One of the most significant political implications of long-standing refugee situations is the strain that they often place on diplomatic relations between host states and the refugees' country of origin. The prolonged presence of Burundian refugees in Tanzania, coupled with allegations that anti-government rebels were based within the refugee camps, led to a significant breakdown in relations between the two African neighbours in 2000-02, including the shelling of Tanzanian territory by the Burundian army. The presence of Burmese refugees on the Thai border has been a frequent source of tension between the governments in Bangkok and Rangoon. In a similar way, the elusiveness of a solution to the plight of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal has been a source of regional tension, drawing in not only the host state and the country of origin but also regional powers such as India (see Box 5.2).

Protracted refugee populations are a critical element in continuing conflict and instability and have obstructed peace and undermined economic development.[17] The long-term presence of large refugee populations has engendered conflict by causing instability in neighbouring countries, triggering intervention, and sometimes spurring armed elements within camps to begin insurgencies or form resistance and terrorist movements. The militarization of refugee camps creates a security problem for the country of origin, the host country and the international community. Arms trafficking, drug smuggling, trafficking in women and children, and the recruitment of child soldiers and mercenaries occur in some of the camps hosting long-standing refugee populations.

Prolonged refugee crises not only raise direct security concerns but also have indirect security implications. Tensions between refugees and the local population often arise from the belief that refugees receive preferential treatment. This is especially the case when local people have difficulty accessing health, education or other services while such services are readily available to refugees in camps. As donor support for camp-based refugees decreases, however, competition between refugees and the host population for scarce resources creates insecurity. In the same way, reductions in assistance in the camps may lead some refugees to turn to banditry, prostitution and theft.

Protracted refugee situations are no less dangerous sources of instability than other more conventional security threats. The outbreak of conflict and genocide in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa in the early 1990s serves to show what can happen if solutions are not found for long-standing refugee populations. Tutsis who fled Rwanda between 1959 and 1962 and their descendants filled the ranks of the Rwandan Patriotic Front which invaded Rwanda from Uganda in October 1990. Many of these refugees had been living in the region for more than three decades. In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, it was widely recognized that the failure of the international community to find a lasting solution for the Rwandan refugees from the 1960s was a key factor behind the events that led to the genocide in 1994. According to UNHCR, 'the failure to address the problems of the Rwandan refugees in the 1960s contributed substantially to the cataclysmic violence of the 1990s'.[18] But more than a decade after the genocide it appears as though the lesson has not been learned; dozens of protracted refugee situations remain unresolved in highly volatile and conflict-prone regions.

Meanwhile, many host states, especially in Africa, see long-standing refugee populations as a security concern synonymous with the spill-over of conflict and the spread of arms. Indeed, host states are increasingly unwilling to see refugees as victims of persecution and conflict; rather, they are perceived as a potential source of regional instability.

The nature of less developed states and their often-peripheral place in the international system make them especially vulnerable to external shocks.[19] Given the regional dynamics of many conflicts in Africa and Asia and the inability of states in these regions to insulate themselves from the spill-over of conflict, the prolonged presence of refugees becomes an increasingly important political issue.

Human rights implications

Comprehensive solutions: lessons from the past

Notes

17. For a more detailed consideration of the political and security implications of protracted refugee situations, see G. Loescher and J. Milner, Protracted Refugee Situations: Domestic and International Security Implications, Adelphi Paper no. 375, Routledge, London, 2005.

18. UNHCR, The State of the World's Refugees. Fifty Years of Humanitarian Action, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000, p. 49.

19. See: M. Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament: State Making, Regional Conflict and the International System, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder CO, 1995; B. Job (ed), The Insecurity Dilemma: National Security of Third World States, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder CO, 1992.