Ex-Officials Urge White House to Accept More Syrian Refugees

Ex-Officials Urge White House to Accept More Syrian Refugees

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/world/middleeast/ex-officials-urge-white-house-to-accept-more-syrian-refugees.html

By MICHAEL R. GORDON,  SEPT. 17, 2015

WASHINGTON — More than 20 former senior officials, including some who served in prominent positions in the Obama administration, urged the White House on Thursday to accept 100,000 Syrian refugees, a tenfold increase over an American commitment made last week.

“We urge that you announce support for a refugees admissions goal of 100,000 Syrian refugees on an extraordinary basis, over and above the current worldwide refugee ceiling of 70,000,” they wrote in a letter to President Obama and congressional leaders.

The United States has accepted about 1,500 refugees from Syria since the start of the conflict there, and the White House announced last week that it would take in at least 10,000 more Syrian refugees over the next year. But the letter, which was signed by former officials from Democratic and Republican administrations, argued that much more should be done.

“With some four million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and hundreds of thousands of Syrian asylum seekers in Europe, this would be a responsible exercise in burden sharing,” it says. “We urge you to take extraordinary measures, as were taken for refugees from Vietnam, northern Iraq and Kosovo.”

The letter also urges the White House to allocate up to $2 billion to pay for resettling Syrian refugees and to help support international refugee efforts. The United States has provided more than $4 billion in humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees, but international organizations are struggling with funding shortfalls.

The former officials who signed the letter include some noteworthy veterans of the Obama administration: Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense; Derek Chollet, who served as an assistant defense secretary, Harold H. Koh, who served as the State Department’s legal adviser; and Eric P. Schwartz, who was a senior refugee official in the State Department.

Signatories who served in Republican administrations include Paul D. Wolfowitz, a deputy defense secretary in the George W. Bush administration, and Kori Schake and Richard Fontaine, who worked on the National Security Council under Mr. Bush.

Several former diplomats who served in the Middle East were also signatories, including Robert S. Ford, whom Mr. Obama named to serve as ambassador to Syria, and Ryan C. Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan under Mr. Obama and was previously ambassador to Syria and Iraq, among other countries.

Some conservative members of Congress have raised concerns that admitting large numbers of refugees could pose risks if militants infiltrated their ranks. And administration officials have cited constraints, including the 18 to 24 months that it takes the Department of Homeland Security to do background checks. But the letter asserts that these issues can be managed.

“We have demonstrated that it can be done in the case of the Kurds, the Kosovars and the Vietnamese,” said Mr. Schwartz, who coordinated refugee settlement efforts for such groups during the Bill Clinton administration and currently serves as the dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. “What we need is high-level political leadership. Even with a responsible D.H.S. vetting process, we can have the capability to resettle large numbers. For one thing, we need to put more money and people against these requirements.”

The United States took in 111,000 Vietnamese refugees in 1979. The next year, that number grew to 207,000. Around the same time, the United States accepted more than 120,000 Cuban refugees during theMariel boatlift. But the number of refugees accepted by the United States dwindled after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The United States currently has an overall yearly cap on refugees of 70,000, and Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers last week that the cap should be increased to as many as 100,000.

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2426925/letter-regarding-syrian-refugees.pdf

Open Letter from International Lawyers to EU States, the European Union and European Publics on the Refugee Crisis in Europe

Open Letter from International Lawyers to EU States, the European Union and European Publics on the Refugee Crisis in Europe

http://opiniojuris.org/2015/09/24/open-letter-from-international-lawyers-to-eu-states-the-european-union-and-european-publics-on-the-refugee-crisis-in-europe/

by Başak Çalı  , September 24th, 2015

[Dr. Başak Çalı is Director for the Center of Global Public Law and Associate Professor of International Law at Koç University, Turkey. She the secretary general of the European Society of International Law. The following is written in her personal capacity.]

It is a rare event for international lawyers to overwhelmingly agree on the content, scope and interpretation of international law. This open letter (.pdf) from 674 international lawyers and practitioners from across the globe, including leading experts in international refugee law, concerning international law obligations to those seeking refuge is one example of this. The letter emerged from a session on ‘Refugee Crisis and Europe’ that took place at the 11th Annual Conference of the European Society of International Law in Oslo on 12th September 2015. It was open for signature for just two days, from 21st September until midnight on 22nd September 2015. The letter has been sent to EU leaders ahead of their informal meeting on migration. Due to overwhelming demands from international lawyers and EU’s ongoing discussion of the issue, the letter has been re-opened for signature until 28 September 2015 Midnight CET.

The text of 22 September states:

We, the undersigned international lawyers, gathered at the European Society of International Law 11th Annual Meeting in Oslo on 12th September 2015, and other international law scholars and experts, condemn the failure to offer protection to people seeking refuge in Europe, and the lack of respect for the human rights of those seeking refuge.

In particular, we express our horror at the human rights violations being perpetrated against those seeking refuge, in particular the acts of violence, unjustified coercion and arbitrary detention.

We note that European states have obligations not only to refugees and migrants on their territories, but that international refugee law rests on international responsibility sharing. The world’s refugees are disproportionately outside Europe. We note that over nine-tenths of Syrian refugees are in five countries, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. We note that around one quarter of Lebanon’s population comprises refugees.

We note that all European states have obligations not only to refugees as defined under the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, but also to those protected against return under international human rights law and customary international law. We note that this broad duty of non-refoulement protects all those at real risk of serious human rights violations if returned. They should be afforded international protection. EU Member States have further obligations under EU law.

We urge European states and the EU to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, prevent further loss of life in dangerous journeys to Europe by providing safe passage, and live up to their obligations in international and EU law.

We recall the legacy of Fridtjof Nansen, the first League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the initiator of the Nansen passport, created to facilitate the safe passage and legal migration opportunities for refugees and stateless persons.

We urge European states and the EU to:

– meet their obligations of international responsibility-sharing, to resettle significant numbers of refugees and provide aid to countries hosting large numbers of refugees.

– as regards those seeking protection in Europe, abandon those policies which prevent safe and legal access to protection. The UNHCR estimates over 2,860 people have died at sea trying to get to Europe this year alone. Suspending carrier sanctions and issuing humanitarian visas would largely prevent the need for those seeking refuge to make dangerous journeys.

– respect and protect the human rights of those seeking refuge once they are in Europe, including by enabling them to access asylum procedures or ensuring safe passage to countries where they wish to seek international protection.

– immediately suspend Dublin returns of asylum-seekers to their first point of entry, but ensure that its rules on family reunification are implemented fully and swiftly.

– relocate asylum-seekers and refugees in a manner that respects the dignity and agency of those relocated, and increases Europe’s capacity to offer protection.

– replace the Dublin System with one which accords with international human rights law and respects the dignity and autonomy of asylum-seekers, and supports international and intra-European responsibility-sharing.

– implement fair and swift procedures to recognize all those in need of international protection.

– while claims are being examined, afford those in need of international protection, at a minimum, the reception conditions to which they are entitled in international human rights and EU law.

– respect the right to family life, including positive obligations with regard to family unity, facilitation of swift family reunification and family tracing.

– treat all refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants with dignity and respect, respecting and protecting their human rights, irrespective of status.

For the current list of signatures, please see this page. 

The UN Refugee Convention will have an equivalent of the Human Rights Committee or Committee Against Torture

Summary Conclusions of the Roundtable on the Future of Refugee Convention Supervision

by James Hathaway  March 27th, 2013

http://opiniojuris.org/2013/03/27/summary-conclusions-of-the-roundtable-on-the-future-of-refugee-convention-supervision/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+opiniojurisfeed+%28Opinio+Juris%29

[James Hathaway is the James E. and Sarah A. Degan Professor of Law and the Director, Program in Refugee and Asylum Law at the University of Michigan Law School]

Finally, a break-through on the conundrum of Refugee Convention supervision!  The UN Refugee Convention has languished for more than 60 years without any formal mechanism to provide arms-length international oversight of treaty obligations.  While state parties agree to assist UNHCR to implement its duty of institutional supervision, refugee law has no equivalent of the Human Rights Committee or Committee Against Torture to provide transparent evaluation of state compliance, or to provide authoritative guidance — for example, on such key questions as who qualifies for Convention refugee status, or the rights held by refugees under international law.

In September 2012, Justice Tony North of the Australian Federal Court (and former president of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges) and I co-convened an expert meeting at Downing College, Cambridge, to try to find a way forward on supervision of the Refugee Convention.  Drawing on studies prepared by the Cambridge Pro Bono Project (to be published later this year), a group of leading jurists and scholars from around the world conceived a means to break the deadlock.  The essence of the mechanism proposed is the establishment of a Special Committee of Experts, comprised of judges and others tasked with the issuance of advisory opinions at the request of the High Commissioner, courts, and specialist tribunals. The just-released Summary Conclusions of the Roundtable (.pdf) are now available.