65th session Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme
[29-30 September 2014]
India’s Statement at HighLevel Segment on “Enhancing International Cooperation, Solidarity, Local Capacities and Humanitarian action for Refugees in Africa"
Mr. Chairman,
At the outset, my delegation would like to congratulate you on your election as the Chair of the Executive Council. We would like to express our deep appreciation to you and the High Commissioner for taking a timely initiative to convene this High Level Segment on enhancing international cooperation, solidarity, local capacities and humanitarian action for refugees in Africa.
We thank the High Commissioner for a detailed report on ‘Refugee Situation in Africa’ along with ‘Update on UNHCR’s operations in Africa’.
India deeply appreciates the important role played by the UNHCR in addressing the African refugee situation through implementation of comprehensive solution strategies,and alsothe specifically mandated Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) situations, which got aggravated in recent times due to internal conflicts and disturbances, further compounded by Ebola epidemic.
The UNCHR Report points that the number of refugees in Africa over the last decade remained more or less steady in the range of 3.5 million, however, the number of IDPs rose alarmingly from 2 million in 2000 to 7.7 million now. Such drasticrise in number of IDPs in Africa emerges largely from regions or countries facing serious crises leading to political instability.The deteriorating humanitarian situation can be brought under control only when the armed conflicts or internal challenges come to an end. There is an urgent need for the international community to work closely with the African leadership to address the crises leading to such large human displacements.The return of peace and normalcy will determine how soon the refugees and IDPs can think of returning back on a voluntary basis.
Mr. Chairman,
We take this opportunity to commend the African countries for hosting refugees as part of their burden sharing responsibilities by way of providing them humanitarian, legal and livelihood supports,despite their enormous constraints in their capacities to accommodate such additional challenges.The protection measures offered by host countries in Africa such as offer of nationality through naturalization, regularization of stay, offer of long term visas, employment opportunities, and access to education and health, are truly praiseworthy.
The Report also highlights specific areas where countries hosting such Persons of Concern to the UNHRC need to augment their internal capacities and also areas where the international community need to assist them to improve their capacities.
We continue to encourage UNHCR to work closely with African countries on facilitation for voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement of increasingly large number of refugees. We are optimistic that these efforts will lead to durable solutions to the refugee issues. It is our understanding that in handling of the IDPs, UNHCR’s assistive role is limited to the extent to which the local Governments have sought such assistance, and where it has an assigned lead role under the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC).
We continue to support UNHCR’s efforts in capacity building of refugee response and management in the host countries and urges it to further enhance its operations in this direction with emphasis on skill development of refugees so that they can regain confidence to return to their countries of origin.
India’s commitment to African countries has been reiterated through the India-Africa Forum Summits held in 2008 and 2011, by way of offering concrete programmesfor capacity building, sharing of experience in development, apart from offering US $ 5.4 billion as lines of credit for developmental projects. As part of India’s efforts to address the Ebola epidemic, Prime Minister of India has announced a contribution of US $ 12 million to the UNSG’s Ebola Fund, apart from a cash contribution of US $0.5 million to the WHO.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, India renews its solidarity with the people and the Governments of African countries in their pursuit for early resolution of problems of refugees and IDPs.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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