October 1997, except in Finland, where it came into force in January 1998.

How is a country recognised as competent in examining a request for asylum?
The main criteria for a certain country being obliged to examine an asylum request is family connections, when the person making the request has a close relative already recognised as a refugee in that country. Further criteria include having a stay permit, an entry or transit visa issued by that state. In reality, most asylum seekers reach one of the member countries illegally and have no close relatives in the country, so the most commonly used criteria for establishing the competent state is the country they first entered.

When can families be re-united?
The existence of family ties is therefore the main criteria in determining the state responsible for examining the asylum request. Certain conditions, however, must prevail: Firstly, the idea of family is limited to spouse, unmarried children under the age of 18 or parents where the asylum seeker is under 18 and unmarried; moreover, the consensus of the asylum seeker and the member of the family in question is required; finally, the member of the family must be legally resident in the country where they have obtained recognition for their status as refugee.

What are the aims of the Dublin Convention?
The Convention aims to reduce the number of multiple asylum requests, that is, those presented by the same person in different countries. Moreover, the Convention represents a tool for controlling the phenomenon of asylum seekers in orbit, that is, those asylum seekers which no country intends to take responsibility for, as often happened before the Convention came into force, when asylum seekers passed through several European airports and were sent from one country to another before finally being accepted by one of them.

What does the Dublin Convention NOT do?
The Convention does not seek harmonisation of basic rights - it does not contain, for example, a description of what a refugee is - nor that of procedural rights, considering that it does not lay down procedures and criteria for admission to a country and examination of asylum requests.

What effect does the Dublin Convention have on Italian procedures for granting refugee status?
When a request is sent to Italy, before following the procedure foreseen under Italian legislation covering asylum, Italy must be cleared - under the Dublin Convention - as a country capable of examining the request. During this verification period which is carried out either at the Police Headquarters or the Dublin Unit at the Home Office, the asylum seeker is given a temporary stay permit, which gives them access to local authority assistance but not to first assistance contribution provided by the Home Office. The asylum seeker can only access this aid after the verification has been completed on Italy's ability to examine the request. From this stage onwards, the asylum seeker has a provisional permit for requesting asylum, which allows them access to first assistance contribution - 34,000 lire per day for a maximum of 45 days - but it does not allow them to work. What can of course happen is that Italy - under criteria foreseen by the Commission - is nominated as the country capable of examining a request sent from another EU country. In this case, the asylum seeker is transferred to Italy, where they can confirm their request for asylum, and start the examination procedure as foreseen under Italian legislation.

HOW TO HELP

Refugees are not a danger to other people. They are people in danger. People with no one to turn to for help. This is why the solidarity of private individuals is such an important choice. Very little is required to achieve concrete results. For example, 15.50 Euro can buy 10 cans (10 litres each) for carrying drinking water, something extremely important for refugees. The use of drinking water, in fact, provides fundamental protection against stomach illnesses.
24.14 Euro can buy 1 kitchen set with the following basic utensils: 1 aluminium pot which holds 7 litres with lid, 1 aluminium pot which holds 5 litres, 5 aluminium bowls, 5 soup plates, 5 aluminium cups with handle, 5 steel spoons, 5 steel forks, 1 steel kitchen knife and a 15 litre bucket. 25.55 Euro buys 5 very warm covers in natural fibre and cotton and therefore particularly suitable for cold climates; 87.80 Euro buys a wood or coal burner, which helps the refugee families to keep warm and cook; 168.63 Euro buys a tent, which is the only form of cover available at short notice for refugees.
These tents are made to hold a family of 5 people; 835.11 Euro buys a medical kit for 100 families of 5 persons) for 6 months, which includes, analgesics, antibiotics, anesthetics, medication for curing stomach infections, gauze, bandages, thermometers, syringes, sterile gloves etc....Health care is looked after by the World Health Organisation.
Every donator can direct their contribution to a specific operation indicating it on the money transfer. These contributions go towards helping with the numerous needs of refugees.

USEFUL LINKS

Unhcr - United Nations High Commission for Refugees
http://www.unhcr.it

Cir - Italian Council for Refugees
http://www.cir-onlus.org

Home Office
http://www.interno.it

Stranieri in Italia
http://www.stranieriinitalia.com

Amnesty International - Italian section
http://www.amnesty.it

Caritas italiana
http://www.caritasitaliana.it

Caritas diocesana Roma
http://www.caritasroma.it

Caritas ambrosiana
http://www.caritas.it

Diritto di asilo
http://www.dirittoasilo.it

Cestim
http://www.cestim.org

Centro Astalli
http://www.centroastalli.it

Centro di accoglienza Regina Pacis
http://www.reginapacis.org

Asylumisland
http://www.isolarifugiati.org

Ics - Consorzio italiano di solidarietà
http://www.icsitalia.org

Medici senza frontiere Italia
http://www.msf.it

Save the Children Italia
http://www.savethechildren.it

Unimondo Ð Profughi e rifugiati
http://www.unimondo.org/temi/profughi.html

European Council on Refugees and Exiles
http://www.ecre.org

International Organization for Migration (Oim)
http://www.iom.int

Refugee International
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/cgi-bin/ri/index

Human Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.org