Mizzima: South Asian countries need

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South Asian countries need to establish and strengthen national refugee
legislation to avoid discrimination

Calcutta, April 23, 2000
Mizzima News Group

The international conference on forced migration in South Asia, which
was concluded yesterday in Calcutta, had called for establishing of
national legislation on refugees in the South Asian countries. ?There is
a need to establish and strengthen national refugee legislation, with a
view to achieving consistency throughout the South Asian region, in
order to distinguish refugees from other migrants, define the basic
human rights of asylum seekers and refugees, avoid discrimination based
on gender, race, religion, ethnicity or country of origin..,? said the
document of Conference Recommendations.

More than a hundred participants of scholars, policy makers, jurists,
academics, activists and representatives of national and international
non-governmental organizations from 14 countries participated at the
three-day conference.

The delegates noted that although there has been massive cross-border
flows of population in the South Asian region since 1947 (which consists
of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lankar, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Maldives,
Afghanistan, China and Burma), no country in the region has signed the
United Nations Convention on Refugees (1951) or its Protocol (1967) and
each country has been dealing with refugee movements according to its
own legal instruments. And, this has led ?major discrepancies in the
treatment of different groups of refugees at different times in each
country?.

The delegates had also recommended the need to pay due recognition to
addressing the problems of internally displaced persons in the South
Asia region. ?Assistance from the international community should be
permitted, and the institutional and operational capacities of national
non-governmental organizations should be strengthened through this
assistance?, is one of the conference recommendations. According to Ms
Roberta Cohen, Brookings Institution from USA, 20 to 25 million people
are displaced due to the conflicts in various parts of the world.

The conference was organized by the Centre for Refugee Studies, Jadavpur
University in Calcutta, West Bengal of India, in collaboration with
Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, Law Research Institute,
Calcutta and International Law Association, Calcutta Centre.

During the three-day conference, the delegates discussed the
wide-ranging issues relating to refugees and internally displaced
persons in South Asia. The discussions include legal and security issues
relating to refugees, role of non-governmental organizations, media and
displacement issues, repatriation and conflict resolution, internal
displacement and developmental issues. There were special sessions
focusing on refugees and internal displaced persons from Burma and
Tibet. Repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Burma, Burmese refugees in
neighbouring countries and internally displaced persons in Burma were
discussed in the Burma Focus session.