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People Forced to Flee
History, Change and Challenge
People
People
Forced
ced
to Flee
ry, Change
History, Change
and Challenge
Challenge
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 2022
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2022
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
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address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021953487
ISBN 978–0–19–878645–0 (hbk.)
ISBN 978–0–19–878646–7 (pbk.)
Printed in Great Britain by
Bell & Bain Ltd., Glasgow
Design by Vincent Winter Associés (VWA), Paris, France
Cover artwork: “The Sphere” © UNHCR / Younghee Lee. The Sphere allows room for
interpretation. It could be an organism, a globe or the universe. Shifting sands. The aim
is to provoke deeper thought, empathy and resonance.
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
Author: Ninette Kelley
In writing People Forced to Flee – History, Change and Challenge, I have been
fortunate to work with a committed, talented team and to draw on wide expertise
from within UNHCR and externally. Not least, there are the broad range of research
papers and commentaries marking the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Convention
relating to the Status of Refugees. A number of these authors have agreed to have
their work posted on our website at (www.unhcr.org/people-forced-to-flee-book),
and are indicated with an asterisk (*) below. I am also grateful to many colleagues
for their comments on drafts of the book.
Within UNHCR sincere thanks go to: Allehone Abebe, Denis Alma Kuindje,
Benoit d’Ansembourg, Hiroko Araki, Maria Bances del Rey, Vidjea Barathy
Ramamurthy, Christian Baureder, Emily Bojovic, Veronika Burget, Jean Paul
Cavalieri, Cirenia Chavez Villegas, Samuel Cheung*, Vincent Cochetel, Lisa
Fergusson-Nicol, Marco Formisano, Davina Gateley Saïd*, Nathalie Antoinette
Goetschi, Karen Gulick, Irina Isomova, Kerstin Jones, Elibritt Karlsen, Jasmine
Ketabchi, Shaden Khallaf, Susanne Klink, Katharina Lumpp, Mai Mahmoud, Isabel
Marquez, Pedro Mendes, Isabel Michal, Juan Ignacio Mondelli*, Debra Moore,
Alexander Mundt, Angela Murru*, Jerome Nhan, Edward O’Dwyer, Kate O’Malley,
Zeeshan Qamar, Roua Rahrah, Jennifer Roberts, Yasmine Rockenfeller, Annabelle
Roig Granjon, Marian Schilperoord, Volker Schimmel, Natalie Schmidthaeussler,
Salam Shahin, Rebecca Telford, Senai Terrefe, Alexander Tyler, Giuseppe Uniformi,
Pieter Ventevogel, Catherine Wiesner, Michelle Yonetani, and Jeanette Zuefle.
Indispensable administrative help has been provided throughout from Caroline
Charmaine Torres, Jose Rodriguez Viquez, Alexandre Sarr, Ellen Joy Sibal. Special
thanks to Jean-Nicolas Beuze, Sibylle Kapferer, Ewen Macleod, Grainne O’Hara and
Edgar Scrase for going beyond the call of duty in their careful review and comments
of previous drafts.
The World Bank and the Joint Data Center have provided considerable support
for this book under the direction of Xavier Devictor, and the positive and insightful
coordination of Caroline Verney Sergeant. Their thoughts and comments as well as
those of the following colleagues have been invaluable: Dina Abu-Ghaida*, Alain
Aeschlimann*, Michel Botzung, Ozan Cakmak*, Paola Elice*, Björn Gillsäter, Melissa
Johns, Doreen Kibuka-Musoke*, Natalia Krynsky Baal*, Zara Sarzin*, Karishma
Silva*, Domenico Tabasso* and Weiyi Wang*.
A range of academics, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations
have provided rich and varied support. Within and alongside it, are the invaluable
contributions of people with lived experience of being forcibly displaced. Sincerest
thanks to: Tsion Tadesse Abebe*, Alex Aleinikoff, David Cantor, Tatiana Castillo
Betancourt*, Christelle Cazabat*, Cathryn Costello*, Bina Desai*, Filippo Dionigi*,
Evan Easton-Calabria*, David Scott FitzGerald, Rez Gardi*, François Gemenne*,
Robert Hakiza*, Tristan Harley*, Claire Higgins, Elodie Hut*, Dragana Kaurin*,
Fatima Khan*, Christa Kuntzelman*, Adam Lichtenheld*, Susan Martin, Charles
Martin-Shields*, James Milner*, Vitit Muntarbhorn*, Phil Orchard*, Nandi Rayner*,
Sevin Sagnic, Angela Sherwood*, Paul Spiegel, David Sulewski*, Jina Elise Swartz,
Chloe Sydney*, Joseph Kofi Teye, Dzifa Torvikey, Tamara Wood*, Louisa Yasukawa*,
Caroline Zickgraf* and Pascal Zigashane*.
Several interns have provided valued research help. Warm thanks to Diana
Castillo Villaseñor, Liam Comer-Weaver, Danielle Douglas, Talia Gerstle, Niyonella
Kamera, Johannes Lang, Kanika Mahajan, and Julie Meier. A number of students
also dedicated time to writing term papers on subjects canvassed in these pages
under the supervision of Peter Hoffmann and Achilles Kallergis of The New School:
Isabel Arciniegas Guaneme, Ruben Cruz Valladares, Evelina Dahlgren, Emmanuel
Guerisoli, Leah Guyot, Julie Kim, Jessica Matis, Eugenia Nikitina, Brooke Pascarella,
Maria Julia Rivas Mor Mur, Robert Seebeck and Jodit Woldemichael.
This book has been enriched by wide engagement from all of them.
Ninette Kelley
September 2021
Preface
by the United Nations Secretary-General
The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees — crafted in the wake of
the horrors of the Second World War, and amid massive forced displacement
— established the rights of refugees and the obligations of States towards them.
As we mark its 70th anniversary, this monumental achievement remains the
foundation upon which millions of refugees find protection every day.
Today, we can find the Convention’s influence across regional refugee instru-
ments, as well as protection frameworks for internally displaced persons and
those fleeing environmental damage and natural hazards.
But while this anniversary is a time to recognize accomplishments, it is not
a moment for complacency.
The number of people forced to flee their homes due to conflict, violence,
persecution, extremism and climate events continues to soar. In 2008, as High
Commissioner for Refugees, I called attention to the unprecedented global
levels of forced displacement. Since then, the number has more than doubled,
reaching over 82 million forcibly displaced people today.
Most forced displacement occurs in low and middle-income countries
already struggling to meet the needs of their people. Humanitarian and
development assistance is growing, but so too are the demands, which too
often outstrip available resources. At the same time, some parts of the wealthier
world have, at times, closed their doors to people fleeing violence and
persecution.
The humanitarian and development impact of forced displacement is cata-
strophic. But so is the human toll. We must never forget that behind each
number is a story of deep personal suffering — a stark reminder of how quickly
lives can be upended, and how critical it is to support people at this most
vulnerable moment in their lives.
That is why this book — People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge
— is so valuable and timely.
Tracing the roots of asylum from the beginning of recorded history, this
book highlights the major achievements of the last 70 years to protect and
support forcibly displaced people, while exploring setbacks along the way.
The book shows the importance of sustained engagement by governments
and development partners in supporting the forcibly displaced, as well as the
vital role of dedicated financing instruments to assist host countries.
It showcases significant policy changes in host countries that have helped
refugees access education, health services and employment, so they can build
better futures for themselves while contributing to their new communities.
It outlines the increasingly close partnerships between humanitarian
and development actors, including around a shared approach to data, evidence,
and context and risk analysis to drive greater results on the ground.
Above all, it demonstrates the critical importance of a broad range of
partners lending their comparative advantages, experience and expertise to
support those people enduring forced displacement. Public and private part-
ners are increasingly joined by civil society and faith-based partners and, most
importantly, forcibly displaced persons themselves in designing and deliver-
ing solutions.
Guided by the lessons of past experience — triumphs and failures alike
— two new multilateral Compacts hold great promise to address imbalances
and provide a blueprint for the future: the Global Compact on Refugees and the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. They outline critical
actions to support refugees and migrants and the communities in which they live.
While the ambitions struck in the 2018 Compacts are on the path to being
realized, significant challenges remain, as set out clearly in this publication.
Our task today is to build on this important work, and to gather more
people to our efforts — from people already engaged in this field, to students
of history, forced displacement studies and related disciplines. To them, this
book will be of great value and inspiration.
But I also hope it will spur the broader community of nations to make
bolder efforts on prevention, so we can address the root causes that drive
so many millions of people to flee. I have set this out in more detail in Our
Common Agenda report (www.un.org/en/content/common-agenda-report).
Let us learn from the lessons of this book, increase global support for people
fleeing peril and danger, and find new ways to build safer and more under-
standing communities and societies for all people.
António Guterres
Foreword
by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Seventy years have passed since nations seeking to recover from the devastation
of the Second World War drew up the landmark 1951 Convention relating to
the Status of Refugees.
In that time, the Convention (along with its 1967 Protocol) has formed the
basis of international protection of millions of refugees. It has been comple-
mented by several regional treaties, such as the OAU Convention and the
Cartegena Declaration, and other human rights instruments, allowing the
original concepts to apply to evolving contexts.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the 1951 Convention, UNHCR is releas-
ing People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge, which traces the path
that led to that historic moment and then follows it through seven decades
up to the present day.
This book takes up the mantle of a series of publications, stretching back to
1993, that were previously entitled The State of the World’s Refugees. In the almost
ten years since the last edition, the global population of forcibly displaced
people has soared, to 82.4 million at the end of 2020 and rising – almost double
the number a decade ago.
The number will continue to grow so long as longstanding conflicts go
unresolved and major new emergencies arise. The failure to resolve conflict
has forced some refugees, often alongside migrants, to make perilous and
sometimes fatal journeys in search of safety. Displacement associated with the
climate emergency is adding a new dimension – one that is already a reality
for millions.
Amid this torrent of challenges, every so often it is wise to take stock. This
is the purpose of People Forced to Flee: to draw on the lessons of history in order
to examine how we can improve responses to forced displacement today and
tomorrow.
The task of protecting people forced to flee has always faced serious chal-
lenges. Humanitarian funding, despite the sustained generosity of govern-
ments, individuals and the private sector, has never been fully commensurate
with the level of need. For many of the forcibly displaced, solutions have largely
been elusive, and too often they find it hard or impossible to access the building
blocks of education, health care and economic opportunity that would enable
them to address and overcome their vulnerabilities.
More recently, the world has had to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic,
which has hit the most vulnerable the hardest and dealt a serious blow to devel-
opment gains in many low- and middle-income countries. And while conflicts
inexorably proliferate and intensify, the climate alarm is sounding ever louder.
The drivers of displacement are unrelenting; the demands placed on human-
itarian funding are growing.
Yet while the challenges are enormous, history has repeatedly demonstrated
the potential for, and power of, positive change.
Everywhere, partnerships are evolving and expanding. In 2018,
the UN General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees, which
calls for a “whole of society” approach to supporting the forcibly displaced
and the communities that host them. Answering that call is a broad and diverse
range of partners: refugees and internally displaced persons, local and national
governments, national and international organizations, international financial
institutions and development actors, academics and civil society. This book
illustrates how those partnerships work and how they are making a difference.
Such thinking exemplifies the important changes that have taken place
over the past several years in how the world views and responds to forced
displacement, notably the wider recognition that forced displacement is both
a humanitarian and a development challenge. Development actors are adding
their weight through policy advice, data, evidence and analysis – as well as the
largest financial support ever marshalled globally to support inclusive devel-
opment, the keystone of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Underpinning these efforts are the international laws and policies that
remind us of our obligations to the most vulnerable. The 1951 Convention, a
living instrument working in conjunction with those laws as they have emerged
and developed, has strengthened protections for people at risk of harm: women,
children, people with disabilities, people with diverse sexual orientation and
gender identity, and many others. The Convention and the Guiding Principles
on Internal Displacement stand alongside other human rights treaties that also
protect those on the move who are in need of protection.
Over the past 70 years, States have at times failed to rise to the standards set
by this body of law – weakening responses to forced displacement and under-
mining the international solidarity. Nevertheless, those laws and treaties have
been the foundation for the protection of millions of people forced to flee;
they are as relevant as ever.
People Forced to Flee: History, Change and Challenge starts from the premise
that transformational action is both essential and possible. It provides a detailed
and an unflinching look at both the successes and the failures of the past, seeking
to draw from them the elements needed to support positive, sustainable change.
In that regard, it is worth noting that many of the most powerful moments
in this book come from the stories of forcibly displaced people themselves –
a reminder that the best way to understand and respond to their needs is to
listen to their opinions, wishes, grievances, aspirations and hopes for the future.
I have been working in the field of forced displacement for more than 30
years. In that time, I have never ceased to be moved and motivated by those
who put the values of altruism, compassion and solidarity at the heart of their
daily lives: refugees and the internally displaced, host communities and those
working alongside them. It is their example, above all, that gives us the great-
est cause for optimism.
Filippo Grandi
Table of Contents
26 INTRODUCTION
THE END
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