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UNHCR - UN Refugee Agency
Direct Link to UNHCR Report:
Pilot Report - October 2008
REFUGEE REALITIES
Global Needs Assessment
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Improved Access to Asylum, Protection of Women and Children Required, Report Says
October
10, 2008
IMMIGRATION/DIVERSITY
REPORTER
An assessment of the plight of refugees in eight countries shows disturbing gaps between basic needs and services offered, including shelter, food, sanitation and prevention of sexual violence, says a UN report released yesterday.
In an address to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' annual executive meeting, the agency's assistant high commissioner for protection, Erika Feller, also said too many refugees face intolerance and denial of their rights by the international community.
"Intolerance is not solely linked to refugee arrivals, but it is part of the asylum equation, in subtle and not so subtle forms. It impacts border control measures, refugee status decisions, resettlement and integration, and the sustainability of refugee and asylum policies in many countries," she said.
Feller's comments came prior to the international refugee agency releasing its global needs assessment report, highlighting the unmet needs of asylum seekers, internally displaced and stateless people in Cameroon, Ecuador, Georgia, Rwanda, Thailand, Tanzania, Yemen and Zambia.
"A startling 30 per cent of needs were unmet – a third of them in basic and essential services," the report said. "Results showed a clear need to improve and ensure access to asylum systems with better reception facilities and procedures, registration, documentation and border monitoring.
"Women and children require better protection with improved prevention and response measures for sexual abuse and violence, as well as strengthened child protection programmes," said the report, which calls for $63.5 million from donors to fill 2009 budget gaps.
There are an estimated 11.4 million refugees globally, in addition to 4.2 million displaced Palestinians.
James Milner, a Carleton University political science professor, said two-thirds of all refugees have become what are known as "protracted refugees," whose lives in limbo have been extended since 1993 from 9 to 18 years, before the individuals end up being repatriated to their homelands or resettled in another country.
The seemingly "unending" refugee crisis, coupled with heightened
border and security concerns, has made host and donor countries reluctant to
offer help.
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