by Ollie Ruth Jefferson, P.C.

This article was first printed in The Arlington Morning News, 8/22/97, Guest Commentary

Prior to September, President Clinton will make his annual determination of the number of refugees to be admitted to the United States for resettlement in Fiscal Year 1998. Through such international instruments as the protocol relating to refugees, the United States has made a humanitarian commitment to the refugee population. However, as it related to the continent of Africa, that commitment has gone unfulfilled.

The United States estimates that worldwide, there are more than 26 million people displaced as refugees with more than 9 million from the continent of Africa alone. Unlike the immigrant population, which has the advantage of being able to plan their transition, refugees are generally uprooted from their own country spontaneously and tragically, and are forced to flee for their lives out of fear of persecution of their own government, or forces from whom their own government fails to protect them.

Human rights abuses result from persecution based upon such immutable characteristics as race and national origin, or upon characteristics that one should not have to change, such as religion, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Some specific abuses cited by applicants include imprisonment without charge, torture, slavery, rape, infanticide, and certain practices when imposed forcibly, such as abortions, prostitution and sterilization.

As I reflect on my most recent asylum cases litigated before the court, I am reminded of how dissimilar my clients are to the refugees who are dependent upon President Clinton's numerical determination. Graciela was a pro-democracy student activist, fighting the little-known communist insurgency when her life was threatened convincingly enough that she fled the Philippines. Ndwaya advocated a democratic government in Burundi that would be sensitive to the Hutus, who were under-represented in the government. These and others were college students from wealthy families who ran successful businesses and enjoyed social prominence. Due to their economic status, they were able to leave their country and enter the United States, where they applied for refugee status through asylum.

People without financial resources are unable to distance themselves so significantly from the place of their abuse, and are often marooned in refugee camps, living at the mercy of sometimes inhospitable host countries. It is the poorest of the dispossessed whose life hinges on the numbers that countries such as the United States allocate for resettlement when return to their own country is not possible.

The United States Department of State reported that in 1996, the U.S. admitted 75,693 refugees for permanent resettlement. As has been the pattern for more than 20 years, the United Stated admitted more refugees from Asian countries (over 23,000) and Eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union (over 41,000) than other regions of the world, including the continent of Africa, which has the highest rate of refugee displacement. By comparison, only 7,512 Africans were admitted to the United States as refugees in 1996.

While the State Department offers any number of reasons for this disparity, it does not require very deep thought to appreciate the unfairness. Officials of the United States have shown great pride in our support of worldwide human rights, but there is shame in the numbers. A truly great country would develop a formula for the allocation of refugee admissions that respects the suffering of all persons, not just the well-to-do, and not just the populations with a solid base of advocates in the United States.

In June of this year, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended the development of such a formula. The large number of Africans displaced due to human rights violations have never been meaningfully acknowledged by our country, and that must change if we are to reach our potential as a great nation with humanitarian values.