AFP(16/10/95): UNHCR AND PROTECTION

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Subject: AFP(16/10/95): UNHCR AND PROTECTION CONCERNS

	EUR: UNHCR HANDLING MORE AND MORE NON-REFUGEES
UN REFUGEES
   GENEVA, Oct 16 AFP - The UN asylum apparatus, burdened in recent 
years with as many non-refugees as refugees, is threatened with 
collapse, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Sadako Ogata 
said today. 
	   Of the 27.4 million people "of concern" to the UNHCR today, 
"only about 14. 5 million are refugees" as defined in various UN 
charters, Ogata said.
	   "The rest include four million returnees, 5.4 million internally 
displaced persons and 3.5 million civilians affected by local 
conflicts," she told the opening session of a UNHCR executive 
committee meeting.
	   Working with returnees from exile has "created a new dimension 
to our protection responsibilities," that is forcing the refugee 
agency to take a more active role is improving the conditions into 
which repatriated persons are returned, Ogata said.
	   She cited Burma, Guatemala and Rwanda as countries in which a 
UNHCR presence had helped stabilise conditions and encourage exiled 
refugees to return and reintegrate.
	   Besides its expanding scope of activity, the UNHCR's other major 
problem is the shrinking willingness of host nations to accommodate 
refugees seeking asylum, the high commissioner said.
	   "Many countries are openly admitting their weariness with large 
numbers of refugees and are blatantly closing their borders," she 
told delegates attending the five-day meeting. Some nations, she 
added, had passed "insidious laws which effectively" bar entry to 
aslyum seekers.
	   Ogata called for new initiatives to prevent the outflow of 
refugees and to protect those people who do flee war, persecution 
or civil strife in their native lands.
	   Close coordination with political and peacekeeping operations is 
one approach that has worked well, she said, pointing to Liberia, 
ex-Yugoslavia and the Caucasus.
	   In addition to safeguarding human rights, socio-economic 
conditions in countries of origin must also be improved, she added, 
both through small-scale, "quick-impact" programs, and larger, 
long-term rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.
	   "There is a need for timely international efforts to help 
strengthen the will and capacity of governments to preempt the 
reasons which force people to flee in the first place," Ogata said.
	   AFP h