The Long and Winding Road to Asylum
covering burma and southeast asia
Saturday, April 27, 2024
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The Long and Winding Road to Asylum


By Tony Broadmoor/New Delhi NOVEMBER, 2002 - VOLUME 10 NO.9


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"They cut stipends without notice, putting refugees out on the streets, and they are not accountable to the refugees at any point in time." However, the UNHCR says they have new proactive programs that remain in their "embryonic" stages that will allow for greater self-sufficiency among refugees. "We don’t want to see people live on handouts forever," says the UNHCR’s Wei-Ming. "I think we have embarked on a new procedure to cultivate self-reliance." But when asked whether the agency has been guilty of cutting SA without notice, the Deputy Chief of Mission replied, "I don’t think so…. I don’t know, we are moving towards a new system." Nobody disputes that the UNHCR’s job is difficult, but the role the UNHCR is attempting to play is no longer plausible, especially given the budget cuts and resource constraints. "The UNHCR is the only protection a refugee has," says Haskar. Whether the UNHCR implements a new scheme to alleviate the refugees’ burden is unclear, but if they fail to do so, the long, hard road for Burmese refugees in India will most likely lead to nowhere.


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