World Refugee Day: Addressing The Needs Of African Refugees

Floor Speech

WORLD REFUGEE DAY: ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF AFRICAN REFUGEES -- (Extensions of Remarks - June 22, 2007)

* Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, two days ago, on June 20th, the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health held a hearing on the occasion of World Refugee Day. This day was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2001 to be commemorated each year in order to honor the contributions of refugees around the world and to call attention to the plight of those who continue to suffer as refugees. This day also coincides with Africa Refugee Day, which has been commemorated since 1975 and was established by the Organization of African Unity Commission of Ten on Refugees as a wayÐ to raise funds for assistance for refugees in Africa.

* It is shocking to consider that 12 million people in the world are refugees today, and almost a quarter of those, 3.2 million, live in Africa. In addition, Africa has an estimated 12 million Internally Displaced Persons, most of whom are victims of conflicts within their countries. Floods and droughts have also contributed to the dislocation of large numbers of African people. More than half of the world's refugees have lived in camps for several years, with no foreseeable prospects for returning to their homes and a normal lifestyle.

* No one can measure the suffering that often comes with being a refugee--being a stranger in a strange land, the inability of children to attend school, the frustration of parents unable to provide the basic necessities for their families, the hardships and fears that come with living in a tent, or having no shelter at all. One might forget that refugees often also are suffering the emotional trauma that results from violence inherent in the conflicts that produce refugees.

* For that reason, it was particularly useful to hear the testimony of Neal Porter, the Director of International Services from the Center for Victims of Torture. Legislation that I have sponsored, including the Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act of 2007 which passed the House on April 25, 2007 and is now pending in the Senate, provides authorization for programming that helps refugees and others suffering the effects of torture. I would encourage my colleagues in the Senate to act on this bill so that the Center for Victims of Torture and others who provide services to torture survivors can receive the assistance they so desperately need.

* The international community accomplished a major milestone when it recognized refugees as having certain rights under international law in the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 Protocol. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees plays a major role in ensuring that the promised resources and protection are provided. However, as laudable as international recognition and assistance are for assisting those forced to flee from their homes, far more needs to be done to prevent people from becoming refugees in the first place, and to accommodate the safe return and re-establishment of those already refugees or IDPs. This subcommittee hearing provided an important opportunity to examine what we in the United States and the world community can do in this respect.

* Although I and others have devoted significant attention in recent months and years to the tragedy in Darfur, one can never over-publicize the desperate situation of the victims of the Sudanese Government's genocide. When I think of refugees, my mind immediately recalls those who I met in the Mukjar and Kalma camps, only some of the 2 million who have been displaced from their homes in that region. The term ``displaced'' does not begin to describe the nightmare situation that these people must live in. As we have heard through testimony at recent hearings on Darfur, these people long most of all not for food or shelter, though they have little of either, but for protection. And with good reason--over 450,000 people have died in the violence of Darfur.

* On the occasion of World Refugee Day, we could not forget those who voluntarily subject themselves to the same harsh conditions in order to care for and protect refugees and displaced persons. It was necessary to pay a special tribute particularly to the men and women who have suffered violence, many to the point of death, in their efforts to assist the people of Darfur. Humanitarian groups there have reported being harassed by the Government of Sudan and deliberately attacked by rebel groups. Over a dozen humanitarian workers have been killed over the past year. In mid-December 2006, armed groups launched a major attack against NGO compounds in Gereida, South Darfur. On January 19, 2007, Sudanese Government security forces arrested and severely beat 20 UN staff members in Nyala, South Darfur. On February 5, 2007, a civilian police officer with AMIS was killed in an IDP camp in the North.

* The men and women who risk their welfare and their very lives to care for these refugees truly live out the words, ``I was hungry, and you gave me food; thirsty and you gave me drink; a stranger, and you welcomed me.'' I convey to these heroic men and women my personal gratitude for lending their hands and hearts to some of our poorest brothers and sisters.

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