What kind of work does the UNHCR do?
In 1951, the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees was established. Refugees are people who, for political, religious, or ethnic reasons, are unable to live safely in their own country, something that most people would regard as a basic right. At present, a total of 146 countries are party to this convention. These signatory countries are obliged to support and protect any refugees that cross their border, and not to turn them back. Overseeing the implementation of this convention is the main job of the UNHCR.
The UNHCR had a staff of 33 when it was founded in 1950, but this has now swelled to 6800. In recent times, not only have civil wars become a common occurrence, but they are also lasting longer, and so there is a need to support not only refugees, but also internally displaced and repatriated persons. If we include stateless persons and people who have settled in a third country and require assistance, there are as many as 20 million people around the world who are eligible to receive assistance from the UNHCR.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, once said, "The ultimate goal of the UNHCR is its own discontinuation." Naturally, it would be better if there were no need for an organization such as ours to exist at all, but ironically, it has grown dramatically both qualitatively and in terms of scale, and it has now been decided that it will remain permanently as a specialist organization within the UN.
How long is it before refugees are able to return to their own countries?
In the '90s, a single refugee problem lasted an average of around three years, but the figure is now 17 years. The refugee problems that remain unresolved today tend to be long-term problems, many of which have very little prospect of being resolved at all.
For example, Angola has recovered to the point where it was able to send a team to the Football World Cup, but the Myanmar refugee problem, which first surfaced in 1984 and affects 140,000 people, has very little prospect of being resolved even today.
If you go to some of the refugee camps along the border of Thailand and Myanmar, you'll find that children and youngsters born in the camps already make up half the refugee population. The have access to food and other essentials through aid, but the thing they lack most is "hope." This is because regardless of how hard they study, they have no prospect of going to university or finding a job. Children born in the camps with no knowledge of their real home are faced with this reality as they grow up, and learn that they are refugees.
What courses of action are available for solving the refugee problem?
I think there are two possible courses of action. Ms. Sadako Ogata (the 8th UN High Commissioner for Refugees) once stated, "Humanitarian problems cannot be resolved through humanitarian means alone." The refugee problem is essentially a political problem, but it is also an economic problem and a security problem. It is unrealistic to expect humanitarian aid alone to provide a real solution, and so we have to look at religious, social, economic, safety, political, and other factors for clues to help us find a real solution. This is easier said than done. It is not something the UNHCR can achieve on its own, but we have to push on and do the best we can.
The second course of action is to provide empowerment in addition to protection. People always emphasize the negative side of the problem by talking about the "sad plight of refugees" and how we "have to help them," but I think we tend to overlook the fact that among refugees there are people with normal and in some cases above-normal abilities, something highlighted by the fact Albert Einstein was once a refugee. The refugee population of 20 million is roughly twice the population of Tokyo. So it's to be expected that among these refugees there will be many people with various abilities. People with high IQs, people with great artistic skills, people with superior physical strength. The doctrine (human security) that we can find a solution to the refugee problem by drawing on this latent talent within the refugee population has recently gained popularity.
Something that made me think about this, although I didn't use the fancy term "human security" at the time, was my encounter during a visit to the Kakuma Refugee camp in Kenya, which houses Sudanese refugees, with Mr. Takamura, a young Japanese NGO worker. I think most people when they think of NGO activities imagine aid workers digging wells and handing out blankets and food, but when I asked Mr. Takamura what he did, he said, "My job is running." He was training refugees to become marathon runners. By extending the capabilities they already possessed in abundance, he was enabling the refugees to live with a sense of pride. And just maybe they could escape the dead end situation they found themselves in. When I heard of Mr. Takamura's activities, I was astonished because I never imagined refugee assistance could take this form.
In order to make their lives as enjoyable as possible, we need to include things like sports and music. At first glance this may seem like a luxury, but I think we've reached a point where we need to look again at the attitude that says things like sports and music are a luxury when it comes to humanitarian aid. In the same way that it is normal for us to go to an art gallery, play soccer, or go to see a movie on the weekend, we cannot call the lives of refugees human humane unless they can enjoy these activities. It could be soccer, or cooking, or studying, or singing. The important thing is to provide people with an opportunity to discover and develop their own special qualities. This kind of thing is one of the new jobs the UNHCR is getting involved in.
 A pamphlet on the theme of empowerment reflecting some of the original and ingenious forms (recipes) Japanese aid activities take |
"Food exchange" at the Tham Hin Refugee Camp in western Thailand. A Japanese chef teaches Karen mothers how to make Japanese dishes such as boiled meat and potatoes and rice balls, and in exchange learns how to make traditional Karen dishes.
Photo: UNHCR
What kind of planet do you think Earth is?
Looking at it based on my experience working with refugees, I'm not sure if the metaphor is appropriate, but I would have to say it's like a pimply face. Pimples are small, but for high school students, they're quite a serious problem, aren't they. They appear if you don't look after your skin. They're painful, they look awful, and if you play around with them unnecessarily and make them worse they may lead to skin problems. They're something that has the potential to develop into a serious problem at any time. In a similar way, the refugee problem is something that can result from any number of causes, such as a bad political situation, poor distribution of wealth, and the inability to stem hatred. And considering the scale of the refugee problem, which affects 20 million people out of a global population of 6.5 billion, the pimple analogy is quite apt. Pimples usually clear up if you lead a well-regulated life and eat properly. So let's hope we can do the same thing with the refugee problem and clean up the face of the Earth in the future.
In order to get a sense of the feeling of isolation individual refugees experience, it might pay to imagine for a moment suddenly not being able to do everyday things like going to school, going home, eating a meal, and doing your homework, or the loneliness and pain of being separated from your mother or father. You can leave the question of what you can do to help resolve the refugee problem until later. Donating money is important, but it's not enough to feel satisfied that you've done your bit simply by giving a donation. In order to heal the pimples on the face of the Earth, I think we need to do more as individuals to imagine, feel, and think about the problem.
