UNHCR

[pwebb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I am very grateful that David Townshend's( of the Jesuit Refugee Service 
Bangkok) message concerning the UNHCR's criteria for refugees has been
posted on the net. I am afraid that I am not quite so understanding as he is
concerning the Protection Officers in the UNHCR office in Bangkok. For some
years I have been forwarding to them faxed letters of commendation for ABSDF
men whom I know personally, with whom I have stayed in the Burmese and Thai
jungles, and whose privations I have shared, albeit for only a short while.
I know these men are really genuine cases and are in Bangkok because they
want to try to go to a third country ( mainly the USA & Australia) So far
this small branch of the ABSDF here in Darwin Australia has paid for three
ABSDF men to come to Australia - and all are doing well in jobs or at
universities.
Until a year ago the UNHCR posed little difficulty tho' not necessariliy
because of any letters etc I may have sent. Now there is a constant stream
of rejection. 
There must be something wrong with a system when after having been rejected
four or five times by the UNHCR a man can change his name, produce EXACTLY
the same biographical details and pass the firt time round.
Whilst I do not deny that the UNHCR staff are probably overworked and
receive more brickbats than praise, and are often under a great deal of
stress from every quarter, and that most try to do a good job, the suspicion
remains with me at least that in some cases it appears that the UNHCR
Protection Officers may be open to the charge that they and the UNHCR is an
end in itself. This is not or should not be the case. UNHCR must always be a
means to an end.
NGO's and others who are trying in some way to help refugees in Thailand can
only welcome the moves of UNHCR in Geneva as it tries to set out real guide
lines for its officers to follow in the field.
Sorry to be so long winded but this is a subject close to my heart.

Paul Webb
Darwin 
Northern Territory
Australia