Both these options are difficult, and both can be contemplated
only when conditions are ripe. It is natural for refugees and
those concerned for them to show impatience, but premature action
may lead to resettlement being preferred too often to the still
better solution of repatriation.
Resettlement has become ever
more difficult in recent years. Its costs are vast, not only
the financial ones of transport and initial settlement, but in
the human problems of integration in an alien environment, and
the concealed social costs to the country of resettlement.
Repatriation is now being seen more and more clearly as the
best solution, particularly where massive refugee flows are
concerned. Where else can a refugee better go than to his own
old home, where the language, climate, social and human
environment are all familiar to him? Home is best.
11.
of refugees
!
Repatriation/must however be fully voluntary: and this
implies that the root causes of the original refugee flows have
to a large extent been removed. We are particularly interested
in the current operation to repatriate Ethiopian refugees
voluntarily from Djibouti, and congratulate the High Commissioner.
and the governments of the two countries concerned. The success
achieved in this case emboldens me to say to the High Commissioner
that we hope he will in his thinking about the rôle of the UNHCR
in relation to durable solutions, substitute for the low-key,
purely chemical image of a catalyst that of a goad, or a "prod".
For we readily admit that governments do need prodding in the
direction of durable solutions.
5-
/ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT