To flee from your own country and be determined to live under any circumstances is an amazing feat.

By Lennart Kotsalainen, Chief of Mission, UNHCR-India.

Dated: May 2003

I SPENT time in southern Sudan (1983-84 and 1986), handling Ugandan refugees. The world has turned full circle. Now Uganda is hosting Sudanese refugees. In my first spell, UNHCR assisted over 200,000 refugees. What led to the exodus of Ugandans into Sudan was more complex than the Idi Amin factor.

In retrospect, I see that the management of refugees by host countries has changed a lot. Those days, host countries managed refugee issues tactfully. During my African days, I noticed that refugees were given land in jungle areas. Setting camps was not a priority at all. The idea was to make them self-sufficient in every respect. Since most of the refugees came from rural backgrounds and agriculture was the most favoured job for them, host African nations generously parted with land. On allotment of arable land, they got busy - tilling, ploughing, sowing, reaping etc which kept them occupied. As a result, they were productively and gainfully employed: they grew their own food without creating an inevitable food scarcity in the host country. Instead of depleting the host country's limited resources, refugees lent a helping hand by helping themselves.

Almost a decade later, I was in Africa again. Under the UNHCR banner, I had the opportunity to manage refugees in Tanzania in 1996-98. Refugees from neighbouring Burundi flocking into Tanzania received large tracts of land in the 1960's and, like the Sudanese experiment, the Burundi refugees were economically active. The concept of camps for refugees was not there, if my memory serves right. Of course, in Tanzania, subsequently in the 1990's, refugees were moved into and confined to camps.

The refugee issue is assuming different dimensions these days. They are seen as a burden on the economy of the host country besides being considered as a serious threat to national security. In the 1970s, refugees came in the aftermath of colonial or freedom struggles. Today, the context has changed. Tanzania was most refugee-friendly or more generous towards refugees. It hosted a mind-boggling half-a-million of them - consisting of refugees from Burundi, Congo and Rwanda.

My toughest assignment was during my Tanzanian days. Towards end-1996, I was faced with a unique situation, managing the massive influx from Burundi and Congo. Added to this was the sudden return of half a million Rwandan refugees. It was an extremely complex situation. Political and military pressure was at its peak. Some groups mobilised refugees to move out of camps and spilled onto the road. Imagine watching miles and miles of people marching - defying orders. It was an explosive situation. Luckily, before things could get out of control, the Tanzanian military moved in and prevented further damage by stopping the refugee movement before refugees got dispersed in the bush.

Observing refugees at close quarters in various locations across the globe, I cannot help drawing attention to two unique characteristics. One is their unflinching survival instinct. To flee from your own country and be determined to live under any circumstances is an amazing feat. Secondly, their ambivalence towards the host country. They nurse a frustration against their home country. But few want to settle down in their temporary new homes. They long to return to their home country a place they invariably, idolise. Their dilemma is this: Like most immigrants, they remain emotionally torn between their country of asylum and their own country. For adults, it is traumatic. A sense of belonging to the adopted land is a difficult choice.