Seven Million Refugees Deprived of Basic Rights

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More than seven million of the world’s nearly 12 million refugees have been confined to camps, special settlements, or other conditions in which their basic human rights have been denied for ten years or more, according to the 2004 ‘World Refugee Survey’ released here Monday by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR).

The report, which found a sharp rise in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) – people who have been forced to flee their homes but are still living in their country of origin – during 2003, argues that the refugee “warehousing” for such long periods of time is both legally indefensible and morally unacceptable.

“Warehousing is the practice of keeping refugees in protracted situations of restricted mobility, enforced idleness, and dependency – their lives on indefinite hold – in violation of their basic rights under the 1951 Refugee Convention,” according to ‘Survey’ editor Merrill Smith, who authored the feature article in this year’s report.

Seven Million Refugees Deprived of Basic Rights....