REFUGEES AND THE COLD WAR

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REFUGEES AND THE COLD WAR
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Estimated number of refugees by region, 1950-1990
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INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND COLD WAR HISTORY

• Did they matter?
• Cold War historians state-centered beasts
• Students of international organizations
  non-historical creatures with a few exceptions!

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REFUGEE PROBLEM, MAY 1945

• 40 million refugees/displaced people in Europe
• Plus 13 million Germans expelled
• 11.3 million forced laborers in former German
  reich
• Beyond Europe China, Indochina, Korea etc
  approaching 100 million mark

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EARLY EFFORTS

• UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration
  (UNRRA) founded in 1943
• Emergency assistance
• Repatriation
• Many to labor camps

• International Refugee Organization (IRO), July
  1947
• European refugees
• Resettlement (US, Canada, Australia, Israel,
  Latin America)
• US 70 funding

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UNHCR AND THE EARLY COLD WAR

• Created in 1949-50 to replace IRO as of January
  1951
• 1951 Refugee Convention defines refugee
• Hungary 1956 200,000 refugees
• UNHCR helps resettlement in 30 countries

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UNHCR A WESTERN ORGANIZATION?

• The Hungarian operation demonstrated the
  important diplomatic role that the High
  Commissioner could play in events at the center
  of world politics.
• The UNHCR played an essential mediating role
  between East and West involving the repatriation
  of nearly 10 per cent of the Hungarian refugees.
• -- G. Loescher, UNHCR and World Politics

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1960S AND 1970S BEYOND EUROPE

• Decolonization in Africa
• Algeria
• Congo
• Great Lakes
• Portuguese Colonies (Angola)

• Conflicts in Asia
• Bangladesh 1970-71 10 million refugees (largest
  UNHCR operation to date)
• Vietnamese  Boat people 
• Victims of Khmer Rouge

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PROXY WARS in the 1980s

• Horn of Africa
• Afghanistan
• Central America
• In 1975 2.8 million refugees, UNHCR budget U
  76 million
• 1989 15 million refugees, UNHCR budget U 580
  million

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THE COLD WAR AND REFUGEES

• Growing numbers, crises exacerbated by the Cold
  War
• With refugee flows, instability grows
• Protracted refugee situations created fertile
  ground for militarization of camps, recruitment
  for liberation movements
• Refugee situations as time bombs

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Research ProjectUNHCR and the Global Cold
War1971-1984
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GOALS

• ARCHIVAL PROCESSING
• RESEARCH
• DISSEMINATION
• Project started in summer 2006
• End of project Conference, October 2007

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The Archival Work

• Preservation of the archives
• Move documents from original binders to acid free
  folders/boxes
• Withdrawing documents copied/produced using
  chemicals.
• Creation of a database
• Listing of files following the UNHCR
  classification.
• Basis for an archive catalogue for the UNHCR
  web site.
• Review process 2 objectives Restriction
  Policy and Research
• Restriction Policy
• Documents with intrusive information on
  refugees are withdrawn or modified. When
  necessary, a full file can be withdrawn.
• Research
• Note taking process highlight well covered
  themes for research

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Types of Documents

• Communications between HQs and UNHCR delegates on
  the field.
• Period covered 1971-1984, with gaps and
  documents going further back (1960s).
• Language vast majority in English and French
  some in Spanish a few in other languages such as
  German, Finn, etc.
• Heterogeneity (not only UNHCR documents)
• Action Sheets Attached to the documents
  registers HQs advice, opinion, order. Often
  reveals interesting comments by UNHCR staff.

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Types of Information

• Statistics
• Legal issues (mainly about eligibility and UNHCR
  mandate)
• Progress reports on UNHCR projects
  (resettlements, refugee camps, etc.)
• Information on political situation and conflicts
  in countries/regions
• Relations with governments and other political
  entities (ex independence movements)
• Countries refugee policies, legislation and
  programs
• Mechanisms to answer specific refugee/humanitarian
  crises
• Relations and cooperation with other UN agencies,
  IOs or NGOs

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Obstacles and Readjustments

• Manage all 3 objectives (Archival processing
  Dissemination Research)
• Files Contents
• Some documents from the 1960s but no post-1984
  documents (stories go beyond) Missing documents?
• Issue of Cold War related research topics
• Very few topics purely linked to the US/Soviet
  confrontation
• Nevertheless, some Cold War related topics
  Jewish refugees from the USSR Superpowers
  proxies in independence/civil war (Angola)
• Confirmation that Cold War years were not just
  about the bipolar struggle
• Post-colonial issues well covered
• Situations prior and just after independence
  Eligibility criteria UNHCR relations with new
  governments and military groups, etc.

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Possible Research Themes

• Transversal topics
• Militarization of camps
• Metropoles and their former colonies
  (UK-Rhodesia, 1970s)
• UNHCR relations with other IOs and NGOs
  (Palestinians/UNWRA)
• More focused topics
• Focus on Receiving (Botswana) and Generating
  country (Vietnam)
• Specific crisis (Refugees from Burma in
  Bangladesh, 1978-1979)
• Specific programs (Anti-Piracy Program)
• Focus on a specific group of refugees (Afghans
  Tibetans)
• Other topics well covered
• Refugees from El Salvador
• Refugees from Nicaragua
• Refugees from South Africa Apartheid ANC
• Refugees from Western Sahara in Algeria

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3 Ongoing Research Topics

• Refugees from Afghanistan in India, Iran and
  Pakistan
• El Salvadoran Refugees in the 1970s and early
  1980s
• The United States and Vietnamese Refugees,
  1975-1984

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DOCUMENT EXAMPLE AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN BORDER,
1980
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1984 BORDERS AND INSTABILITY
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THE COLD WAR AND REFUGEES

• Growing numbers, crises exacerbated by the Cold
  War
• With refugee flows, instability grows
• Refugees used, instrumentalized
• Protracted refugee situations created fertile
  ground for militarization of camps, recruitment
  for liberation movements
• Refugee situations as time bombs blowback
  phenomenon

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LAST THE ADD

• January 1, 2008 Programme for the Study of
  Global Migration, Graduate Institute of
  International and Development Studies