What is a Refugee
The 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees clearly states that a refugee is someone who "Owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of their nationality and is unable or owing to such a fear, is unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country."135 States have signed the 1951 Refugee Convention.
The term 'refugee', however, is often used more broadly, to refer to vulnerable displaced persons who have left their homes for reasons of persecution or due to conflict, generalised war or natural disaster.
What is the 'refugee convention'?
The United Nations' 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol outlines who are refugees and what their rights are. The Convention was the first international agreement under the United Nations to address the problems facing refugees, and how states should manage refugee crises. The 1967 Protocol extended the original convention, which had focused on protecting mainly European refugees following World War II.
Under the Convention, states have the fundamental obligation not to return refugees to a country where they fear persecution. This is the concept of 'refoulment' (Article 33). Refugees must not be penalised for entering a country without authorisation (Article 31).
Refugees' rights include freedom of religion and movement, the right to work, education and travel. Refugees are obligated to respect the laws and the regulations of their countries of asylum.
What is an Asylum Seeker?
Asylum Seekers are people who have fled their country in fear of persecution and are seeking, but have not yet found, asylum in another country. Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone has the right to seek, and enjoy in other countries, asylum from persecution."
In Australia, however, Asylum seekers cleared by immigration are not automatically eligible for government funding, welfare payments, education or housing subsidies. Many are not granted a work permit and are thus without an income or access to Medicare. They are reliant on charities and welfare groups, with access to food, clothing, housing and medical help.
Asylum seekers entering Australia without a valid visa or passport are subject to mandatory detention. If found to be refugees, they are released on three-year Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs). The Federal Government introduced TPVs - which deny refugees settlement support, family reunion rights, English lessons, employment assistance and help from Migrant Resource Centres - in October 1999, in attempt to deter onshore arrivals in Australia.
What is the difference between a refugee and an asylum seeker?
The term 'asylum seeker' is used to refer to a person who has not yet found a country where he or she is guaranteed safety and protection. This group can include people who have been granted only temporary protection by a national government.
What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant?
Migrants and refugees are different. A migrant makes a conscious choice to leave home and settle in another country. A refugee is forced to leave home due to a fear of persecution: often, refugees flee in fear of their lives. Under existing international law, there is no such thing as an economic refugee: people who leave home seeking a better life are migrants. They can safely return home.
What is the UNHCR?
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established by the UN General Assembly on December 14, 1950. The agency helps people who have been uprooted from their homes, providing them with basic necessities including shelter, food, water and medicine. The agency also coordinates long term solutions to displacement, planning repatriation and resettlement.
UNHCR's original mandate was to assist refugees. However, at the specific request of the UN Secretary General, the agency can work with some of the millions of people who are displaced, but who do not fall into the limited definition of a refugee.
What is an Internally Displaced Person?
Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) have fled their homes, often for the same reasons as refugees. However, they have not left their home countries, and are still subject to their countries' national laws. At the express request of the UN Secretary General, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) assists some of the millions of IDPs worldwide. Most IDPs are not protected by humanitarian law and assistance.
IDPs are defined under the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement issued by the UN Secretary General's Special Representative on IDPs as "persons or groups of persons who have been forced to obliged to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of, or in order to, avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognised State border."
Countries with most IDPs
Sudan - 4,900,000
Colombia - 2,650,000-4,360,000
Iraq - 2,840,000
DRC - 1,400,000
Somalia - 1,300,000
What is a Stateless Person?
A Stateless Person is defined by the 1954 Convention on Stateless Persons as "a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law."
What is a people smuggler?
People smugglers make profits by helping people enter countries without the proper authority, for example by organising transport and false documentation. There are, however, many people such as Oscar Schindler, who help refugees flee persecution not for profit, but out of compassion, and they are often confused with people smugglers.
What is people trafficking?
Trafficking involves recruiting and/or transporting people using violence, other forms of coercion, or providing misleading information in order to exploit them sexually or economically. Examples of trafficking include forced prostitution, bonded-labour and servile marriage. The main victims of trafficking are women and children. Trafficking can occur within countries or across borders. An international definition of trafficking has only recently been established, in the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, November 2000. Debate continues about exactly what trafficking is. The Protocol aims to prevent trafficking, especially of women and children; protect and assist victims of trafficking; and promote cooperation among states in combating trafficking.
What is the difference between people smuggling and people trafficking?
The terms 'smuggling' and 'trafficking' should not be confused. People smuggling concerns only the way in which a person enters a country. People who are smuggled are assumed to want entry to another country. They may be fleeing persecution and seeking asylum in another country or they may be migrating. People who are trafficked are assumed to be unwilling victims, who have been taken by force, coercion or deceit. Trafficking involves some form of enslavement or exploitation beyond gaining entry to a country.
Durable Solutions
Refugee protection and assistance organisations generally promote three "durable solutions" to refugees' plight: voluntary repatriation, local integration in the country of first asylum, or resettlement in a third country.
1. Voluntary Repatriation - When conditions in the home country have changed so much that refugees no longer believe their lives or liberty are threatened, they may return home voluntarily.
2. Local Integration - When it is not safe for refugees to return home after a prolonged period in exile, a host government may decide to allow refugees to integrate locally, in the first-asylum country
3. Third Country Resettlement - Third-country resettlement is usually the last option of the three solutions. When repatriation would be unsafe and the first-asylum country refuses local integration, a third country must be found to accept the refugees
