Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health
Hearing Opening Statement
Chairman Donald M. Payne
"World Refugee Day: Addressing the Needs of African Refugees"
June 20, 2007, 9:30am, 2172 RHOB
Good morning. Thank you all for joining us for this very important hearing to discuss "World Refugee Day: Addressing the needs of African Refugees".
World Refugee Day was established by the UN High Commission on Refugees as a tribute to the indomitable spirit and courage of the world's refugees and internally displaced persons (IDP's), as well as those brave people who help them rebuild their lives. By the end of 2006, the world had seen an increase in the number of "people of concern", the term used by the UN refugee agency.
Despite ongoing conflicts and instability in countries such as Sudan, Somalia, Northern Uganda, Ethiopia, and their spill over effects into the region overall, Africa has moved away from war and strife towards increased stability. This is a trend that is important to recognize.
That being said, of the 12 million refugees worldwide, about 3.2 million -a little over 25% - are in Africa, though the overall numbers are on a downward trend. Africa has about half of the world's 25 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDP's). Sudan has over 5 million IDP's between Darfuris and those displaced during the government of Sudan's 21 year war against the South; Zimbabwe also has over 5 million, Northern Uganda has 2 million; the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 1.7 million, even though DRC emerged several years ago from conflict and held historic elections last August which I had the opportunity to witness. Part of the reason for high numbers of refugees and IDP's despite fewer wars is that once people take refuge in another country or become displaced in another part of their own country, many factors complicate their return.
Some of the key questions we hope to address in this hearing are how to better address the needs of refugees and IDP's, how to better integrate refugees and IDP's into our larger development efforts and provide better education, healthcare, and income-generating activities within IDP and refugee camps, and how we can more effectively deal with the increasing number of protracted displacements through resettlement in the U.S. and other means, to avoid what is known as refugee warehousing. On this point, I would specifically like to hear from our State Department witness about the resettlement numbers we can expect for African refugees in the U.S. by the end of 2007 and in 2008.
Additionally, we may not have an accurate count on the number of Somalis who have fled the ongoing crisis in Somalia where, I have stated many times, the U.S. has a flawed policy in Somalia and in fact has contributed to refugee flows and humanitarian suffering as a result of the air strikes carried out in January and again earlier this month. This action was totally irresponsible and misled. I hope we will get more clarification about the numbers of Somalis who have been displaced within and beyond Somalia during this hearing.
As we honor the courage of refugees and IDP's today, it is imperative for us to come together with the UNHCR, nongovernmental organizations, and other donor governments to keep this issue at the forefront. If we fail to do so, refugees and IDP's will remain in their miserable conditions. We must pledge to help them rebuild their lives today, to commit ourselves to long-term solutions, and to prevent the nightmare from reoccurring tomorrow.
We have a long list of esteemed witnesses so I will be brief in my introductions. First we will be briefed via teleconference from Geneva by Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins who is Assistant High Commissioner with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Our our first panel we will hear from Mr. William E. Fitzgerald who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary with the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in the U.S. Department of State. Panel 2 features Ms. Anne C. Richard, Vice President Government Relations & Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee; Mr. Joel R. Charny, Vice President for Policy at Refugees International, Mr. Neal Porter, Director of International Services The Center For Victims of Torture; and last but not least Mr. Daoud {DOW-OOD} Hari who is a resettled Darfurian Refugee living in my state of New Jersey.
The committee thanks you all for coming.
With that, I turn to Ranking Member Chris Smith for his opening remarks.
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