Refugees aren't wanted
	The New York Times The New York Times	Wednesday, February 20, 2002

Today 35 million people worldwide are fleeing war or persecution. The last time the number was this high, World War II was raging. Yet many countries are hardening their refugee policies. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees must cut services, already fall far short of the need, by 10 percent because contributions from the European Union have dropped. Even as wealthy countries cut back their financing for food, health and education in refugee camps, they are also taking in fewer people. Nations like the United States, Denmark and Australia, historically open to the persecuted, are now closing the doors.

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Refugees are less popular than ever because of post-Sept. 11 security worries. But the concern is misguided; only the most incompetent terrorist would try to enter a Western nation as a refugee. A tiny percentage of refugees are accepted and the process takes years, much of that time spent living in a squalid camp. In addition, refugees coming to America have always undergone far more thorough background checks than people entering on student, tourist or business visas.

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Australia's shift has aroused the most controversy, because it was so blatantly (and successfully) a campaign device for Prime Minister John Howard's center-right Liberal Party. Howard sent asylum seekers, mainly those fleeing Afghanistan and Iraq, to neighboring countries for temporary detention and then tightened asylum laws. He is now under attack for campaign statements asserting that heartless refugees had been throwing their children overboard. He acknowledges that this is untrue but says he believed it at the time.

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Sadly, Australia is not alone. Well before Sept. 11, European countries were tightening border controls, aiming to keep people out so they cannot even ask for asylum. One reason for the shift is that conservative parties are winning power and anti-immigrant parties have gained support.

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Denmark is one example. The new center-right leadership, pushed by an anti-foreigner party that has doubled its parliamentary representation, has promised to limit the number of foreigners in the country. This is especially important because Denmark is to assume the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union later this year, and will have a strong influence over Europe's refugee policies.

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In the United States, each year the president sets a maximum number of refugees America will accept. The figure has been declining for the last 20 years - it is now 70,000, down from 200,000 in the mid-1980s. Priorities for entry are still tilted toward the Cold War - one of the largest groups admitted, for example, is Jews from the former Soviet Union, not among those in the most dire need today. In addition, the number of refugees accepted is always less than the ceiling, a policy that some compare to launching lifeboats from the Titanic with some seats empty. After Sept. 11, refugee resettlement essentially stopped as increased security measures were put in place. It has restarted, but at a much slower pace. While the transition to more security should be temporary, the continuing degradation of protections for refugees is not.

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Taking in refugees may not be popular in hard economic times, but it is the right thing to do. Moreover, prosperous countries like the United States and Australia have found that refugees and their children can