Refugee Status: Bureaucracy and Experience
The purpose of this article to understand the both the bureaucracy side and the human side of a refugee crisis. The first part of this article is dedicated to international and United States’ conceptualization of “refugee”. The second part is dedicated to understanding how refugees live and understand their position.
The United Nations defines a refugee as “someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries.”
In 1951, after the onslaught of World War II, the U.N. pulled together the Refugee Convention, which defined what a “refugee” was, what rights they were ensured, and the legal obligations of nation-states. The main take-way was “non-refoulement”, meaning that displaced people could not be returned to where they were persecuted.
Under international law, shaped in light of the 1951 Refugee Convention and subsequent genocides and wars, refugees have the certain rights. First and foremost that to safe asylum, as well as the basic rights that a national would get were they a foreigner with legal residency. This includes social and economic rights. They also have a right to movement, right to liberty (the right to their own sense of personhood), and the right to family. In return, the refugee is expected to abide by the law of the land.
The U.N. has a full procedure for determining who can be provided actual refugee status, before a host country will ever even consider providing them an entrance application. Here is an abbreviated list of what the U.N refugee application looks like:
- Case identification
2. Preliminary assessment of resettlement need
3. Preconditions for resettlement consideration are met
4. Recommended for submission
5. Completion of resettlement registration form
6. Submission to resettlement country
7. Resettlement country interview
8. Resettlement country decision
9. Accepted
10. Resettlement departure
For an in depth look at the U.N. Refugee Referral Process, please visit here. Less than 1% of refugees worldwide meet these strict standards. If they manage to pass the U.N.’s standards, it does not promise that a refugee will be able to gain refugee status in a host country, because the host country will also have its own refugee application.
According to U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, “Under United States’ law, a refugee is someone who: is located outside of the United States, is of special humanitarian concern to the United States, demonstrates that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group, is not firmly resettling in another country, and/or is admissible to the United States.”
The U.S. has taken in countless massive refugee populations, starting after World War II with the Jewish population, extending to the future to include domestic violence victims fro the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1980’s and 1990's). After the fall of Saigon, the U.S. witnessed an influx of Hmong refugees, who had helped the U.S. fight the communists in the Vietnam War. More recently, the U.S. took in refugees after the Bosnian war and genocide.
Once a refugee clears the U.N., the refugee can be referred to the U.S. where they have to go through the U.S.’s screening process, which generally looks like this:
- Registration and Data Collection
- Security Checks
- Interviews with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State
- Biometric security checks
- Cultural Orientation and Medical Check
- Assignment to Domestic Resettlement Locations and Travel
- Arrival in the U.S.
This is a very skimmed down version of the resettlement process in the U.S. For more information visit here, here, and here.
Before a refugee can make it to a safe country to apply for refugee status, they first have to try to make it to said safety. A popular mode of transport is escaping via boat, though usually they are small dinghies. The conditions of the boats are abysmal. They’re over-crowded, sometimes without adequate safety supplies (like having to buy your own life jacket if you can), use tiny motors that breakdown or oars. They fight each other to gain access. It is not guaranteed they have food and water. Once they can finally secure passage, they have to pray for good weather and safe passage.
2016 was the deadliest year for refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Not only is it a popular route for those fleeing Syria, but refugees from Libya also use the crossing to escape to Europe. The U.N. reported 3,740 deaths from the crossing and that was before the year was finished. Part of the reason there are so many deaths is just a reflection of the massive increase in refugees accessing the channel. Besides the increase in people, there is also the inadequacy of the boats, bad weather, sharks and smugglers to worry about.
Alan Kurdi was a 3 year old boy whose family was attempting to escape the Syrian conflict. The boat they were on couldn’t handle the rough weather and sea and was capsized, drowning not only the little boy, but his brother and mother as well. This was in 2015, and since then refugees continue to seek the Mediterranean as an exit, despite knowing the possible threat of death.
Once they make it to a country offering asylum, they stay in camps until they can be placed in a host country after passing applications and security checks. Camps pop up in a variety of places (click the links for a virtual tour of each): air force bases, highway rest stops, baseball stadiums, psychiatric hospital grounds, and beach resorts. If extra housing can be found, refugees will be provided that space, like with the beach resort. Otherwise (and in most cases) tents are set up. These tents can be official tents provided by the U.N. or asylum country. They can also be made of makeshift materials like tarps and plastic bags.
Refugee camps are meant to be temporary housing, but have become almost permanent. Containers are replacing tents in a Jordan camp, allowing more stable housing, as well as more stable abilities to grow businesses to support the community. In the Zaatari camp in Jordan, more than half of the refugees are children and they aren’t able to continue their schooling.
Conditions vary by country and camp. Unaccompanied minors may be arrested because they become ward’s of the state once stepping on the host land. Women fear and experience instances of sexual violence, including rape, gender-based violence, forced prostitution, sexual harassment, and abuse by authorities. It is hard to get work, as work can be found in specific niches, so even children must work.
This article isn’t to say that all camps are awful, because there are nicer conditions. The Kilis refugee camp in Turkey is an outstanding model of what refugee camps should resemble and value. There are more refugees than citizens in the area. The camp is well taken care of, with no garbage or sewage to deal with. This camp has extra amenities, such as electricity and playgrounds. It houses multiple schools to prevent the disruption of education many refugee children face. This camp isn’t run by the U.N. but instead by Turkey. Unfortunately, it is always at capacity, being popular, and Turkey has the right to pick who is allowed entrance.
When most people think of refugee, they think of the current conflict in Syria and assume that any refugee reference is to that area. It is important to remember that this is not true and that there are numerous other conflicts to be conscious of. In 2016, the largest refugee group came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, followed by Syria, Burma, Iraq, and Somalia.
