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VII. Obligations of the International Community

As is the case for other countries in the Middle East, particularly Syria and Jordan, Lebanon finds itself in the position of a refugee-hosting country for no other reason than the circumstance of its geographical location. Lebanon should not be expected to shoulder the burden of hosting a significant number of Iraqi refugees by itself. Lebanon played no role in creating the Iraqi refugee crisis, and has no more responsibility than any other country to solve it. In recognition of this fact, the international community needs to provide meaningful assistance to Lebanon and other refugee-hosting countries in the region, to help alleviate the plight of the more than 2 million Iraqi people who have been forced to flee their country.

Assistance from the international community should take two forms. First, countries outside the region should provide financial assistance to refugee-hosting countries in the region. Second, they should as a matter of priority offer to resettle significant numbers of especially vulnerable refugees, giving urgent priority to indefinitely detained refugees at risk of coerced return to Iraq. Other steps the international community should take to persuade Lebanon to stop the practice of coerced repatriation of Iraqis include putting pressure on the International Organization of Migration not to resume the facilitation of coerced returns.

Financial Assistance

As noted in section VI of this report, the UNHCR ExCom’s Standing Committee has emphasized the need for states to give refugees the means to gain the economic and social ability to meet their essential needs on a sustainable and dignified basis.¹⁸⁴ To this end, the Standing Committee has urged refugee-hosting states to make every effort to assure refugees their basic civil and socio-economic rights, including freedom of movement, the right to access the labor market, and the right to education, health care, and other social services.¹⁸⁵

But the responsibility for enabling refugees to become self-reliant is not limited to refugee-hosting countries. In the words of the Standing Committee:

While the host State should provide the legal basis for refugees to exercise their rights, the extent to which these can actually be realized depends not least on socio-economic conditions in the host State, including in particular the capacity of the area where refugees reside.  In this context, an international burden and responsibility-sharing framework to increase the capacities of the host State to help refugees achieve self-reliance is very important.¹⁸⁶

In this respect, the ExCom, in its Conclusion 100 of 2004, recommended that the international response to large-scale refugee crises include:

The provision of financial and in-kind assistance in support of refugee populations and host communities to promote refugee self-reliance, as appropriate, thus enhancing the sustainability of any future durable solution and relieving the burden on countries of first asylum;

The provision of financial and other forms of support, as appropriate, linked to broader economic developments and other concerns countries of first asylum may have in relation to providing protection to large numbers of asylum-seekers and refugees.¹⁸⁷

The international community should contribute generously to appeals by UNHCR and other UN agencies to fund their operations in the region,¹⁸⁸ and should provide direct assistance to the governments of the refugee-hosting countries in the Middle East with a view to enabling Iraqi refugees to live a dignified life in the countries where they have sought refuge.

Resettlement

Countries outside the region, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, the leaders of the coalition that invaded Iraq and directly or indirectly precipitated the massive displacement of Iraqi civilians, should respond quickly and generously to UNHCR referrals of Iraqi refugees for resettlement. Resettlement countries should indicate particular receptivity for Iraqi refugees in detention for whom resettlement might be the only way to protect against refoulement.

The ExCom, in its Conclusion 100 of 2004, recommended that in the case of mass refugee influxes, the international community make use of “the more effective and strategic use of resettlement as a tool of burden and responsibility sharing.”¹⁸⁹ Thus offers of resettlement should be made not just for the benefit of those refugees who are to be resettled, but as a tool to ensure enhanced protection for as many refugees as possible. In this respect, the narrow focus in the United States on resettling refugees who have worked for the U.S. government or its armed services, while laudable, is, by itself, insufficient. Countries outside the region should offer to resettle significant numbers of the most vulnerable refugees, so as to persuade refugee-hosting countries in the region to keep their borders open for new refugees, and to maintain and enhance existing levels of refugee protection in the region.

The ExCom, in its Conclusion 100 of 2004, also emphasized that international solidarity involving all members of the international community strengthens respect by states for their protection responsibilities towards refugees, and that committed international cooperation in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility and burden sharing among all states enhances the refugee protection regime.¹⁹⁰ Given the enormity of the Iraqi refugee crisis, nothing can be more important than ensuring that Iraqi refugees receive the protection they deserve. The international community should mobilize without any further delay to offer all necessary assistance. Lebanon and other refugee-hosting countries in the region are entitled to much greater support from the international community than they have received thus far.

IOM’s Governing Council

The 120 member states of the International Organization for Migration determine its policies and provide oversight on its operations through its Governing Council. The IOM constitution, which expressly prohibits IOM’s participation in involuntary returns, is the primary instrument used to ensure accountability. Noting that IOM temporarily suspended its involvement in returns of detained Iraqis from Lebanon in September 2007,  but informed the Iraqi embassy in Beirut that it would “resume work in the near future,” the 94th Session of the Governing Council meeting from November 27-30, 2007, has a responsibility as the authoritative decision-making body of IOM to ensure that IOM does not resume its engagement in Iraqi returns from Lebanon if doing so would violate its constitutional prohibition against facilitating coerced returns. HRW further urges the Governing Council and its member states not to fund IOM return operations from Lebanon to Iraq that would involve detained Iraqis for at least as long as UNHCR’s guidance that no Iraqi should be forcibly returned to southern or central Iraq remains in effect.

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