The United Nations refugee agency stated this week that Iraq will be unable to cope with a mass return of refugees until next year and governments should not force large groups to go back. Denis McNamara, UNHCR special envoy to Iraq, said that the agency would assist some of the 200,000 refugees in Iran and would help a small number of young military deserters return from a camp in Saudi Arabia.
Poor security, the lack of basic services and a civil administration would prevent all but a few small-scale, voluntary and orderly repatriations this year, said Denis McNamara, UNHCR special envoy to Iraq. In the process the UN will lay the groundwork, and a larger scale return in 2004 will be expected.
UNHCR estimates that around four million Iraqis fled their country during Saddam Hussein’s rule. Around 500,000 are classified as refugees or asylum seekers.
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The Swiss government is facing calls to grant temporary residence until next April for refugees from Afghanistan. Switzerland has rejected asylum request for over 100 Afghan citizens, but their repatriation is pending. The Society for Threatened Peoples said it was unreasonable to send back people to Afghanistan because of the problems the country is facing, such as poor security and drought.
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Malaysia deported nearly 1,400 illegal Indonesian immigrants last week. The first 599 deportees left Malaysia by ferry and were taken to Surabaya. Another 790 Indonesians were deported by Friday.
The police arrested the immigrants last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s largest city. Many served prison terms for entering illegally the country. While migrant workers from neighboring Indonesia are the backbone of the construction sector in Malaysia, many of them are illegal immigrants. Authorities expelled over 300,000 illegal immigrants last year, mostly Indonesians and Filipinos.
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Two European journalists and an American pastor arrived in Bangkok last Wednesday after serving less than two weeks of a 15-year prison sentence in Laos. The three men were charged with possessing a gun and explosives, and obstructing a police officer.
They were released on humanitarian grounds, with the government trying to ease relations with France, Belgium and the United States. Pressure from Western governments and human rights groups may have hastened the release.
