The Right of Return

Abstract

Voluntary repatriation is generally looked upon as the most cost effective and direct ‘durable solution’ to the refugee condition, but it is more than that — it represents a fundamental restoration of lost rights. Seen in this human rights context, voluntary repatriation should be viewed as different in kind, but just in degree, from the other durable solutions — local integration and diird country resettlement — suggested by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. A fundamental change is needed in the way the world community views refugees and understands their rights. Our best efforts to respond to refugee needs tend to perpetuate the injustice of exile, while attempting to ameliorate its worst consequences. Refugees are increasingly looked upon as a ‘burden’ and the emphasis internationally is on how best to share that burden — an international welfare case. But their misery is not the only cause for our concern. Our concerns for refugees must derive from the fact that they are human rights abuse made visible. We are called to respond because their dislocation offends our basic human sense of what is right