Migrants living, working, studying, traveling, or transiting abroad may be caught when the country in which they are present experiences a conflict or natural disaster. Individuals may lack the resources necessary to return to their home countries. Evacuation and repatriation are expensive undertakings and funding may be necessary to evacuate migrants and to ensure their safe and dignified return home. To be effective, the evacuation and repatriation process requires the involvement, support, and cooperation of diverse international, national, and local actors, including the private sector.
During crises, many migrants who are in countries affected by conflicts or natural disasters must leave dangerous situations with little planning or foresight.
Evacuation to home countries is generally a last resort but may be necessary if migrants cannot remain safely where they are and cannot be relocated to another part of the country experiencing conflict or natural disaster. Return and repatriation”to bring or send back a person to his or her country of origin”is the obvious choice for most of those forced to leave a country experiencing a crisis. The fundamental right to re-enter one’s country of origin is laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as other treaties.
Evacuation can present many challenges for migrants. Migrants often need assistance to obtain lost or confiscated documents, to obtain a release from employment, or to secure permission to exit the host country. They may also require help with transportation and need permission to transit third countries.
Thereafter, they often need assistance in the transit and home countries to address health and psycho-social impacts as well as economic problems stemming from crises.
Large-scale evacuations have been undertaken in both conflict and natural disaster situations.
Contingency plans need to address who is eligible for evacuation, how to communicate warnings, where people should gather, how costs will be covered, to where people will be evacuated, which organizations will be involved and how they will be coordinated, and other actions needed for smooth operations.
According to research fellow Briana Mawby and Professor S. Martin of Georgetown University in their September, 2016 article titled: Evacuation and Repatriation of Migrants in Countries Experiencing Conflict or Natural Disaster -
The brief outlines three potential financing models for evacuation and repatriation:
1) Migrant welfare funds and insurance policies that support the evacuation and repatriation of migrants in the event of a crisis.
Interestingly, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand have created migrant welfare funds, which provide a variety of services to migrants, including emergency evacuation and repatriation assistance.
2) Donor financing through international organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Bank.
IOM has established the Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism (MEFM), a revolving fund which helps ensure fast action when migrants must be evacuated.
3) Finally, employers and civil society organizations often facilitate the evacuation and repatriation of migrants with their own resources.
Existing frameworks speak to the rights of migrants in the context of evacuation and repatriation. In certain cases, evacuation becomes necessary to protect life, liberty, and security of migrants”rights that are well-established in human rights instruments.
According to United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A. (date: 10th December, 1948): Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is explicit in stating that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.”
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), states that: “Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.”
Although the Covenant (ICCPR) allows parties to derogate certain rights in a “public emergency which threatens the life of the nation,” this fundamental right cannot be derogated.
Other conventions elaborate these rights as they pertain to specific populations. For example, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states: “States Parties recognize that every child has the inherent right to life.”
The UDHR establishes that “everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
These rights are also reinforced in the ICCPR, which states in Article 12: “Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own” and “No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”
The 4th Geneva Convention on Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War also includes specific provisions related to non-citizens that affirms, albeit with provisos, their right to exit countries in conflict: “All protected persons who may desire to leave the territory at the outset of, or during a conflict, shall be entitled to do so, unless their departure is contrary to the national interests of the State.”
The Geneva Convention and the CRC pay special attention to the rights of children in conflict, the latter treaty stating: “States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict.”
Evacuating and repatriating migrants in the context of crises requires cooperation among diverse international, national, and local actors, including the private sector at all phases of a crisis”before, during, and in the aftermath.
The Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) initiative upholds that: “Evacuation and repatriation is most effective when host, origin, and donor governments work together to coordinate crisis preparedness and contingency plans including plans for evacuation, when needed, and voluntary assisted return and reintegration of migrants. Governments, the private sector, and civil society should work together to ensure that migrants can recover their back wages and lost property. These plans should also spell out referral mechanisms to international organizations, such as the UNHCR, if non-citizens are in need of evacuation but cannot return to their home countries.”
The writer is a Doctoral Researcher working under the Alliance of European Universities and has presented his research works at various Academic Conferences
