In late 1993. Simon Jeans. formerly with UNHCR in Indonesia. publicly denounced the flawed screening system. In his words. "several refugees whose status had been accepted by UNHCR officials were turned down by Indonesian officials after failing to come up with the cash." Another lawyer. who established the screening program in Indonesia but who later resigned. reported that "the reason why corruption was possible to such an extent in Indonesia was that the UNHCR leadership in that country was never interested in enforcing qualitative standards in screening. Despite the many appeals by asylum seekers and refugee advocates and the many undeniable evidences. UNHCR has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing by its own officials or local screening officials. Instead. the agency has invested considerable resources into silencing protesters and into explaining away the egregious screening decisions. The United States ends up bank rolling a corrupt U.N. program. which victimizes not only victims of persecution in Vietnam but also thousands of U.S. citizens who have been coerced into paying bribes to screening officials. Those who refuse to cooperate have seen their relatives abused and threatened by camp officials. Some of their relatives have committed suicide to protest the injustice or to escape deportation to Communist Vietnam. It is time to stop the tragedy and save lives.
Keywords matched
refugees deportation asylum seekers refugee