REFVIEW

Refugee Diversity

The UN Refugee Agency Bureau for the Americas

The UN Refugee Agency

� Refview

DirectorPhilippe Lavanchy

Coordinator Xavier Creach

EditorsMarie Helene VerneyJuan Carlos Murillo

ProductionNazli ZakiVirginia Pico

EditorialistPhilippe Lavanchy

Guest editorialistLuiz Paulo Barreto

CollaboratorsBernardo Pisani Elaine Bole Giovanni Monge

Gustavo Valdivieso José Luis Loera Jozef Merkx Luis VareseMariana Echandi

Marie-Helene Verney Marte Fremstedal Nanda Na ChampassakNazli Zaki Oscar Butragueño Sabine Wahning Thais BessaXavier Orellana

Original design Viceversa Asesoria Creativa Adaptation of design Agvisual Printing Artes Graficas Kuce SA

Refview is a publication of the Bureau for the Americas. The opinions expressed by our collaborators do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR. Refview editors reserve the right to edit all articles prior to publication. No authorisation is required for the reproduction of articles and photos without copyright. Please credit UNHCR.

Refview NUMBER � MARCH 2006

editorial by the Director of the Americas 3

Refugee Diversity in the Americas 4

GUEST EDITORIAL: Luiz Paulo Barreto 8

COLOMBIA: working with indigenous People 9

MEXICO: New Shelter for Unaccompanied Minors 10

USA: Protection of Alien Children 11

COSTA RICA: elderly Refugees 12

ECUADOR : The Psychological impact of Displacement on Refugee women 13

Refugee Participation 14

CANADA: volunteer Teachers for Minors in Detention 15

ARGENTINA: Hip Hop and football for Young Refugees 16

BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, ECUADOR, VENEZUELA, MEXICO: from the field 17

PANAMA: Refugee voice 20

ECUADOR: Staff Diary from Lago Agrio 21

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COVERPAGE PHOTO UNHCR provides financial assistance for refugees and local children to attend school, promoting the integration of refugees with the local population. Here Colombian refugee school children in Ecuador.

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UNHCR facilitates access to school for IDP children in Colombia. Here, a displaced child in Quibdo.

EDITORIAL Refview �

The first year of implementation of the Mexico Plan of Action was decisive to test the ability of all concerned to jointly address protection challenges in the region. The results are encouraging. Throughout Latin America, protection networks have been strengthened and a series of innovative projects were implemented, ranging from the signing of agreements between Colombian cit-ies to facilitate IDPs’ access to basic rights and social benefits to an increase in resettlement places for Colombian refugees in countries such as Argentina, Brazil and Chile. It is important to note that a substan-tial number of these projects were im-plemented with the active participation of the refugees and internally displaced themselves. To be successful, projects have to be relevant to the needs of the people they are meant to assist. Wheth-er the beneficiaries are men, women,

Philippe Lavanchy , Director Bureau for the Americas UNHCR

With four million people under UNHCR’s mandate in the re-gion, the Americas are facing

a steady rise in the number of people in need of protection. This trend is creating a wide range of problems common to many states in the region. It increases the pressure on infrastructures and local economies, can lead to the destabilisa-tion of border areas and in some cases can even constitute a threat to demo-cratic institutions. In all cases, stronger cooperation between states is required to address some of these adverse consequences. When seeking to help the victims of the long-standing conflict in Colombia, greater cooperation is needed. When trying to assist the people of long- troubled Haiti, greater cooperation is also essential. Throughout the region, we must look for ways of empower-ing governments to develop collective responsibility and to set up new mecha-nisms for solidarity between states. Against this background, the adop-tion in November �004 by �0 Latin American countries of the Mexico Dec-laration and Plan of Action is a mile-stone. It is Latin America’s response to the challenges facing the region and represents the implementation of UNHCR’s Agenda for Protection on the sub-continent – a further sign that Latin American governments remain faith-ful to the region’s asylum traditions. It is another concrete translation of Latin America contribution to the develop-ment of international refugee law. It is not just a declaration of good intentions but a very concrete action plan which includes a protection response and a durable solutions component while focusing on effective partnerships.

Editorial

children, elderly or disabled their partici-pation and feedback are essential to the good running of all UNHCR activities. The diversity of refugee experiences in the Americas and the various ways in which UNHCR is trying to help are the themes of this publication. Philippe Lavanchy

Director

Bureau for the Americas

4 Refview REfUGEE DIVERSITy IN THE AMERICAS

wiber was 16 when he ca- me under pressure to join one of Colombia’s irregular

armed groups. fearing for his life and that of his younger brothers, his pa-rents took the decision they had been putting off for years. Within days, the family fled across the border to take refuge in Ecuador.

Refugee Diversity in the Americas

Angele knew no-one in Argentina when she arrived from Congo with a young child and a violent partner. Life as a refugee got so bad that she attempted suicide. With the help of UNHCR, she has now rebuilt her life, thanks notably to a micro-credit loan that allowed her to start her own small business.

At 1�, Lola fled to Mexico after suffering from years of sexual abuse in Guatemala. Today, she has been recognised as a refugee and lives in a shelter for unaccompanied minors. for every single one of the four million people who come under UNHCR’s mandate in the Americas alone, there is a different story. Each of these stories reflects the different experiences that drive people into exile and displacement. With different experiences come different needs, different skills and resources, and different hopes for the future. This diversity of refugee experiences calls on UNHCR to be flexible in its working practices. “There is no ‘one-fits-all’ solution,” says Philippe Lavanchy, Director of UNHCR’s Bureau for the Americas, “and while this is true everywhere in the world, refugee experiences in the Americas are particularly diverse. An Afghan girl resettled in Canada does not need the same help as an indigenous boy displaced by the violence in Colombia. A young Congolese refugee in the U.S. has opportunities that may not exist for an elderly Colombian woman in Venezuela. If we want to be of real help, we have to take these differences into account.” In recent years, UNHCR has been reviewing the way it works with refugees, paying special attention to the impact its programmes have on individual refugees of different genders, ages and backgrounds. Under a framework known as “Gender, Age and Diversity Mainstreaming”, UNHCR is actively seeking the participation of refugees in the design and implementation of its policies. The

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Indigenous woman in Soacha, a suburb of the Colombian capital Bogota, hundreds of miles away from the home in Choco she had to flee to escape violence.

REfUGEE DIVERSITy IN THE AMERICAS Refview �

overall goal of mainstreaming is to ensure that all refugees can equally enjoy their rights. In the Americas staff are engaged in structured dialogue with refugees and building on existing programmes and initiatives to achieve this aim. The Colombian Conflict With more than two million internally displaced persons (IDPs), Colombia provides a poignant illustration of the myriad different ways in which forced displacement and exile can impact on individual people. After more than 40 years of internal armed conflict, almost every social group has been affected: men and women, children and the elderly, farmers and intellectuals. Some groups, however, are especially at risk: among them are Colombia’s ethnic minorities, including its indigenous population. According to the National Indigenous Organisation of Colombia, ONIC, nearly ��,000 indigenous people were forced to leave their homes in �00� alone. Indigenous communities often live in remote areas, with their own language, culture and tradition. UNHCR in Colombia realised early on that the only effective way to help these communities was to strengthen indigenous organisations and enable them to define the problems and implement the solutions. In �004, a local indigenous association, CAMIZBA, warned UNHCR that young people in remote river communities in the Choco region were committing suicide in large numbers. UNHCR and CAMIZBA got together to develop a joint project that relied on local indigenous people to

help these young people in distress. The number of suicides has been steadily on the decline since then, even though young people still come under a lot of external pressure. “The armed groups are all around,” one young man whose brother committed suicide explains, “they stop us from going into the forest or down the river, so we have nothing to eat. Our fathers and grandfathers used to hunt all over these forests,” he adds, pointing at the thick jungle surrounding the tiny settlement. “for a boy to become a man, he must hunt and bring food to his family, but we cannot

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do that. So we are sad.” young men are rarely considered to be a vulnerable group, yet in Colombia they are amongst the most likely to become victims of the conflict. Not only are threats and physical violence against them common occurrences, young men also frequently come un-der pressure to join one or another of the irregular armed groups. Ulyses, another young indigenous man living in one of Choco’s threatened communities, has a very clear explanation for the high number of suicides among the young.

Indigenous boy from the Embera indigenous group in Choco in the north-west of Colombia.

6 Refview REfUGEE DIVERSITy IN THE AMERICAS

seeing my boys joining one of the groups that had made our lives so difficult.” A week later, the family fled to Ecuador, this time for good. With the support of UNHCR, Wiber’s father was given access to a plot of land and re- ceived a micro-credit from a com- munal bank run by Ecuadorians and Colombians. “It’s really helped my father,” Wiber says, “he used to farm in Colombia and being able to work the land has made him feel at home again.” Each section of the garden is divided by do-zens of flat stones decorated with Wiber’s drawings. His favourite stone shows a house in the middle of a lush garden – “our home in Colombia,” he says. “Micro-credit schemes are a practical example of what we mean by refugee participation,” explains Marta Juarez, UNHCR’s representative in Ecuador, “the refugees come up with their own proposal for what they need and how they will make their business work. Credit is given depending on the refugees’ past experience, their resources and abilities -no two micro-credit loans are the same.” At least half of all micro-credit loans are intended for women refugees, with priority being given to women who are the family’s sole breadwinner. Exile and forced displacement turn many women into heads of households – sometimes because they have lost their husband to violence, sometimes because the family has split up, but also because women refugees often find it easier than their husbands to get a job, any job, to keep the family going.

“They come here – one day it’s the guerillas, the next it’s the paramilitaries. It doesn’t make any difference. They want you to join and young people receive lots of threats. Sometimes, when they say they want to kill you, you think it’s better to kill yourself than to wait for them to kill you.” The Regional Context: Targeted Solutions Pressure on young men to enroll in irregular armed groups is not only a leading factor of internal displacement; it is also a major cause for entire fami- lies to flee the country. Wiber was 16 when he arrived in Lago Agrio, a small Ecuadorian town some 14 kilometres away from the Colombian border. The eldest of eight children, he feels responsible for the family’s move away from their home in Putumayo, just across the river in Colombia. Putumayo is one of Colombia’s most troubled regions. On

several occasions over the previous five years, the family had fled to Ecuador to escape the violence. Each time, they had returned to Putumayo after a few days or weeks, as soon as the situation had calmed down. But after what happened just over a year ago, they are not thinking of going back. “One of my friends joined,” Wiber explains, referring to one of the irregu- lar armed groups active in Putumayo, “he talked to me about it and said I should come with them too. I thought about it, I even told my Dad that may- be it was right I should join. He was very angry, said I should be ashamed to think that way.” Wiber’s father remembers that day with a precision born out of intense fear for the future. “My three eldest are all boys,” he says, “and as soon as Wiber talked to me, I knew that we could not stay. We had tried so hard to make it work throughout the years, but I knew I could not take the risk of

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Colombian IDP’s. Here a UNHCR-supported youth group performs a dance piece that tells the story of the disappearance of a young person at the hands of an armed group - a real threat for many of the youth in Barrancabermeja.

REfUGEE DIVERSITy IN THE AMERICAS Refview �

problem of unaccompanied minors asking for asylum. The same applies to every other group of refugees and IDPs in the Americas: elderly refugees, refugee women bringing up children on their own, young IDPs at risk of forced recruitment. The list can never be exhaustive and the challenge for UNHCR is to remain flexible and imaginative enough to bring relevant solutions to the millions of people under its mandate. By Marie-Helene Verney in Geneva

the result of their asylum claims should be allowed to pursue their education In Mexico, the problem of unaccompanied children seeking asylum is closely linked to the issue of illegal migration to the north. The true numbers can only be guessed at and among the flow of illegal migrants are children who are in need of international protection. UNHCR is working in close cooperation with the Mexican authorities to identify these children and give them the protection they need. In each country, different challenges call for different approaches to the

for these women, micro-credits are a lifeline. To the extent that they can help keep families together and prevent further dislocation in the lives of refugees, they are also a major step towards protecting not just women, but also their children. A Mosaic of Different Approaches Of all the different groups under UNHCR’s mandate, children are perhaps the most vulnerable. Among them, children who have become separated from their family are at the highest risk of exploitation, violence and psychological trauma. family reunification is the guiding principle for UNHCR when working with unaccom-panied minors – but reunification is not always possible. Every year, over �,000 children arrive in the United States alone. Unaccompanied minors who are stopped at the border are put into detention, where those who choose to put in an asylum claim remain while awaiting a decision. A new law awaiting consideration in the House of Representatives would help protect these children, many of whom lack access to legal representation. Last year, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie founded a national center to ensure children have proper representation in immigration court proceedings. In Canada, where the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act allows child detention only as a measure of last resort, UNHCR has helped put together a roster of volunteer teachers to provide children with “tutoring lessons”. The idea is that children who are staying in custody while awaiting

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A Colombian IDP in Napipi village supported by UNHCR.

� Refview GUEST EDITORIAL

agreements on migration and border issues, such as those being developed in the Americas, are responses consistent with Latin American history and tradition. Within this spirit, the Mexico Plan of Action was signed just over a year ago. Brazil had the honor to hold the vice-chair of this meeting, and several proposals were jointly presented. Less than 1� months later, achievements can already be seen in the thematics of solidarity borders and integration in “Cities of Solidarity”, which are hosting refugees coming from our own continent. Argentina, for example, has embraced the resettlement program. Brazil, Argentina and Chile have been consolidating their own reception mechanisms for those refugees in need of exceptional and urgent protection. What seemed hard to achieve one year ago, is beginning to turn into reality, with Latin American countries providing an example to many others in the world. This is a landmark in international refugee law and may enable the consolidation of the region as a model that, far from being ideal, is nevertheless able to introduce innovative measures for integrating people. In this sense, the concerns ex-pressed by the High Commissioner during his honorable visit to Brazil re- ceived a positive response from our country. In Brazil in particular and on the South American continent as a whole, there is an ongoing effort to build humanitarian spaces.

gUeSt eDitORiALiSt

The Challenge is to strengthen International Refugee Law

Luiz Paulo Teles Ferreira Barreto

has been the Brazilian Vice Minister of

Justice and President of the National

Committee for Refugees (CONARE) as

of 1997. He has 20 years of experience

in different departments dealing with

immigration, foreigners and refugees

within the Brazilian Government, and

led the drafting process of the Brazilian

Refugee Law.

During his visit to Brazil in November �00�, United Nations High Commissioner

for Refugees António Guterres expressed his deepest concern over the recent trend to link migration and asylum issues with national security and terrorism. In his speeches, he pointed out the need to struggle for tolerance, ideological debate and international protection as a major challenge for UNHCR and the governments. Gradually and with great efforts, democracy is taking hold in Latin

America. Democratic regimes must have solid conceptual foundations to sustain themselves. The pillars of a democratic society include human rights protection, the rule of law, the due process of law and a wide range of civil rights and individual liberties, for the national population and foreign residents alike. Within this framework, the institution of asylum is universally recognised as one of the most important pillars of democracy. Asylum represents an essential protection tool for people who, being victims of persecution, are not safe in their countries. To safeguard their lives and individual rights, including their personal freedom and physical integrity, they are compelled to seek protection abroad. National legislations that establish a solid linkage between the actions of the state, civil society and the United Nations to strengthen international protection provide solid foundations for their own democracies. The 19�1 Refugee Convention must be not only an international legal instrument upon which to build our own internal legal systems, but also serve as effective guidance for the development of public policies that truly take into account the need to protect refugees on our soil, regardless of their race, nationality, religion, political opinion or economic situation. The outset of this century is a unique opportunity to strengthen international legal security, through the universalisation of international humanitarian law as a counterpoint to the option of closing borders. International justice mechanisms (such as the International Criminal Court), trade multilateralism and regional

COLOMBIA Refview 9

if they have to displace, as well as en-courage them to develop a strong voice to participate in policy debates.”

“We are fully aware of the effect displacement has on indigenous iden-tity,” says ONIC’s President Luis Evelis Andrade. “We know that the smallest indigenous communities are in danger of extinction. Our goal is to define a public policy aimed at guaranteeing that indigenous people do not have to dis-place and will stay on their lands. This includes actions aimed at facilitating the safe return of displaced indigenous peoples to their territories.”

ONIC’s proposal for an action plan on indigenous displacement, prepared in cooperation with UNHCR, will be discussed this year by representatives of different indigenous groups in ten large gatherings across the country. The organisation will have teams dedicated to the issue of displacement, who will develop action plans jointly with local indigenous authorities. UNHCR is con-vinced that the best strategy to cope with the impact of displacement on indigenous people is to help indigenous leaders and organisations take the lead in the defense of their rights. By Gustavo Valdivieso in Bogota

Working with Indigenous People

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Indigenous mother and child in Colombia. Because of their close links to the earth, indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to forced displacement.

“Individual people may survive, but not their culture.” In one sentence, Saskia Loochkartt, a UNHCR

staff member working with indigenous people in Colombia, summarises the predicament facing indigenous communities caught up in the violence of the Colombian conflict.

The past few years have seen a wors-ening of the situation. Between 1996 and �004, Colombia’s National Orga-nization of Indigenous Peoples (ONIC) registered nearly ��,000 cases of indig-enous people being forcibly displaced as a result of the conflict. In �00� alone, �1,000 indigenous displaced, as re-ported by ONIC through its UNHCR -supported human rights information system. The yearly number of homicides against indigenous persons went over 100 for the fist time in 1999 and stayed over that mark until �004.

The conflict has intensified in some in-digenous territories in the department of Cauca; along small rivers tributaries to the Atrato in the department of Choco; near the Pacific Coast in the department of Nariño. The violence has also ex-tended to new parts of the country, like the Orinoquia and the Amazonia, to the south and the east of the country, where small indigenous communities live.

In �00�, UNHCR was confronted with large indigenous displacements in the south of Colombia, by blockades on riv-ers by armed groups against indigenous communities in north-western Choco and by a continuing crisis in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Because of the remoteness of many indigenous com-munities, their plight often goes unno-ticed, especially as many displace within their territories in an attempt to preserve their ties to the land.

UNHCR is acting in different ways to cope with these challenges. In or-der to bring attention to indigenous displacement, it privileges indigenous communities at risk in its documenta-tion project with the National Registry Office. It encourages the authorities to provide targeted assistance to meet the specific needs of displaced indigenous. As part of its prevention effort, it is train-ing indigenous communities on human rights and also on their specific rights as indigenous and as IDPs. Above all, UNHCR is increasingly focusing on helping strengthen indigenous or-ganisations as the best response to the problems faced by indigenous people. Organisations like ONIC have a crucial role to play in this strategy.

“It will be the voice of nearly one mil-lion indigenous that Colombia will hear,” says UNHCR Representative Roberto Meier. “We cannot stop the armed groups from attacking indigenous people and other civilians,” he adds, “but we can help strengthen the various organisations that represent indigenous communities at the local and national levels. We can also help indigenous communities keep strong structures

10 Refview MEXICO

In the migrant flow from countries in Central and South America towards the north, the most vulnerable people

are children travelling alone. In most cases, these children are being sent to the USA to reunite with their parents, some are abandoned by smugglers along the journey. During the last few years, the numbers have increased dra-matically. According to figures from the National Immigration Institute, from Jan-uary to November �00�, some �,�1� unaccompanied minors were returned from Mexico. On �0 April �00� the Temporary Shelter for Minor Migrants was inaugurated in Viva Mexico, close to Tapachula, Chiapas, on Mexico’s southern border. The shelter’s mission is to provide under-aged migrants with a home where they can find physical and emo-tional safety and with the protection they need before they can be safely returned to their country of origin. Chil-dren who do not have the necessary

New Shelter for Unaccompanied Minors

documentation to stay in Mexico are sent to the shelter by the National Im-migration Institute. While their consul-ate makes the necessary arrangements to return them, unaccompanied minors receive all the attention necessary at the shelter: food and accommodation, medical and psychological assistance, education and recreation. The shelter has a capacity of �9 children; every child stays approximately ten days before being returned. Since the shelter opened in late April �00�, it has received 114 children, 6�% of them from Honduras, the rest from Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The age range spreads from 1� to two years of age. UNHCR has been closely involved in the shelter since its opening. The first child who arrived at the shelter was an unaccompanied asylum seeker, Lola, a 1�-year-old girl from Guatemala. Because Lola was so obviously very vulnerable an exception was made and

she was allowed to stay at the shelter for over four months while her case was being studied. During the first few years of her life, Lola lived with her father, who consis-tently maltreated her. At the age of nine she was kidnapped by a young man who took her to live with him in another part of the country, close to the Mexican border. for four years, he sexually abused her. When she was 1�, the man was murdered because of a land dispute with a neighbour. Lola wit-nessed the murder and fled to Mexico to look for help. She was eventually referred to the Mexican Commission for Refugees (COMAR) and was recognised as a refugee in Mexico. In the Temporary Shelter for Minor Migrants, Lola received psychological assistance to overcome the trauma that she had lived through. She also learned how to write and read, allowing her to enter school in 4th grade. Ever since Lola left, the shelter has been on alert to identify other children in need of protection among the minors travelling alone to and through Mexico. “The fact that the Mexican govern-ment established a shelter for unaccom-panied minors in Tapachula shows just how serious the matter is,” says Marion Hoffmann, UNHCR Regional Represen-tative in Mexico. “We are concerned that among those children stranded in the border areas, some are in need of international protection. UNHCR is working closely with governmental and non-governmental partners to identify them. Together, we shall have to strive towards minimising the dangers these children may be facing and finding the best solutions for them.” By Marte Fremstedal in Tapachula

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Youngsters in the Temporary Shelter for Minor Migrants on Mexico’s southern border inaugurated in Viva Mexico, in April 2005.

USA Refview 11

The Unaccompanied Alien Child Protection Act of �00� passed in the U.S. Senate in late Decem-

ber and is now awaiting consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives. By offering better guarantees that unac-companied children have pro-bono legal representation during their immigration proceedings, the Act would enhance protection for the thousands of children who arrive alone in the United States as the victims of human trafficking, abuse or persecution. Over �,000 children somehow make it by themselves to the United States each year. They come from Latin America, Africa, South East Asia and other parts of the world. Many arrive through smugglers, some are trafficked and some simply walk across the bor-der. After their arduous journeys, they are detained by immigration officers and held in shelter facilities to await deporta-tion proceedings. “They have legal protections here in the U.S. such as asylum, but our sys-tem does not give them the tools they need. Despite the trauma they may have endured, they do not get a lawyer or a guardian. In many instances, these children are expected to tell their stories to a judge without any help at all,” said UNHCR Protection Officer Elizabeth Dallam. “We see children like a 14-year-old boy from China, who was detained for a year and a half, was released to an uncle and then re-detained less than a year later to be deported. His fam-ily has told him not to return because the smugglers will find and kill him and his family. They have a debt of over $�0,000, which would take generations to repay in China,” said Adriana ysern, Senior Immigration Program Officer for

Protection of Alien Children

USA

The National Center for Refugee & Im-migrant Children (NCRIC). NCRIC was founded in March �00� by UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie, to help recruit pro bono attorneys to represent these children in immigration court proceedings. Thanks to NCRIC, children fleeing persecu-tion and arriving alone in the United States now have better access to free legal counsel. The Center has received over ��0 requests for assistance and matched 9� children with counsel, chil-dren like the 14-year old boy from China fearing for his life who now has counsel working to reopen his case. There is also the story of the 1�-year old Honduran girl abandoned by her fa-ther, sexually abused since an early age by her stepfather, and deprived of food. Her mother sided with her stepfather, accusing her daughter of being a “pros-titute.” She went to the local police but they did nothing. She decided to run away from her abusive stepfather and arrived in the U.S. last spring. “Without the help of a lawyer, there would be no way for this girl from Honduras, who doesn’t speak English

and has very little education, to know that she might be eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status or asylum, which protects abused children,” said Dallam. In another positive development, in March �00�, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) assumed custody and care over unaccompanied minors who arrive in the U.S. illegally. ORR has expertise working with traumatized children, and designing a program of custody and care that better serves the interests of children. Children who used to be housed in jail-like facilities are now staying in shel-ters with licensed case-workers. Nonetheless, there are still thousands of children who need lawyers. Speaking to an audience on the subject recently, the UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador said: “The U.S. has a long tradition of welcoming refugees and displaced per-sons. Let us act together in honor of that tradition.” By Elaine Bole in Washington

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Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie founded the National Center for Refugee & Immigrant Children to help children arriving alone in the U.S. with immigration court proceedings.

1� Refview COSTA RICA

benefit from a national programme known as ‘Golden Citizen’, under which they can travel for free on the public transport system, get quick service in public institutions and have priority for a number of services,” says ACAI’s direc-tor Gloria Maklouf. “They also benefit from discounts when purchasing medi-cines in some pharmacies. However, many refugees are not aware that the programme even exists or they have dif-ficulties getting access to it.” The right to employment is perhaps the biggest challenge facing elderly ref-ugees, and they themselves are aware that their difficulty in finding a job is due in large part to their age. The overall un-employment problem in Costa Rica also affects them badly. “My wife died and I am alone in Costa Rica,” says fernando, a 6�-year old Colombian refugee. “My children are in Colombia, that’s why I have to search for ways to earn my living in this country. I wouldn’t say that there is any discrimination between Costa Rican and Colombian elderly, but it’s true that I have experienced difficulties in trying to get credit to buy a house. It’s not just one thing, I believe that it’s because of my age, my nationality, my migratory status, all these things together.” UNHCR will continue to work to achieve wider recognition of the rights of elderly refugees in Costa Rica. In ad-dition, UNHCR is planning to develop more programmes for older refugees in partnership with Costa Rican institutions that offer training, workshops and recre-ational activities for the elderly. Another priority is to find care houses for elderly people with special needs. By Giovanni Monge in Costa Rica

Elderly Refugees

COStA RiCA

With only three per cent of all refugees aged 6� and over, the elderly make up a rela-

tively low percentage of the total refu-gee population in Costa Rica. But this is expected to change. With the rise in life expectancy and the falling birth rate, the proportion of elderly in the refugee population is likely to grow rapidly in the coming years. “More and more, we are seeing refugees between the age of �0 and 60 arriving to Costa Rica,” says Jacqueline Camacho, a social worker for one of UNHCR’s implementing partners, ACAI (Asociación de Consultores y Asesores Internacionales). “This is in addition to elderly parents of refugees who come to Costa Rica under the family reunifica-tion programme. Within 10 to 1� years, this population will have become elderly and will require specific support prog-rammes.” The biggest challenge facing this age group upon arrival to a new country is one of basic subsistence: they need a place to live and the means to earn a living. During a recent event organised by ACAI to identify the needs, strengths and vulnerabilities of elderly refugees, the refugees themselves cited housing and access to the job market as their two most pressing concerns. The event, called “first Encounter with Elderly Refugees” brought together �� refugees who shared their concerns and came up with a proposal for solutions to their problems. The meeting was also used as a platform to inform older refugees about their rights under a 1999 Costa Rican law that was adopted to benefit all the elderly in the country, regardless of nationality or migratory status. “Like other elderly people, older refugees in Costa Rica are entitled to

An elderly refugee benefiting from UNHCR projects.

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ECUADOR Refview 1�

The trials and ordeals that force people to flee their homeland and become refugees often do

not end upon arrival in a country of asy-lum. Starting a new life in an unknown country is hard; as well as the difficulties of integration refugees all too often have to face mistrust and discrimination. for some it is too much and many refugees are driven to a state of deep and long-lasting depression that can affect the entire family. In the worst cases, things get so bad that suicide can seem the only way out. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), one of UNHCR’s partners in Ecuador, has been working since �00� to help relieve such mental suffering by providing psychological assistance to refugees. According to Katia Landin, one of HIAS’ psychologists, it is essen-tial to be aware that displacement can impact differently on men, women and children. She adds that there are dif-ferent subgroups of women, each with their own needs and different experi-ences of life in a new country. Many women, for example, find that their role within the family changes once they become refugees. “It is easier for women refugees to find work in Ecuador than it is for their male part-ners,” says Katia Landin. “In some ways this is a good thing for them, but it also creates tension within the couple that in turn can lead to domestic violence.” These women are also at risk in the workplace, where they are too often ex-posed to abuse and sexual harassment, with little recourse available because they are foreigners. Many are paid less than the minimum wage. Colombian women in Ecuador are also the victims of extreme social discrimination leading to more or less open hostility - they are

The Psychological Impact of Displacement on Refugee Women

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deemed to be “prostitutes” or feared by other women as “husband stealers”. Elderly refugee women can be espe-cially vulnerable to psychological difficul-ties. Unfortunately, their problems often go unnoticed. According to Landin, “we are not only talking about old people but about women older than 40. They can find it much harder to start a new life, partly because they feel they have already achieved many goals, like for example having a family.” These women also have more difficulty finding employ-ment in comparison with their younger compatriots. The older the women get, the harder it is. yadira, a 46-year old Colombian refugee, has weekly appointments with a HIAS psychologist in Quito. “I feel I can tell my psychologist things I can not talk about with anyone else,” she says. “Sometimes it is hard; I do cry a lot. What’s important is that when I leave I feel much lighter. It does help me find

the strength to go on.” Some groups of women are espe-cially vulnerable – women who have been raped, for example, and single mothers. They have very specific issues and problems to face and may require longer-term treatment. Currently HIAS has a team of eight psychologists who provide attention to men, women and children in different towns around Ecuador. In most cases the psycholo-gists can provide treatment for a period of up to six months unless prolonged attention is needed. By Xavier Orellana in Quito

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Eligibility interview with Colombian asylum seekers in Quito, Ecuador.

14 Refview REfUGEE PARTICIPATION

In Costa Rica, UNHCR, NGO part-ners and the government organised focus group discussions in late �00� between their staff and some 100 refugees, most of them Colombian. The participants openly shared their concerns, but also proposed possible courses of action. “We appreciate that you have invited us to know what our concerns are,” said one of the women heads of house-holds who attended the discussions. “It is important that you are considering us as part of the solution to our own prob-lems.” The findings from these conversa-tions, focus group discussions and house visits are now being systematised and form an integral part of UNHCR’s planning in the Americas region. Another important element of AGDM is the formation of Multifunctional Teams (MfTs) in each country office. The teams, whose members are from different backgrounds, and which may include colleagues from implementing partner agencies and government staff, are responsible for ensuring that ADGM is effectively being mainstreamed – in other words, that everyone working with people of concern takes part. The participation of UNHCR’s partners in the process is also crucial since it enables them to better understand UNHCR’s way of planning. The next step is to make ADGM a standard element of UNHCR’s program-ming cycle by integrating recent findings in this year’s sub-agreements with part-ners and in the �00� Country Operation Plans. In the Americas, the overall goal is to make ADGM an integral part of the Mexico Plan of Action. By Jozef Merkx and Sabine Wahning

in Geneva

Refugee Participation

Three recent external assess-ments of UNHCR’s work with refugee women and children all

reached the same conclusion: there is an overall lack of refugee participation in the agency’s planning process. In other words, UNHCR has not been talking to refugees enough when developing programmes meant to help them. The reports also concluded that there is a lack of accountability towards ref- ugees and that staff do not coordinate effectively between different depart-ments. It was felt that UNHCR paid ‘lip-service’ to age and gender issues, but that concrete gender and age-specific planning and implementation lagged behind. The Age, Gender and Diversity Main-streaming (AGDM) pilot was launched in �004 to try and address these criticisms. The main objective was to change UNHCR’s way of working and to put refugees at the centre of deci-sion-making. This new approach is being implemented in all UNHCR opera-tions and the roll-out process should be completed by the end of �00�. ADGM applies a rights-based – as opposed to needs-based – approach

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and it is the duty of all UNHCR staff to ensure that these rights are respected. The main tool for implementing the new strategy is refugee participation, or “par-ticipatory assessment”, to ensure inter-active and constructive dialogue with refugee women, girls, men and boys of various ages and backgrounds. To this end, structured dialogue with refugees is now mandatory for all staff. In the Americas, two workshops were held at the end of �00�, in Buenos Aires in Argentina and San José in Costa Rica, to disseminate AGDM. Staff have reacted enthusiastically to the process and to their conversations with refugees: listening to testimonies and understanding the environment in which the refugees live make the search for a comprehensive response easier. It is obvious that conversations with ref-ugees will have to take place regularly to see if urgent issues are being addressed and progress is made. The refugees too valued the opportunity of engaging in a dialogue with UNHCR. “It is good to have a dialogue with the agencies that often have good intentions, but don’t understand our real problems,” said Joana, an Angolan refugee in Brazil.

UNHCR provides financial assistance for refugees and local children to attend school, promoting integration of refugees with the local population. Here, Colombian refugee children in Ecuador at lunch.

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Isabel Killoran, a professor at york University, is one of the volunteer teach-ers and comes to the centre once a week. “The biggest challenge is never knowing who is going to be here, at what grade level and whether they speak English,” she says. The fluc- tuating number of students – anything between two and ten -and the rapid turnover means that she never teaches the same group more than twice. Isabel equates giving tutoring lessons to supply teaching, which calls for a great degree of flexibility and ability to make quick connections with the child and to rapidly assess their educational level.According to the manager of the centre, Jonathan Kamin, the security guards have seen a marked improvement in the children’s behaviour since the start of the program. “As enforcement-minded people,” he says, “we prefer not to have children and families in a detention environment. But since they are here, the tutoring program is a very welcome initiative.” As for the children, they have re-sponded with great enthusiasm. Isabel relates how one of her students, a 1�-year old girl from Latin America, penned the following words in her journal: “Even though I’m in a police officer place, I still had a good day.” By Nanda Na Champassak

in Ottawa

Volunteer Teachers for Minors in Detention

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William, who arrived from Sudan as a teenager and has now been recognised as a refugee in Canada.

Heritage Inn is a former budget motel located on a busy street near Toronto’s International

Airport. Since March �004, it has been converted into an immigration deten-tion centre run by the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). Heritage Inn can accommodate up to 1�0 people, predominantly adult males, though resi-dents can include women and children. Under Canadian law, detention may be permitted to determine the identity of the person or when someone poses a flight risk or danger to the public. Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act also permits the deten-tion of minors but stipulates that a child

should only be detained as a measure of last resort, taking into account the best interests of the child. “The deten-tion of minors is always an exceptional measure,” explains Peter Dietrich, a CBSA official. “The most likely scenario involving minors is when a single parent, for instance a failed refugee claimant, is at the end of the process and at the stage of being removed.” While the majority of detained minors fall under this category, a small number of unac-companied minors are detained when lodging their asylum claim upon arrival. Rana Khan, the UNHCR Legal Officer based in Toronto, agrees that the deten-tion rate for minors seeking asylum in Canada is low but adds that the need for appropriate standards of protection remains a priority. “My interest all along has been to improve the care and well being of children in detention so the most vulnerable do not become the most forgotten,” she says. Since November �00�, UNHCR, in close cooperation with CBSA and Amnesty International Canada, has organized a roster of volunteer teachers to provide “tutoring lessons” at the de-tention centre. CBSA is obliged to meet the educational needs of children who are detained for longer than a week and has an arrangement with the provincial Child Advocacy Office and the Toronto District School Board to organize schooling outside the facility. While this arrangement has worked for a couple of detained minors whose stay at the facility lasted for months, it has proved unsuitable for children detained for shorter periods. In practise, this has meant that these children’s educational needs were not being met. The tutoring program fills this gap by providing some schooling at the centre.

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cal care, the latter sometimes requiring years of careful attention. UNHCR and the Catholic Commis-sion also help minors find a place to stay - usually in hotels - and prepare them for school. This is a challenge in itself as many of these young refugees are illiterate. Learning Spanish is the first step and the classes given by teachers from the University of Buenos Aires also provide the youngsters with cultural tips on the behavior of their peers. Silvia Luppino has been teaching refugees for close to ten years. She says that the amount of schooling young people have received often de-termines their attitude to the classes. “If they’ve been to school, even just at the primary level, they know how to behave in a classroom, and they realise that learning requires an effort on their part. Most importantly they tend to attach more value to education.” Sports and social activities are also important for interaction with peers and the development of self-esteem. In Buenos Aires, university students have organised groups to take the boys out to the movies, to parks and to the zoo. Other boys meet once a week to play football on the refugee team set up by UNHCR. Plans for �006 include health awareness sessions and workshops to encourage the insertion of refugees into the labor market once they turn 1�. Mohamed is looking forward to his eighteenth birthday in May. “I know I won’t be able to get a car, but I’m hop-ing to buy a motorcycle with the money I’m saving from my work. I want to use it to get to know new places,” he says. By Nazli Zaki in Buenos Aires

Hip Hop and football for young Refugees

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Young refugees in Buenos Aires Argentina, meet once a week to play football on the refugee team. U

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Mohamed was 1� when he arrived as a stowaway from Guinea at one of Argentina’s

eastern ports in September �001. He was underweight and had severe kid-ney problems from drinking too much sea water. Still, Mohamed was lucky. The other boy on the same ship did not make it alive to Argentina. The Argentine Catholic Commission – UNHCR’s partner agency – provided the young boy, originally from Liberia, with immediate assistance to see him through his one-month hospital stay. A short stint with a family followed, before a judge put Mohamed in a home for minors. It was then that a small group of people who had met Mohamed while he was in hospital got together to help him. “At the beginning we were able to take him out of the home one day a week, then two days, until he spent all his time with us,” recalls Adelina Ontivero, who now has official custody over Mohamed. Today, Mohamed is

1�. He speaks fluent Spanish, goes to school and has taken up a summer job. In his spare time he takes part in Boy Scout activities, listens to Argentine rock and dances Hip Hop with his friends. Like Mohamed, a growing number of unaccompanied minors – all boys – have been arriving in Argentina in the past six years, frequently as stowaways, either alone or in small groups. They’ve come from eleven African countries, as well as from Peru, Colombia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, fleeing con-flict and persecution. One of UNHCR’s priorities in Argen-tina is to help these very vulnerable asylum seekers as soon as they arrive in the country. The refugee agency has been working with the national authori-ties so that government-appointed tu-tors quickly take legal responsibility for unaccompanied minors – an area that has seen improvement over the past year. Other immediate priorities include the provision of health and psychologi-

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High Commissioner’s visit to Brazil

On his first visit to Latin America since he took office, High Commissioner for Refugees

António Guterres highlighted Brazil’s leadership role in the region. During his meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Guterres praised Brazil’s tradi-tion of generosity and tolerance towards refugees. He thanked the President for his country’s solidarity towards the vic-tims of regional conflicts, highlighting the important role Brazil is playing at a time when restrictive policies and grow-ing intolerance endanger the fate of many refugees throughout the world. Brazil presently hosts more than six thousand people of concern to UNHCR, most of them from Africa. UNHCR re-opened its representation in Brazil after six years of absence in �004. The High Commissioner signed with the Minister of foreign Affairs an Accord de Siège, which will facilitate the implementation of UNHCR’s operations in Brazil. He also met with a group of refugees, who told him of the challenges of integrating in Brazil, linked mostly to the economic constraints faced by the country in gen-eral. During a meeting with ambassadors from Latin America and Caribbean countries, the High Commissioner dis-cussed the implementation of the Mexico Plan of Action (MPA). The Mexi-co Plan of Action was also on the agen-da of the HC’s extraordinary meeting with the national eligibility committee (CONARE). After receiving a warm wel-come from Dr. Luiz Paulo Teles ferreira Barreto, President of CONARE, the High Commissioner praised the Brazilian na-tional legislation on refugees, approved

High Comissioner António Guterres meets President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his visit to Brazil in November 2005.

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in 199� and considered to be a model in the region. He also congratulated Brazil for its resettlement programme, especially its fast-track procedure, under which urgent cases are approved in �� hours. Guterres discussed with CONARE members and senators a number of proposals aimed at improv-ing the local integration of refugees. Helping Displaced Men Cope with Change in Colombia “The most frustrating thing is that I can no longer provide for my sons in the way that I used to as head of the family. One of the kids couldn’t stand the way we live here in the city anymore and went back to his grandfather. It was five years ago and now he’s disappeared. When things like this happen, you feel frustrated and powerless and begin to have bad thoughts.” The words of Luis Peña, leader of an organisation for displaced people in Barranquilla, could be those of hun-dreds of other displaced men in Colombia. Besides the horrors of the conflict and the trauma of leaving their homes behind, displaced men have to face up to the challenges arising from the many changes displacement brings. “Often, it is the women who become the main income providers,” says Isabel Selles, UNHCR Coordinator for Colombia’s Caribbean Coast, “and this challenges men’s assumptions about themselves. They think that women no longer accept their authority and anger builds up, sometimes resulting in open conflict within the family. That’s why UNHCR started running workshops for men in �004.” During the workshops, men are encouraged to talk about the effects of

displacement upon them and to share their frustrations. They also work on try-ing to find ways of understanding and reducing their own anger and that of others. In �00�, at the men’s request, women and youngsters began to partic-ipate in the workshops. “I used to think ‘it is me who decides’,” says Luis Peña, “it was creating problems and we were quarre-ling all the time. Now we share with the kids, with my wife, and we make deci-sions together. As a result, she has be-come less aggressive too. Now, when we have differences of opinion they no longer turn into big problems.” Humanitarian emergency on ecua-dor’s Northern Border On November 11, several hundred Colombians arrived in the space of a single night to the town of San Lorenzo in the province of Esmeraldas on Ecuador’s northern coast. The new- comers told UNHCR they were fleeing to escape a violent confrontation be-tween Colombia’s military and irregular armed groups in the department of Nariño. faced with this emergency, UNHCR immediately sent staff to San Lorenzo and started distributing humanitarian aid. UNHCR coordinated its response with other organisations and agencies present in the area and provided infor-mation on asylum possibilities in Ecuador. Several desks were set up for registering people interested in applying for asylum. UNHCR’s field office in Ibarra devoted its entire staff to cope with the new arrivals, whose number reached 6�1 at the height of the crisis. They were lodged in a church shelter, a

retirement home and in a local school. Within days, �19 people went back to Colombia, while 16� persons decid-ed to apply for refugee status in Ecuador. UNHCR helped transport �� persons who had applied for asylum to a shelter near Ibarra where assistance was more readily available. More than ��,000 Colombian citizens have applied for asylum in Ecuador since �000 and close to 1�,000 have been granted asy-lum by the Ecuadorian government. The number of registered refugees is only the tip of the iceberg: an estimated ��0,000 Colombians of concern to UNHCR live in Ecuador. Many of them do not ask for refugee status for a number of reasons, including lack of awareness of their rights, security fears and the hope of being able to go back to Colombia. Prevention of violence against women in venezuela UNHCR in Venezuela led several activities to promote women’s rights in the provinces bordering with Colombia (Apure, Táchira and Zulia), where an information campaign was carried out on the prevention of violence against women. It focused on issues such as vi-olence and gender, options for the vic-tims of violence, fundamental principles of women’s rights and the national pro-tection system. UNHCR used several media to dis-seminate the information: local newspa-pers, community radios and distribution of promotional material like leaflets and T-shirts. In Táchira, during November and December, several workshops were held for staff of institutions that receive domestic violence complaints, as well

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as university staff and members of the Border Technical Teams (Ministry of Education) and the Human Rights Protection Council. Among the topics covered during the workshops were sexual and reproductive rights, violence and gender, and an overview of the sit-uation of refugee women in Venezuela. Several other activities were organ-ised with community workers -especially in Ureña, a border town that hosts refu-gees with many protection needs. Activ-ities included a workshop on female sexual health and information talks about sexuality and family planning. They were run with the support of the Venezuelan Red Cross, CISP and volun-teer medical personnel from San Antonio. In Guasdualito, another workshop was held for officials from the National Institute of Women (INAMUJER, for its acronym in Spanish), the Municipal Protection Council and the State Police on topics such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and protection of ref-ugee women and children. following the workshop, plans are now being

worked upon to set up a local unit for cases of domestic violence. Refugee Park: A Place of Tolerance and integration in Mexico. In the middle of a large park in Mexico City, a colourful little house stands out amidst the greenness of the surrounding pine and palm trees. Chil-dren and the elderly, women and stu-dents, everyone walks through the Ramón López Velarde Park, a natural shelter from the hustle and bustle of the city. for some, the so-called “Little Park-house” is more than that: it is a place where they can find tolerance and, in a lively exchange with Mexican volunteers, gradually integrate into Mexican society. The house is part of a project de-signed by UNHCR Regional Office in Mexico and Amnesty International, in close collaboration with the local gov-ernment. It was inaugurated in Decem-ber �000, one of the events linked to UNHCR’s �0th anniversary and was named Refugee Park House “Alaide

foppa”, after the poet who was a ref-ugee in Mexico for several years before being kidnapped in Guatemala in 19�0. Refugee Park was later fused with UNHCR’s ¨Education for Peace¨ pro-gram. Since then, activities in and around the “Little House” have in-creased, attracting ever more Mexican volunteers in joint efforts to promote respect towards the refugee population in Mexico and advocate for peace and human rights. Refugees and immigrants from such far away countries as Eritrea and Congo come to the Refugee Park for Spanish lessons. The house also serves as a meeting place for groups as varied as Amnesty, the Migrant and Refugee Women’s Group and the Children and Adolescents Group which runs activities such as photographic workshops, theatrical performances and toy- making. The Park has also been the stage for three World Refugee Day festi-vals and other artistic events.

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Colombian refugee woman in Venezuela

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Refugee Voice

Matilde is a Colombian refugee in Panama. Like many other Colombians in neighbouring

countries, Matilde did not realise she had the right to ask for asylum. It took her a year of scraping a living as an ille-gal migrant before she got in touch with UNHCR. Today she has been recog-nised as a refugee and lives in Panama City with her youngest daughter, with whom she was reunited last October after a two-year separation.

“I arrived in Panama in July �00�. I had no money at the time, but some friends bought me a plane ticket. They were afraid that if I stayed in Colombia any longer I would be killed. It had all started more than ten years before. I was a city councillor and the

problems began when I refused to make deals with one of the irregular armed groups. I received death threats. I didn’t pay much attention at first. But then one of my colleagues on the council got killed, right in front of us. I knew then that I had to go. I left with my family. We took a taxi and went to Barranquilla. We’d been in Barranquilla for a few months when they found us. The threats started again. So we moved. My eldest daughter stayed behind. It went on like this for years. Wherever we went, they would find us. Everywhere I went, I was scared. When I was on the streets, I was scared to be stopped by armed men. When I was home, I was terrified they would break in. It didn’t take long before my husband had had enough and left us. Eventually I

met another man and we had a little girl, Socorro. Her father left us too. He said he could not take life on the run. When I first arrived in Panama, it was very hard. I did small jobs, whatever I could get, slept in dirty rooms I shared with other women. Often, men would proposition me. I was a woman on my own, they thought I would be easy. But the worst was that I was away from Socorro. I could not take her with me when I left Colombia. She was only six at the time and I did not know what life would be like in Panama. It was awful, I thought of her all the time. The only thing that gave me the strength to go on was the thought that if I worked hard enough and got enough money I would be able to bring her to Panama. Things began to change when I got in touch with UNHCR. They told me I could ask for refugee status. I had never thought of myself as a refugee. They also gave me a loan and with that money I was able to start a small catering business. I like cooking, and now I cook for businesses around here, instead of working in restaurants. Now I have a good life. I have found a nice apartment in Panama City and the business is going well. And my dream has come true: Socorro is here with me. I’ll always remember the day when she arrived. It was a Saturday, last October. I went to the airport to wait for her. It had been more than two years since I had last seen her. There are no words to say what I felt on that day. There are still days when I cannot believe that she is here with me.” The names of Matilde and her daughter have been changedAfter a two-year separation, Colombian refugee Matilde is finally reunited with her 8-year-old

daughter at Panama City Airport.

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Monday 12 December 08:00 - Monday has arrived after a rainy weekend: people here in Lago Agrio say it’s the jungle crying, sometimes out of sorrow, sometimes happiness - I can’t tell the difference yet. Today we have to finish our November Situation Report, I’ll be spending most of the morning calling people up to remind them of the dead-line. Business as usual. 12:00 - I am on the phone when I hear a large group arriving in the office. They

look shaken and distressed, the children seem hungry. They are Colombians, - twenty-nine people, more than half of them children - from a small village along the Putumayo River, the natural border between Colombia and Ecuador. They say they were given two hours to flee their village, located at a strategic junction in the battleground between Colombia’s irregular armed groups. They crossed the river to take refuge in Ecuador. “This time we cannot go back,” is all they want to say. They’re scared. Putumayo is one of Colombia’s

most violent departments and the fighting has been getting worse in recent months. Lago Agrio is only 14 kilometres away from the border and a lot of Colombians come here to escape the violence. 16:00 – We’ve told the families that they can stay at the UNHCR shelter in Lago Agrio but they prefer to go back to the small village near the river where a lo-cal woman has given them a room to share. They are farmers and cannot im-agine living in the city. We give them

Staff Diary from field Office Lago Agrio

Oscar in Alberge Apafan refugee host centre where Colombian asylum-seekers await the results of their resettlement cases.

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money for transport and a bit more to hire a donkey they’ll need to carry the World food Programme rations we’ll bring them: they want to register as asylum seekers and we have agreed to visit them the day after tomorrow. 22:00 - Back home, reading García Marquez’s stories about Macondo, the legendary setting of most of his novels. They remind me of this place, magic but real - or the other way around, I am not too sure. In the 19�0’s Lago Agrio was only a petrol encampment but today it is a small provincial city. The streets are bustling and hustling, Latin music is playing on every street corner, the spe-cialty being Vallenato, romantic Colom-bian music. Somehow, I feel it is special to live here. Tuesday 13 December 07:30 – Ara, our Protection Officer, is leaving for Coca in Orellana province at the request of the local authorities there – two months ago, we secured an agreement with them to conduct regis-tration and assistance brigades. It was a big stepforward. In �001, when UNHCR began to work in the Amazon region, the same local authorities mobilized the population against our presence. They claimed UNHCR would only attract more Colombians, who would bring more violence and insecurity and steal jobs. Now the local authorities are fully cooperating with us and these registra-tion brigades are very important for our work. One of the biggest problems we face here is that many Colombians who arrive in the region do not want to regis-ter – they don’t even make contact with us, they’re too scared. We think there

could be as many as ��0,000 Colom-bians of concern to us in Ecuador, but only ��,000 are registered with UNHCR. The others are what we call an “invisible population”. It does not make our job easy. 08:30 - The office is half-empty. I will have the time to edit the SitRep. Quito has already called asking for it - let’s concentrate. 08:45 – Susana, our UNV Programme Assistant, comes in to remind me that we have almost run out of money on our health budget. When the Assistance Committee meets tomorrow, we’ll have to turn down the less pressing needs. I tell her to coordinate with Quito for the revision. 19:00 – Robert, who works with the NGO that implements our integration projects, pops in to discuss the Wom-en’s federation laundry project. All our projects aim to benefit both the local Ecuadorian population and Colombian refugees - this particular one is meant to help women find jobs and earn a living, but also to promote interaction between Colombian and Ecuadorian women. We hope it will serve its purpose: integrat-ion. wednesday 14 December 6:00 - We load the food rations in the pick-up truck with our colleagues from the Red Cross and the local church. At dawn, the sky is beautiful; I wonder whether the intensity of colour and definition of the clouds against the sky is only possible here, in this corner of the world. We have six hours of bumpy

roads ahead of us. Patches of the road are covered in a thin layer of petrol spilt by the petrol company trucks; it melts when the weather’s hot and the road’s surface becomes bumpy and slippery. It’s hot today, and the air conditioning does not work. It’s going to be a long day. 12:00 – The asylum-seekers are wait-ing for us, as arranged they’ve brought the donkey to carry the food parcels! We follow behind along the muddy path – so muddy that at each step we take we find ourselves sinking knee-deep into the sludge. Nobody told our NGO colleague to bring rubber boots - he’s lost one shoe in the mud and now walks barefoot. I cannot help feeling a bit uneasy in this area; irregular armed groups are said to be around. 13:00 - The asylum-seekers are stay-ing in a small wooden house, a humble place. Twenty-nine people in such a tiny room, I wonder how they manage. We have to take their pictures to register them and this makes them nervous until we explain that we will not be sharing their photographs outside of the elig- ibility process. 20:00 - We are back in Lago Agrio in time for the closing ceremony of the literacy programme run by our partner, HIAS (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). Nine refugees receive their pri-mary school certificates. Before coming here, they could not read or write. It’s good to see how happy they look. Thursday 15 December 10:00 – I send out the Sit-Rep.

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friday 16 December 10:00 - The weekend is near; the week went by so quickly. I feel tired, but also good: we were able to help this week. I cannot forget one of the asylum-see-kers, a man in his fifties, the sad look in his eyes. His wife left him and he now takes care of his four young children. 15:00 - Soledad comes in to remind me we have to do the petty cash count and send it to Quito, otherwise we won’t be able to drive on Monday. We’ve almost no fuel left. 18:20 - We have almost finished the cash count when the electricity goes off. It is the third time this week. Since it’s almost half-past six and we can’t see anyway, we decide to wrap up the workday and start the weekend with dinner at one of our favourite restau-rants. “Maytos”, a local specialty – juicy fish steamed inside a banana leaf –, is waiting for us. On Sunday, we are going fishing. Have you ever fished a piranha? I haven’t either! By Oscar Butragueño,

Head of Field Office in Lago Agrio

Colombian children wait in UNHCR office while their parents get information on asylum in Ecuador.

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UNHCR Geneva, Bureau for The Americas94 Rue MontbrillantCH-1�0� Geneva Case Postale ��00CH-1�11 Genève � DépôtTel: +41 �� ��9 �111fax: +41 �� ��9 ��1�

UNHCR BrazilSHIS QL �4, Conjunto 4, Casa 16, Lago Sul, Brasília - Df, �166�-0��, Brasil Tel: +�� 61 ��6�-41��fax: +�� 61 ��6�-�9�9E-mail: brabr@unhcr.org

UNHCR Canada��0 Albert StreetSuite 401Ottawa, Ontario KIP �G�Tel: +1 61� ��� 09 09 +1 61� ��� �6 91fax: +1 61� ��0 1� �� Email: canot@unhcr.org

UNHCR ColombiaCalle 114 No. 9 – 01 Of. 601 Torre A – Edificio TeleportBogotáTel: +�� 1 6��0600 fax: + �� 1 6��060� E-mail: colbo@unhcr.org

UNHCR Costa Rica Edificio Torre del Este �to pisoBarrio Dent, frente a la facultadde Derecho de la UCRSan JoséTel. +�06 ��� 100�/���4fax: +�06 ��4 4�91 E-mail: cossa@unhcr.org

UNHCR ecuador Avenida Amazonas ���9 y la GranjaEdificio Naciones UnidasPiso �, QuitoTel: +�9� � �460 ���+�9� � �46� ��9fax: +�9� � �460 ��0E-mail: ecuqu@unhcr.org

UNHCR PanamaCalle Gaillard, Edificio �1�-BCiudad del Saber, Apartado 0�4�-0��9�,Balboa, AncónPanama, República de PanamáTel. +�0� �1� 16�0 fax +�0� �1� 16��Email: panpa@unhcr.org

Regional Office for the United States and the Caribbean1��� K Street, NWSuite �00Washington, D.C. �0006Tel. +�0� �96 �660 E-mail: rowash@unhcr.org

Regional Office for Southern Latin AmericaCerrito ��6 Piso 10Buenos Aires 1010Tel. +�4 11 4�1� �1��fax +�4 11 4�1� 4���E-mail: argbu@unhcr.org

Regional Office for Mexico, Cuba and Central AmericaPresidente Masaryk �9-6Chapultepec Morales11��0, México, D.f.Tel. +�� �� ��6� 9�64fax. +�� �� ���0 9�0�E-mail: mexme@unhcr.org

Regional Office for venezuela, Peru, Guyana and Surinam Parque Cristal, Torre Oeste, Piso 4Oficina 4-�, Los Palos GrandesApto Postal 6904� Caracas 106�-ACaracas, VenezuelaTel. +�� �1� ��6 ����fax +�� �1� ��6 96��E-mail: venca@unhcr.org

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