Human Cargo (52 page)

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Authors: Caroline Moorehead

Chapter One: The Homeless and the Rightless

PAGE

36
     Louis Henkin was a young: conversation with author, November 3, 2003.

38
     No international organization: For an excellent overview of UNHCR’s work, see Gil Loescher,
The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). See also the newsletters of the International Council of Voluntary Organizations.

44
     Ogata’s interests: The following pages are based on interviews with UNHCR staff in February 2004.

46
     The new millennium: See UNHCR,
The State of the World’s Refugees
, 1995, 1997, 2000.

47
     Not the least of Lubbers’s challenges: See the publications of the Global IDP Project, Norwegian Refugee Council.

50
     Among the boat people: conversation with Sally Verity-Smith, October 25, 2003.

52
     Some $10 billion: See Web sites of UK Home Office (
www.homeoffice.gov.uk
) and UNHCR (
www.unhcr.ch
).

Chapter Two:
Gli Extracomunitari

67
     Lampedusa is popular: See David Gilmour,
The Last Leopard
(London: Quartet Books, 1988).

72
     Europe’s earliest migrants: See Raleigh Trevelyan,
The Companion Guide to Sicily
(London: Companion Guides, 1999).

73
     At first, influxes: See Michael Pugh,
Europes Boat People: Maritime Cooperation in the Mediterranean
(Challot Paper 41, July 2000).

73
     With Silvio Berlusconi’s election: See publications of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles. Also publications of the Commission for the Politics of Integration of Immigrants, Department of Social Affairs, Rome. Stefano Vincenzi, “Italy: A Newcomer with a Positive Attitude,”
Journal of Refugee Studies
, vol. 13, no. 1 (2000). John Morrison and Beth Crosland, “The Trafficking and Smuggling of Refugees: The Endgame in European Asylum Policy?” UNHCR Working Paper No. 39 (April 2001).

Chapter Three: The Fence

94
     It has become fashionable: See Philip Martin and Jonas Widgren, “International Migration: Facing the Challenge,”
Population Bulletin
, vol. 57, no. 1 (2002). Amnesty International, “United States of America: Human Rights Concerns in the Border Region with Mexico” (1998).

99
     And, of course, the routes: Wayne Cornelius, “Death at the Border: Efficacy and Unintended Consequences of U.S. Immigration Control Policy,”
Population and Development Review
, vol. 27 (Dec. 2001). Also see Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, “Anti-immigration Vigilantes on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands” (Oct. 2003), and “Policing the Border: U.S. Immigration Control Strategy” (Nov. 2003).

100
   The migrants are not put off: Conversation with Nate Goetz, October 28, 2003. Also see reports in
Migration World
.

109
   The detention of asylum seekers: See reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Chapter Four: Fair Go

117
   “Italians”: For documents on early immigration, see Melbourne’s Museum of Immigration.

125
   It was under: “Not for Export” (Human Rights Watch briefing paper, Sept. 2002).

126
   It came about: See the Web sites of the Australian Government Immigration Department (
www.immi.gov.au
) and the Refugee Council of Australia (
www.refugeecouncil.org.au
).

129
   on August 24, 2001: David Marr and Marian Wilkinson,
Dark Victory
(Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2003); see also Robert Manne and David Corlett,
Quarterly Essay 13: Sending Them Home
(Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2004) and Don McMaster,
Asylum Seekers: Australia’s Response to Refugees
(Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2003).

132
   It was about now: see Australia-Pacific Amnesty International, “Offending Human Dignity: The ‘Pacific Solution’ “ (2002).

137
   Woomera: See Tom Mann,
Desert Sorrow: Asylum Seekers at Woomera
(Sydney: Wakefield Press, 2003).

144
   an alarming… picture: There are a great many papers and reports on this subject. See in particular, J. P. Wilson and B. Drozdele, eds., “The Politics of Asylum and Immigration Detention: Advocacy, Ethics and the Role of the Therapist” in John P. Wilson and Boris Drozdek, eds.
Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Asylum Seekers and Refugees with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
. (London: Brunner-Routledge, 2004). Also see Aamer Sultan and Kevin O’Sullivan, “Psychiatric Disturbances in Asylum Seekers Held in Long-Term Detention,”
Medical Journal of Australia
, vol. 175 (2001).

Chapter Five: Newcastle and the Politics of Dispersal

164
   In 2002, according to official figures: For up-to-date figures see the Web sites of the Home Office (
www.homeoffice.gov.uk
), the British Refugee Council (
www.refugeecouncil.org.uk
), and the Information Centre About Asylum and Refugees (
www.icar.org.uk
).

168
   In practice, people: See North of England Refugee Service, “A Transnational Network: Hearing the Voices of Refugees in Policy and Practice in the European Union” (2000).

173
   None of this process: “What’s the story?: Media Representation of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the UK,” Article XIX, 2003.

Chapter Six: Little Better than Cockroaches

190
   In the autumn of 2002: Human Rights Watch, “Liberian Refugees in Guinea: Refoulement, Militarization of Camps and Other Protection Concerns”
(Nov. 2002). Also see Amnesty International, “Guinea and Sierra Leone: No Place of Refuge” (Oct. 2001).

196
   Though the precise origins: For an excellent recent history of Liberia, see Stephen Ellis,
The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religions Dimension of an African Civil War
(London: C. Hurst, 1999).

209
   UNHCR is at: See Tania Kaiser, “A Beneficiary-Based Evaluation of the UNHCR Program in Guinea” (UNHCR Working Paper, 2001) and Jeff Crisp, “No Solutions in Sight: The Problem of Protracted Refugee Situations in Africa” (UNHCR Working Paper, 2003).

214
   No one really believes: See Robert F. Gorman,
Refugee Aid and Development
(London: Greenwood Press, 1993).

Chapter Seven: ‘The Corridors of Memory

224
   “blend of memory”: Jabra Ibrahim Jabra,
A Bethlehem Boyhood
(Fayetteville, AR: Univ. of Arkansas Press, 1995).

225
   there is no perimeter fence: For good accounts of the history of the Palestinians in Lebanon, see Rosemary Sayigh,
Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experiment in Lebanon
(London: Zed Books, 1994); D. Gilmour,
Dispossessed: The Ordeal of the Palestinians
, 1917-80 (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1980); and Robert Fisk,
Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War
(London: Carlton Books, 1990). See also the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and of the UN Relief and Works Agency.

230
   As villages were deserted: Walid Khalidi,
All That Remains: The Palestinian I’il lages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in
1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute of Palestinian Studies, 1992).

231
   “a black cave”: Elias Khoury,
The Kingdom of Strangers
(Fayetteville, AR: Univ. of Arkansas Press, 1996).

242
   The voice that has developed: Edward Said,
Reflections on Exile
(London: Granta Books, 2001), and
The Politics of Dispossession
(London: Pantheon, 1994).

243
   “At one thirty”: Mourid Barghouti, I
Saw Ramallah
(London: Bloomsbury, 2003).

247
   “Basically”: May Seikaly,
Al-Jana Tile on Palestinian Oral History
, The Aral) Resource Centre, Beirut, 2002.

256
   “All those who have been destined”: Barghouti, op. cit.

Chapter Eight: ‘The Illness of Exile

262
   The literature of exile: See Paul Tabori,
The Anatomy of Exile
(London: Hat rap, 1972).

265
   Toward the end of the 1970s: For the literature on torture, see the publications of Amnesty International and the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.

272
   Over the years: Jane Kramer, “Refugee,”
The New Yorker
, Jan. 20, 2003.

Chapter Nine: Going Home

294
   The Afghans know: See David Turton and Peter Marsden, “Taking Refugees for a Ride? The Politics of Refugee Returns to Afghanistan” (Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, Dec. 2002).

296
   The refugees did start: Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have produced excellent reports on Afghanistan. See, in particular, Amnesty International, “Afghanistan: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Fate of the Afghan Returnees” (2003). See also reports of the British Agencies Afghanistan Group (BAAG); Michael Ignatieff, “Nation-Building Lite,”
New York Times
, July 28, 2002; and Nicholas Stockton, “Strategic Coordination in Afghanistan,” Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, August 2002.

297
   When … Robert Byron: Robert Byron,
The Road to Oxiana
(London: MacMillan, 1937).

301
   In 1836: Sir Alexander Burnes,
Cabooh: A Personal Narrative of a Journey to and Residence in That City
, 1836, 7
and
8 (London: J. Murray, 1842).

302
   he remarked on the excellence:
The Baburnama Memoirs
(New York: Random House, 2002).

Chapter Ten: Dead Dreams

332
   “So thick”: Tete-Michel Kpomassie,
An African in Greenland
(New York, 2001). p. 10.

Epilogue: A Mode of Being

349
   When Jeff Crisp: conversation with author, February 2002. See Jeff Crisp, “A New Asylum Paradigm? Globalization, Immigration and the Uncertain Future of the International Refugee Regime” (UNHCR Working Paper, Dec. 2003). See also Amnesty International, “Refugees: Human Rights Have No Borders” (1997).

352
   At the beginning of 1999, five hundred people: Philip Rudge, conversation with author, March 15, 2004. See also Philip Rudge, “The Need for a More Focused Response: European Donor Policies Toward IDPs” (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institute, Jan. 2002).

352
   Why should something: Matthew Gibney, conversation with author, October 2003.

353
   In the mid-1970s: See Nigel Rapport and Andrew Dawson, eds.,
Migrants of Identity: Perceptions of Home in a World of Movement
(Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1998).

355
   Even if the flows: For a good overview, see Stephen Castles, “The International Politics of Forced Migration.” In Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, eds.,
Fighting Identities: Race, Religion and Ethno-nationalism
(London: The Socialist Register, 2002).

356
   UNHCR’s mission: Volker Turk, “UNHCR’s Mission,”
Refugee Survey Quarterly
, vol. 20 (2001).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Lyndall Passerini, Frances D’Souza, Janet Powney, and my son, Daniel Swift, came with me on my journeys: I would never have traveled anywhere, and the book would not have been written, without them. I would like to thank them very much.

I particularly want to thank the following, who read different chapters and gave suggestions and advice: Anne Chisholm, Jeff Crisp, Beth Crosland, Michael Davie, William Hopkins, David Marr, Philip Rudge, and Kirteen Tait. I am also very grateful to the Society of Authors, for their grant from the Authors’ Foundation.

This book would never have been started without the young Liberians in Cairo, and I owe them thanks for the many hours they spent talking to me about their lives. In Cairo, I would also like to thank Magda Ali, Fateh Azzam, Barbara Harrell-Bond, Sofl Elg, Enid Hill, Heba Kasseem, Mulki al-Sharmani, and Nachoua El Azhari, for her generous hospitality. Just as I would like to thank Diana Allen, Virginia Duigan, Gill and Robb Lodge, and Dawn Sparks for very kindly having me to stay on my travels, as well as the staff of the International Rescue Committee, Refugees International, Amnesty International, and UNHCR, who made my journeys in Guinea and Afghanistan possible. The archivists and librarians of the Refugee Studies Centre in Oxford, the London Library, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and the Refugee Council Archive at the University of East London were extremely helpful.

Many people talked to me for this book, helped me, drove me about, and showed me things. I am very grateful to them all. They are: Ghassan ‘Abdallah, Leena-Kaisa Aberg, Eleanor Acer, Rafaelo Alarcon, Daniela D’Amico, Kathi Anderson, Gervase Apache, Paris Aristotle, Sister Bridget Arthur, Karim Atassi, Gian Luca Avanzato, Kenneth Bacon, Helen Bamber, Peer Baneke, Christina Bennett, Jean-Francois Berger, Paul Bergue, Deslie Billich, Tony Birch, Monica Bishop, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, Father Frank Brennan, Kielo Brewis, Sir Nigel Broomfield, Michelle Brown, Sandy Buchan, Julian Burnside, Sherman Carroll, Stephen Castles, Jean Chandler, Deirdre Clancy, Sister Claudette of the Sisters of Mercy, Rupert Colville, Marguerite Contat, Wayne Cornelius, Sarah Covington, Mark Cutts, Nomita Dave, David Deng, Damtew Dessalegue, Kate Durham, Jean-Francois Durieux, Ann Durst, Sue Emmott, Daniel Endres, Heike Estolen, Nabi Farahi, Erika Feller, Giovanni
Fiannaca, Georgina Fletcher, Julian Fountain, Ana Liria-Franch, Joung-Ah Ghedini, Matthew Gibney, John Gibson, Brenda Goddard, Nate Goetz, Monica Gonzales, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Mariette Grange, Stefanie Grant, Aziz and Ayda Halimi, Luke Hardy, Ahmed Hawri, the late Arthur Helton, Anne Henderson, Katherine Henderson, Professor Louis Henkin, Taryn Higashi, Liz Hodgkin, Louis Hoffmann, Andrew Hogg, Christopher Horrocks, Bassam Jamil Hubaishi, Jurgen Humber, Linda Jaivin, Lucy Jones, Tania Kaiser, Maija Kajava, David Kapya, Rose Kasusky, Penny Kelly, Josephine Klein, Michelle Klein Solomon, Michael Korsinki, Kristina Knmpula, Margaret Ladner, David Lambo, Comfort Lamptey, Philippe Leclerc, Nick Leader, Eve Lester, Gil Loescher, Anne-Sophie Lois, Ruud Lubbers, Charles MacFadden, Ewen MacLeod, Dennis McNamara, Monique Malha, Robert Mann, Lucia Marghieri, Delphine Marie, Peter Marsden, Anne-Charlotte Martineau, Roberto Martinez, Pablo Mateu, Laura Maxwell, Peter Maxwell, Nicholas and Kerry Minchin, Robert Montgomery, John Morrison, David Murphy, Nancy Murray, Kathleen Newland, Clementine Nkweta Muna, Sayre Nyce, Pia Oberoi, Comfort Ofolabi, Grainne O’Hara, Patricia Omidian, Ekhlas Osman, Dr. Biagio Palumbo, Alison Parker, Mervyn Patterson, Dr. Michael Peel, David Petrasek, Charles Petrie, Margaret Piper, Michael Pugh, Ian Purves, Archi Pyati, Cesar Pastor Ortega, Ron Redmond, Rachel Reilly, Marianne Reiner, Ngareta Rossell, Aziz Royesh, Katherine Sainsbury, Eva Sallis, Angel Santa Ana, Rosemary Sayigh, Jason Scarpone, Ed van Schenkenberg, Col Mark Schnur, Nasir Shansab, John Shattuck, Zainab Sheik-Ali, Alanna Sherry, Ann-Charlotte Siren-Borrego, Russell Skelton, Malcom Smart, Elaine Smith, Dr. Thierno Maadjou Sow, John Spooner, Dr. Zachary Steele, Barry Stoyle, Tim Swett, Derek Summerfield, Larry Thompson, Robbie Thomson, Steve Tull, Volker Turk, Dr. Stuart Turner, David Turton, Amanda Vanstone, Susan Varga, Fulvio Vassalo, Sally Verity Smith, Andrew Wilder, Sara Wills, Arnold Zable, Monette Zard, and Abu, Ali, Hussein, and Mahmud Zeidan.

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