by Julie Nathan
25 June 2014
World Refugee Day, and Refugee Week in Australia, were recently cel­eb­rated in recog­ni­tion of refugees, past and present, globally and nation­ally. It aimed also to raise greater awareness of the con­tinu­ing plight of refugees.
To better under­stand the United Nations (UN) agencies which are respons­ible for refugees, the following inform­a­tion has been compiled.
There are two UN refugee agencies:

1. the UN Relief and Works Agency For Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is only for Arab refugees from Mandate-era Palestine, and

2. the UN High Com­mis­sion­er for Refugees (UNHCR), which is for all other refugees in the world.

The UNHCR defines a refugee as someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being per­se­cuted for reasons of race, religion, nation­al­ity, mem­ber­ship of a par­tic­u­lar social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nation­al­ity, and is unable… or… unwilling to avail himself of the pro­tec­tion of that country.”
UNRWA defines a refugee as someone “whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, who lost both home and means of live­li­hood as a result of the 1948 Arab – Israeli conflict”. The defin­i­tion itself does not cover their des­cend­ants. Yet UNRWA, uniquely, treats the des­cend­ants of Palestini­an refugees from the 1940’s, ad infinitum, as if they too are refugees, even if they are natives and/or citizens of other countries. Inter­na­tion­al law does not treat the des­cend­ants of any other refugee group in this way. Further, the UNRWA defin­i­tion only applies to Arabs; Jewish refugees from Mandate-era Palestine are excluded.
UNHCR was estab­lished “to lead and coordin­ate inter­na­tion­al action for the worldwide pro­tec­tion of refugees and the res­ol­u­tion of refugee problems.” UNRWA was estab­lished “to carry out direct relief and works pro­grammes for Palestine refugees.” It is not aimed at solving their problems.
UNRWA had 5.1 million registered refugees at the end of 2014, nearly all of whom are not in fact refugees because they have never fled from anywhere. They are the des­cend­ants of refugees, nearly half of whom are citizens of other countries. Some 2 million of these Palestini­ans are citizens of Jordan, and another 2 million live under the Palestini­an Authority in the West Bank and in Gaza. An unspe­cified number are citizens of other countries. Of the original 650,000 refugees in 1948, there are estimated to be less than 50,000 still alive after 67 years. UNWRA employs a total of 30,000 people.
UNHCR had 14.4 million registered refugees from the rest of the world at the end of 2014. They are all genuine refugees. UNHCR employs 5,000 people.
Since its found­a­tion, the UNHCR has helped to resettle approx­im­ately 50 million people. Since its found­a­tion, UNRWA has not settled any refugees.
UNHCR’s budget in 2012 was US$4.3 billion. UNRWA’s budget for the 2012 – 2013 financial year was US$1.9 billion. UNRWA refugees have more UN funding per capita than other refugees. For example, in 2012, the UN spent six times more on every Palestini­an refugee compared to any other refugee.
UNRWA describes the dif­fer­ence between UNRWA and UNHCR: “UNRWA deals spe­cific­ally with Palestine refugees… Its role encom­passes assist­ance, pro­tec­tion and global advocacy for Palestine refugees” while “UNHCR’s mandate is to provide inter­na­tion­al pro­tec­tion to refugees worldwide whenever political con­di­tions allow.”
It is unclear why one national group of refugees has been treated dif­fer­ently to, and in many respects priv­ileged over, every other national group of refugees, by the UN. Nor is it clear why Palestini­ans are the only refugees who count their des­cend­ants as refugees too, ad infinitum. What is clear is that the UNHCR, despite its dis­ad­vant­ages, is much more effective in resolving the plight of refugees than is UNRWA.
With increas­ing wars and civil unrest in much of the Middle East and in parts of Africa, the number of refugees will continue to rise. The stat­ist­ics cited here do not include many other refugees who are not registered with the UNHCR, or who are intern­ally displaced.
Modern Australia has been greatly enriched by the European refugees who arrived after WW11, and by later refugee groups like the Viet­namese after the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Despite the ongoing con­tro­versy about Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment policy on refugees and others seeking asylum in Australia, around 20,000 refugees were settled in Australia under the Human­it­ari­an Program in the 2012 – 2013 financial year. This was a sharp increase over previous years.
Unfor­tu­nately, while ever there are dic­tat­or­ships, conflict and war, there will be those fleeing their homelands, seeking a place of refuge and a new home. Those fleeing their countries of normal residence deserve our com­pas­sion.
Julie Nathan is the Research Officer for the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry
This article was ori­gin­ally published on J‑Wire and Times of Israel