"The competent official (e.g., immigration officer or border police officer) to whom the applicant addresses himself at the border or in the territory of a Contracting State should have clear instructions for dealing with cases which might come within the purview of the relevant international instruments". 3,
E/1979/95 page 5
In view of the need for asylum requests to be considered with due regard to the special problems facing the applicant, the Ixecutive Committee at the same session also recommended that applications be referred to "a clearly identified authority wherever possible a single central authority". 2/ It is to be emphasized that, while such requirements might appear to be of a strictly technical nature, they do in fact form the essential basis for implementing the principles contained in international refugee instruments.
19. In certain situations contacts between UNICR field staff and the competent authorities in border areas have been of the greatest practical importance in ensuring that the applications by asylum-seekers receive appropriate attention, and that asylum seekers are not rejected at the frontier and are protected against refoulement. These situations have clearly shom the importance of the Office's presence in the field and of the need for adequate staff entrusted with protection duties, a matter on which positive recommendations were made by the Executive Committee at its last two sessions.
20.
Most African States facing refugee situations have continued generously to receive asylum-seekers in accordance with the liberal principles regarding asylum which are also expressed in the OAU Convention of 1969 Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. In so doing, they have frequently provided opportunities for durable settlement, especially in rural areas.
21.
The problem of the already large and growing number of asylum-seekers leaving their countries of origin in the Indo-Chinese peninsula by land as well as by sea was of increasing concern to the countries of the region and to the international community as a whole. It was in order to facilitate the search for solutions to this problem that the High Commissioner held consultations with interested Governments in Geneva on 11 and 12 December 1970. Attended by representatives of 38 Governments, these consultations served generally to indicate the interdependence of the various elements of the problem and the consequent significance of international solidarity as the framework within which solutions could be found.
22.
/
The particular question of refugees and displaced persons leaving their country of origin by sea assumed new proportions during the reporting period and gave rise to a number of problems in the context of asylum, i.e. in obtaining permission from governments in the region for such cases to disembark and receive temporary asylum pending resettlement and, on the other hand, in procuring asylum for them on a durable basis elsewhere.
23. The question of the rescue of persons from Indo-China found in distress at sea received the attention of the Executive Committee at its twenty-ninth session, when it called upon States to instruct ships flying their flags to
8 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-second Session, Supplement No. 12A (A/32/12/Add.1), para. 53 (6)(e)(i).
2/ Ibid., para. 53 (6)(e)(iii).
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.