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Refugees:
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the United States, 338,000 in Canada, and 304,000 in Australia, including boat people. I mention these figures to show that the Western world does play its part, although it is often criticised for not doing enough.
The noble Viscount and other noble Lords gave us the dreadful catalogue of suffering, country by country: 2 million refugees from Afghanistan in Pakistan; the 1.9 million refugees under the care of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, of whom one-third live in 61 camps scattered throughout the Middle East. Nor can we forget the dreadful problem of the Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong, which was mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Chitnis, in his speech, and the cases which exist even today in the sub-continent of India and which have just been referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Bauer.
While it is impossible to say that the problem in any one area is worse than in another, I think noble Lords concluded that for sheer size the refugee problem in Africa is desperate. The total is estimated at over 5 million refugees and displaced persons, and the flight of many Sudanese to Western Ethiopia following the new Islamic legislation, as well as the movement of half a million Eritrean and Tigrean refugees to Sudan from Ethiopia, has compounded the difficulties. The countries of the Horn of Africa are bedevilled by territorial conflicts and political rivalries, and, as we know, a large number of the long-suffering people are starving to death or are on the verge of doing so. It is a terrible commentary on the times we live in.
The Economist summed it up on 22nd December. I think this is worth quoting to noble Lords. This is what the Economist said:
"The Ethiopians have not only had three years of drought and two decades of civil war to contend with. They have also been hit by government policies which since the late 1970s have reduced agricultural production by an average of 5 per cent. a year. This—as well as the cruelty of the rain-gods-is why Ethiopia has had to beg for food from the rest of the world . . . By the end of the year, 250,000 hungry Ethiopians in the dry north will have been loaded in lorries and aircraft and resettled in the south-west. Another 2.5 million are due to be resettled by 1994. This is not going to solve the problem of Ethiopia's agricultural inefficiency; and the Ethiopian government does not seem receptive to alternative remedies. Two years ago an Oxford economist, Mr. Keith Griffin, wrote a detailed plan for reform at the behest of Colonel Mengistu. The Ethiopian ruler has suppressed the report".
I do not think there is any need to comment further on that.
My noble friend, Lady Ewart-Biggs gave us a moving and important account of her visit to Sudan, and I am sure that we are all extremely grateful to her. As she said, the position is critical, with half a million refugees from Ethiopia and Chad there. Appeals which the aid agencies have been making for Ethiopia are now being repeated for Sudan. I should like to take this opportunity to pay the warmest possible tribute, as did the noble Baroness, Lady Elliot, to Oxfam, Christian Aid and the other voluntary agencies for their remarkable efforts at this time. The United Nations Commission also deserves our thanks and support. I think we should recognise the daunting size of its task, and I am sure that Her Majesty's Government fully support its objectives.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Sr. Perez de Cueller, said recently:
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"The problem of refugees can be resolved only with the settlement of the root political causes".
My noble friend Lord Hatch, in his speech, devoted a good deal of time to this. As he indicated, there are several such causes, and they are not easily dealt with. Many African nations were built on the basis of artificial colonial boundaries, as my noble friend Lord Hatch said. Their governments have lacked central authority, for tribal and other reasons, and they have been unable to cope with international economic reccessions. Political instability and inability to deal with economic problems have created acute social tensions and we can literally observe month by month the deterioration of the quality of life in these unhappy countries.
One of the most tragic and the most wicked aspects of the crisis is that it has been made worse by the manner in which the superpowers and former colonial countries have intervened there. Local disputes have escalated into larger disasters and into wars, and scarce money has been spent on sophisticated armaments from the East and from the West by countries where millions are living below susbsistence level or are starving to death. This was a point well made by my noble friend Lord Soper, in a characteristically powerful speech. Added to this is the drought and famine which now appears to be the norm in many of these countries.
The final question in this debate is: what can be done in these grim circumstances? Are we just talking into the air, or is there something which Her Majesty's Government can do? The fact is that finding permanent solutions to such an immense problem is a task that can be tackled only on the international level. The receiving countries have been generous, but they are also among the poorest countries in the world. They just cannot cope. The international community has responded. Money, time and energy, and the sacrifice of some of the best men and women in the world, have been channelled into programmes to help refugees, but they have not averted the crisis.
The British Refugee Council give five main reasons why the programmes have not been effective. First, they say that these programmes have simply just failed to keep pace with the scope of the problem. My Lords, that is understandable. Secondly, they say that errors have been made in allocating and administering available resources; thirdly, that there has been too much emphasis on the provision of emergency relief, at the expense of assistance that will promote self- sufficiency, development and integration into the local community, and fourthly, that refugee camps should only be regarded a bridge towards permanent solutions. Finally, they say that the programmes have been implemented without due regard to long-term planning. The United Nations Commission, I believe, recognise these weaknesses and they have commented that to be successful the programmes must encourage the participation of the refugees themselves. They must be part and parcel of any effort towards rehabil- itation.
The value of this debate is that it gives the Minister the opportunity to clarify the British Government's views and to respond to this crisis. The noble Lord will be aware of the Second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa (ICARA II) and its