Environment, extreme poverty causing refugee problems - UN's Guterres

Around the world 10 million people live in refugee camps - more than the population of several small European Union countries combined. António Guterres is the UN's High Commissioner for refugees and heads an organisation looking after displaced and stateless people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, DR Congo and Iraq amongst others. We interviewed him just after he spoke to Members of Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on 28 April.
As well as traditional threats such as war and violence he also warned about the problems caused by environmental degradation and extreme poverty.

Your first 5-year term as High Commissioner is coming to its end. How have refugee trends evolved during your mandate?

At the beginning we witnessed a steady decrease in the number of refugees each year, but in the last two years the resilience of conflict and the return of insecurity to areas where peace had been established is creating a small increase in the number of refugees and internally displaced people.

Unfortunately, last year the number of people that we helped to go back home voluntarily and in safety and dignity dramatically decreased, especially because of the situation in Afghanistan, Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Conflicts and persecution have uprooted 40 million people; over 10 million live in refugee camps, often for years. What are the effects of long term displacement, and is there a “durable” solution to the plight of refugees and the displaced?

There has been a meaningful increase in the number of resettlement opportunities from countries of first asylum to countries in the developed world. A European resettlement programme is being established; we strongly support that. We are witnessing more and more countries that are accepting local integration - Tanzania just granted Tanzanian nationality to another 60 000 Burundians.

Unfortunately the number of people that we were able to help to go home in safety and dignity has decreased. This is making some of the refugee situations more protracted, and creating enormous problems, especially when people live in camps. To live 10, 20 years sometimes with restrictions of movement, with very limited resources, no access to secondary education...generates a level of suffering that should put a lot of pressure on the international community for more solutions.

During times of economic hardship, people's attitudes tend to harden. At the same time conflicts and climate change force more and more people to flee. How do you see this equation for refugee protection?

I believe there is a trend; attitudes on migration in general become more negative during periods of economic crisis. There are usually two scapegoats, governments and foreigners...This negative attitude also translates itself into shrinking of the asylum space and this is a major concern for us.

At the same time we are witnessing new trends of forced displacement. A refugee is someone who flees a country for a well founded fear of persecution or a conflict. What we are getting more and more is situations where people are forced to flee because of environmental degradation or extreme poverty.

These factors are becoming more and more interlinked and the international community lacks strategy and a set of instruments to give an adequate response to the new trends of forced displacement. But I hope that next year, with the anniversary of the 1951 refugee convention we will be able to act as a catalyst for a meaningful international debate on these new global challenges.

Burden-sharing and solidarity raise heightened debate also among EU Member States. Is Europe pulling its weight in international refugee protection?

Europe is still an important contributor in asylum but unfortunately with the unified European space, we still don't have a functional European asylum system. We are building it, but very slowly. We still have a mosaic of completely different national asylum systems which of course creates an enormous dysfunction.

This is in my opinion negative for the protection of people, and negative for the interest of the European Union. We hope and we are strongly supportive of the five proposals by the European Commission (for example reception conditions, procedures) and we strongly appeal to the members to get together and to understand that a true harmonisation is necessary; burden sharing is of course an important element.