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Ethnic conflict and refugees
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The words refugee and internally displaced people (IDP) are broadly used terms that are almost synonymous in meaning. Refugees are a group of people that have fled their homes into another country in order to escape war, conflict or some other tragedy. On the other hand, IDP are citizens who fled their homes for the same reasons but remained in their country of origin. There are approximately 12 million refugees and IDP within Africa and almost two-thirds, or 7.7 million, are located in the Horn of Africa (Central Intelligence Agency [C.I.A.], 2011). Despite the high number of refugees and IDP in the Horn of Africa, the focus will be on Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan. This paper will attempt to shed a light on the plight of refugees and IDP and their potential impact on interests of the United States (U.S.).
Eritrea has the lowest number of refugees and IDP with almost 32,000 people displaced from their homes. However, this was not the case in the early 1990s when there were almost 280,000 refugees and 75,000 IDP as a result of the Eritrean/Ethiopian war (C.I.A., 2011). Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993, leading to violent struggles and border disputes for years to follow. At one point the fighting was so intense that soldiers from both sides were locked in a fierce battle long after the civilians had fled the area. The soldiers were essentially fighting over vacant and desolate villages because a large portion of the civilians fled into refugee camps located in Ethiopia, Sudan or Kenya.
Additionally, thousands of Eritreans flee their homeland illegally because of conscription. Conscription is the practice of citizens enrolling into mandatory national service, usually the military. These soldiers are h...
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...January 11). The world factbook. Retrieved from (“Somalia”) http://https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/er.html
Central Intelligence Agency. (2011, January 11). The world factbook. Retrieved from (“Sudan”) http://https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2194.html?countryName=Kenya&countryCode=ke®ionCode=af&#ke
The Horn of Africa War: Mass Expulsions and the Nationality Issue. (2003). Eritrea and Ethiopia, 15(3a), 1-66. Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2003/01/29/horn-africa-war
Maxted, J., & Zegeye, A. (2002). Human stability and conflict in the Horn of Africa. African Security Review, 11(1), 51-59.
The path to ruin. (2006, August 6). The economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/7270000
Timeline: Ethiopia and Somalia. (2009, May 20). BBC News. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6159735.stm
Sudan, which is located in northeast Africa, is ranked number 190 based on the amount of migrants per thousand people with a total of -4.44 migrants per thousand people. For roughly 12 years (from 2001-2013), Sudan has faced many challenges that push it’s people out of the land and pull them towards other places. These factors are known as push and pull factors. Even though there are many challenges that come with immigration, the results are more rewarding than what they would have been in Sudan. After migrating out of Sudan, these Sudanese migrants also face long-term consequences because of their decision to move.
Ethiopia is one of the most unique among African countries for maintaining its freedom from colonial rule, with the short exception of an occupation by the Italians from 1936-1941. A socialist state was established in 1974 with the overthrow of Emperor Selassie, who had been in control since 1930. A junta or group of military officers called the Derg was responsible for the coup. Yet, this corrupt administration has lead only to warfare and wide scale public suffering. In 1991, the junta was finally brought down by a combination of revolutionary forces who called themselves the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front. In 1994, a constitution was drafted and 1995 marked Ethiopia’s first multiparty elections. Recently, a boarder feud with Eritrea, that lasted over 2 years, was ended in December of 2000; yet recent objections by Ethiopia have delayed a final declaration of border.
Refugees do not simply choose to be “refugees.” There are many aspects that go into account when displacement occurs. War is often associated with refugee displacement. Even a simple task of walking in the streets can be dangerous. In an interview with Time magazine, Syrian refugee Faez al Sharaa says that he was held up at gunpoint with three other people in his homeland after soldiers accused him of being a terrorist. "We felt death upon us," Sharaa said (Altman 24). His backyard turned into a battle ground, while young kids were fighting for their lives (Altman 24). War
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
Those who do not fear persecution are not considered in this definition, for instance, people escaping from natural disasters, because they do not have a fear of persecution. In addition, even though the individuals do face persecution, they are not considered as refugees if they are not ‘on the basis of’ of one of the protected grounds. Even those who face persecution on the basis of a protected ground, they cannot be declared as refugees because they are not outside their country of citizenship. The most controversial notion is that those who have been driven from their homes but who have not crossed international borders, so-called ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs), are not in the definition of refugee, even though they have all the characteristics of a refugee except that they have not crossed an international border. The UNHCR has played their part in helping such persons in the last thirty or so years, but has still not considered them as refugees which makes them hard to have full benefits of what refugees should get. Hence, Lister aims to portray that these restrictions have a rational
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced, “Somalia's drought and refugee crisis is the most severe humanitarian emergency in the world, (UNHCR, 2011). Although estimates vary, about 800,000 people have left Somalia seeking asylum. Most now reside in refugee camps in bordering Kenya and Ethiopia. Many trek for days with little or food to seek safety and assistance in refugee camps only to find conditions that are no better. Host nations and humanitarian organizations cannot support the vast number of refugees that have already crossed the border and thousands more arrive every day. Maintenance of the current course of action is not the answer. Besides conjuring more international assistance and humanitarian aid, it is vital that more permanent solutions are pursued.
According to Seid (2009), up until the 1970’s the conflict between the Ethiopians and the Somalis in the Ogaden region was based mostly on religion. The Ethiopian military has a more Christian view while the Somalis have more of an Islamic view. However, from the 1970s up to today, the desire for nationalism of the Ogaden population has played a main role in the conflict, even though religion is still intertwined in the conflict. The Somalis of the Ogaden region and the Ethiopians both have a we versus them mentality. The Somalis do not recognize the power of the Ethiopians versus the Ethiopians view of the Somalis as being foreigner in their country.
For my essay I will be evaluating the sub-saharan African country of Liberia. Over the course of this essay i shall try and shed some light on the main threats to peace and stability in the country. Threats that, if not treated responsibly and correctly, could throw Liberia, the Liberian people and potentially a large proportion of West Africa back into the violence and political instability that has plagued the region over the last few decades.
In May 1998, Eritrea crossed over the Ethiopian border attacking Tigrayan militia and security forces in the Badme region. This hostile act sparked the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. Upon realization that they were going lose...
Currently, the largest cause of refugees is the Syrian civil war, which has displaced over 2.1 million people. As a country of relative wealth, the United States should be able to provide refuge for many refugees, as well as provide monetary support to the refugees that they are not able to receive. Countries surrounding Syria, such as Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq have taken in the vast majority of Syrian refugees. In some countries, such as Lebanon, Syrian refugees make up over a quarter of the population. This causes extreme economic strain on a country, and can greatly increase the amount of poverty that is seen there.
The developing world has been overwhelmed by major refugee crises in the past few decades, and a rapidly changing world has altered the dynamics of refugee flows and their root causes. For this reason, the authors of Escape From Violence: Conflict and the Refugee Crisis in the Developing World, attempt to provide a more realistic theoretical framework of refugee trends in order to prescribe ways in which the developed world can help alleviate the problem. The book attempts to clarify why there have been so many refugees emerging recently from the developing world, why they leave in varying volumes, where they end up, and why they go back or not. The findings indicate that patterns of refugee flows and conflict are affected by various economic and political factors within originating countries as well as the global setting itself, with different kinds of conflict producing different kinds of refugee patterns. This suggests the complexity of the causes of refugee issues, which include many examples of external influence and intervention.
Nationality is between a country and a person, sometimes the people who are no relate to any country, call stateless. Also some of the stateless can be refugees, these two groups of people is care by UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Nationless is a very big problem; it may affect more than 10 billion people in this world. Everyone in the world can be having their human right, but some activity in country only able nationals to participate, for example: election. Also much of the stateless didn't have their right, they may never get the ID of the country, just get in to jail, losing the chance of education and health services or can’t get a job (UNHCR, 2014). This article is talking about what power of the nation states has to manage issues and effect the beyond national boundaries. By the refugee Convention (1967), refugees can be applying t person who is fear to persecute by race, religion, nationality, or the member of a social group and government. In this person is don't want himself protect by that country who fear, also don't want to return to that country. By the divide of UNHCR, there are four types of people, which they care: Asylum-Seeker, Stateless people, Internally Displaced People and Returnees. Asylum-Seeker refers to the person who is finding the international protection, not all the asylum-seeker final can be a refugee, but all the refugees begin is an asylum-seeker. Stateless people refer to who are not relating to any country and national. Internally displaced people refer to the people who are forced to leave their home because of the wars, or some human problem, and getting in to another country from the border. Returnees refer to the people who return to their own country, they are supported by UNHCR when they arrive (UNHCR, 2014). The nation state is a country; they have the political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign entity. A country is mix by culture and nation that mean a nation state may in the same place. Much of the nation state is forms by a people with a polity
The refugee crisis has become an increasing issue throughout the world with the most predominant migrants being Syrians.
The causes of armed conflict in the Greater Horn of Africa are numerous and range from individuals to groups to structural inequality and injustice. The quality of governance within a few states in the Greater Horn of Africa has improved in the last decade; however, state structures are eroding. The geopolitical map is being rearranged in the Horn of Africa as new states are formed; Enitrea has won independence, Somaliland has declared it, and southern Sudanese rebels seek it. The power within the Greater Horn of Africa is being redistributed to the point where group power relationships are far more stable. Some systematic causes of conflict are structural conditions which include external factors as the legacies of colonial and Cold War policies and internal factors as geophysical conditions, resource scarcity, poverty, socio-economic inequalities, and ethnic divisions (“Costs and Causes,” n.d.). The primary cause for conflict in the Greater Horn of Africa is competition over declining resources. Resource scarcity is the fundamental economic problem of having humans who have unlimited wants and needs in a world with limited resources (Wikipedia, 2011). In the Northern ...