Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

184 Chapter 4
One question interesting to us in the context of international refugee law is whether and
to what extent the High Commissioner ought to get involved in such activities as
monitoring events likely to cause outflows of refugees; alerting States, international
organizations and world opinion to such situations; and suggesting measures to be taken,
perhaps also taking certain steps vis-ä-vis the State in question. 416
Though Grahl-Madsen recognizes that according to the UNHCR Statute, the
work of the High Commissioner needs to be "social and humanitarian"
(Paragraph 2), he believes that the Commissioner needs "all the early warning he
can get. ... It would be in line with his normal activities if he took the initiative to
some aid programme enabling people to stay home rather than leaving for an
uncertain future abroad." 417
Often the most valuable sources of early warning information are the
refugees who have already arrived in the country of asylum. This is especially
true in the early stage of a refugee flow. At that time, interviews with refugees
can be crucial in the determining whether the existing flow will taper off or grow
into a massive influx. 418
Information on which contingency and emergency plans are based has in
many cases been obtained from die first trickle of refugees over an international
border. In situations where resettlement is by and large the only solution
available, UNHCR interviews each refugee individually, or at least each head of
family. This has been its practice in Southeast Asia, for example, since
resettlement countries would not start their processing before UNHCR
established records on the new arrivals. Despite ample opportunities for in-depth
gathering of information, much of which could be usefully employed in a
dialogue with the country of origin, UNHCR has generally refrained from asking
refugees overly detailed questions about conditions in the country of origin, and
the circumstances and problems they encountered before and during their flight.
Increasingly, however, UNHCR officials have come to realize that detailed,
accurate, and current information on potential refugee situations is of crucial
importance for the Office's efforts at advance planning. 419 In
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416 Grahl-Madsen, "The Emergent Law Relating to Refugees," in The Refugee Problem
on Universal, Regional and National Level, Thesaurus Acroasium Vol. XIII,
Institute of International Public Law and International Relations of Thessaloniki,
1987,p.244.
417 Grahl-Madsen, "The Emerging Law Relating to Refugees," p.244.
418 Lance Clark, "Recommended next steps for UNHCR regarding early warning,"
Refugee Policy Group (RPG), Washington (1988), p.l.
419 See, for example Cartmail, Exodus Indochina, 1983. p.233: "For example, every
Vietnamese boat leader, whose boat is rescued and whose travelling compatriots
New Approaches and Policies 185
its 1987 Note on International Protection, UNHCR stated that information
must be shared between the States and the Office, and with other
intergovernmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations, to ensure "the
accurate identification of situations producing flight, and or groups and
individuals in need." 420
Guy Goodwin-Gill asserts that there is a congruence of interest and
responsibility between states and UNHCR, comprising both territorial and
international elements. The territorial responsibilities involve standards of
treatment, individual freedom, and community interests; "international
responsibilities involve protection and assistance, attention to root causes and
solutions." 421
Each party to this equation must fulfill its duty. If a given state does not
discharge its responsibilities in ensuring proper standards of treatment,
individual freedom, and the community interest of its population, then the
resulting problem becomes a matter of international responsibility. Conversely,
providing protection and assistance only once people have been compelled to
flee, without asking how the people came to be in that condition, might allow
governments to "get away with murder." 422
The requirement that UNHCR's actions be nonpolitical restricts its role
only to impartiality rather than of absolute noninvolvement in such basic
matters as identifying causes of refugee movements and reporting on them for
efforts to develop preventive measures. When assessing conditions that could
bear on refugee flows in a country within its jurisdiction, UNHCR might just
indicate in a non detailed manner basic facts, which other better suited
organizations could more fully investigate
disembark in Singapore, has to complete a detailed questionnaire on the time and
circumstances of their escape, the type of boat and details on the journey and
rescue. The answers to these 33 questions are then evaluated every month in
relation to every group that is rescued and averages determined. Results arrived at
include information on... origin, ages and ethnic composition... showed that most
of the refugees arriving in Singapore between the July Conference and September
(1979) were ethnic Vietnamese and only a small percentage ethnic Chinese, a
statistic that offers further strong evidence that the exodus of refugees from
Vietnam has been a exodus controlled by Hanoi and designed to expel Vietnam's
Chinese population."
420 UN doc. A/AC.96/694,13 August 1988, p.3.
421 Goodwin-Gill, "UNHCR's Expanding Mandate," Draft paper, May 1988, p.16.
422 United States Committee for Refugees, "Beyond the Headlines, Refugees in the
Horn of Africa," (Washington: U.S. Committee for Refugees, January 1988), p.20.