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TODAY’S MIGRANTS, TOMORROW’S REFUGEES?…
who become victims of natural disasters. A closer look at the draft reveals that the
regulation is to be primarily applicable to the providing of assistance on site,
i.e.
in places affected by the disaster; it fails to regulate the status of persons forced by
such a disaster to flee from these places due to unexpected natural events and to seek
protection in other countries. The draft appears to anticipate a certain unwillingness
of states to become bound to a particular type of response to the influx of migrants
arising from natural disasters. Solutions to the situation of such persons seem to be
envisaged particularly as an
ad hoc
reaction of states surrounding the country affected
by the disaster; however, any such solutions would definitely stand outside the scope
of international (refugee) law.
When it comes to war refugees (Part Three of the publication), these are defined
as persons forced to leave their country due to an armed conflict having erupted
or continuing in that territory. Only a smaller portion of persons joining those
migration streams may be defined as refugees in the sense of the definition under the
Convention. Věra Honusková, in her chapter, suggests that the situation of migrants
who flee their country due to war conflict instigating their fear for life, is left (under
the general international law) to
ad hoc
support, which is primarily of a humanitarian
nature and provided under the mandate of the UNHCR and/or some other states
and organizations. There may be specific legal institutions found within the regional
systems of regulation of refugee and migration law (Africa, the European Union,
South America); these institutions facilitate the provision of protection for the time
these persons cannot return to their homes due to reasons of safety. The forms of
such protection vary – they may be implemented as a result of regionally expanding
the definition of a refugee (Africa, South America), or there may be autonomous
institutions created for the purpose of providing protection to forced migrants due
to an armed conflict (supplementary and temporary protection as stipulated in EU
law). It is obvious that, unlike the practically unresolved position of environmental
refugees, migrants fleeing (due to their fear for life) territories affected by war
conflicts are covered by a certain, although only particular and regionally restricted,
legal framework for their protection by states which is gradually developed. However,
prospects of coordinated reaction by states at the global level in the sense of adopting
a binding international convention regulating the status of these persons seems to be
unclear and difficult to identify.
Another poignant and highly topical issue relating to war refugees and relevant
with respect to many recent armed conflicts, has been the issue of protection and
guarantee of a civilian and humanitarian nature of refugee camps and prevention of
abuse by any war party of the vulnerable position of refugees from territories suffering
from war conflicts, which is the topic of the chapter of Tomáš Bruner. Different
branches of international law provide for solution of the situation of such persons,
primarily international humanitarian law, international refugee law, or national law