As the 1980's drew to a close, we found that, although some aspects of the refugee situation worldwide had changed during the decade, the issues and problems had not decreased in importance. To the contrary-the size of the refugee population almost doubled in the last ten years from 8 million in 1980 to over 15 million by the end of 1989. Africa alone now contains more than 4 million refugees, the latest addition to this population being the over 200,000 Liberians who fled to neighboring countries to escape the civil war that erupted in late 1989. In the latter part of the decade, the problem of Vietnamese asylum-seekers arriving throughout Southeast Asia became so critical that a special international agreement, the Comprehensive Plan of Action, was adopted to respond to the situation.

In addition, the plight of other long-standing refugee groups improved little during the 1980's. Afghanistan suffered through a decade of war, leaving the more than 5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran unable to return to their homeland. Palestinian refugees continued to require large amounts of international assistance. A protracted and brutal civil war in Mozambique added hundreds of thousands to the refugee populations in neighboring countries.

The challenges to the international community have shifted accordingly. As we enter the 1990's, protection remains a major priority, but assistance (food, water, health care, education) has become the overwhelming activity of international refugee organizations. During the past year, growing attention has been focused on the mistreatment of

women and children who comprise some 80 percent of the world's refugee population. Many women refugees, as widows or single heads of households, face a number of gender-specific abuses depending upon the country and situation.

Yet as the decade drew to a close, there was significant progress in the refugee situation in some areas of the world. The year 1989 saw a remarkable demise of dictatorships-from Eastern Europe to Latin Americaending years of exile and refugee situations for tens of thousands of people and permitting emigration for persecuted minorities previously trapped behind the Iron Curtain. East Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were beginning the process of democratization. The Soviet Union's emigration policy, although still not changed by statute, continued to be liberalized in practice, allowing hundreds of thousands of Soviet nationals to exercise their long-denied right to emigrate. In Nicaragua, a seemingly intractable conflict between the government and resistance forces was solved peacefully through democratic elections in February 1990 with the prospect that all Nicaraguan nationals could soon return to their homeland.

Conflicts of one type or another, however, continued to generate the majority of the world's refugees. Internal warfare in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mozambique, Sudan, and Somalia prevented implementing permanent solutions to the problems of millions of persons displaced by the upheavals. Above all, conflict resolution is the key to resolving the majority of the world's refugee situations.

Europe

The refugee situation in Europe in 1989 improved dramatically beginning with the early stages of the democratization of Eastern Europe in the fall and continuing with cam

paigns and elections to institutional

ize the reforms. Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary experienced the replacement of longstanding Communist regimes by multi-party democracies promising freedom of expression and individual liberties. However, results of the upheavals in Romania and Bulgaria were more ambiguous. With the exception of those two countries, the oppression and persecution that had caused a persistent movement of Eastern Europeans to seek asylum in the West during the past four decades largely disappeared.

As a result, the numbers of Eastern European nationals seeking asylum began to decrease and several Western European countries began to reevaluate their refugee policies visa-a-vis the region. Likewise, consistent with their new politics, several Eastern European nations, most notably Hungary, began to speak out in support of the needs of refugees and acknowledged their potential role as countries of asylum.

The largest and most dramatic migration in 1989 was the influx to West Germany. As a result of protests by East German citizens and the end of the Communist regime, more than 350,000 East Germans had moved to the FRG by the end of 1989. In addition, more than 377,000 ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union also immigrated to the FRG.

In southern Europe, approximately 325,000 Bulgarian citizens of ethnic Turkish background fled to Turkey because of persecution by the Bulgarian Government. In response to the huge influx of people across its border, Turkey imposed a visa requirement for Bulgarians, greatly reducing the migration. Moreover, eventually more than 100,000 ethnic Turks returned to Bulgaria following the domestic upheaval in Bulgaria which toppled Todor Zhikov. His reformist communist successors promised to restore all basic rights to the country's Muslim minorities, although their specific plans were unclear at the end of 1989.

Even as the number of refugees generated in Europe declined, the number of asylum-seekers in Europe grew. Many countries experienced huge annual increases in refugee activity in 1989. Asylum applications in France grew by 78%. Sweden received the greatest influx of potential refugees since World War II. Applications for asylum in the United Kingdom doubled from 1988. The FRG received over 121,000 asylum-seekers, in addition to the enormous numbers of German migrants. Swiss refugee programs received record numbers of asylumseekers.

While the overall numbers of asylum-seekers increased, it was by no means clear that the number of persons adjudged to be bona fide refugees would grow similarly. Authorities in many European countries doubted the genuineness of most asylum applications, viewing them as motivated by hopes for economic gain more than fear of persecution.

In the Soviet Union, although the long-awaited emigration reform law was not enacted, Soviet authorities allowed record numbers of citizens to leave the country. In 1989, more than 228,000 Soviets received permission to depart for permanent residence abroad, primarily to the United States, Israel, or West Germany. In addition, many of the long-term

refuseniks whose cases the United States had supported were granted exit permission.

Undesirable side effects of political liberalization also encouraged migration. Greater freedom of expression unfortunately seemed to give opportunities for interethnic conflict and violence. As anti-Semitic statements made publicly and in the media increased noticeably, the number of Jews emigrating to Israel rose sharply at the end of 1989. Pentecostalists and Catholics also feared ill-treatment and many opted to leave the Soviet Union.

registered by UNRWA in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with the total registered refugee population in the region (i.e., including Jordan and Syria) over 2 million.

In the Occupied Territories, numerous confrontations between protesters and the authorities have resulted in thousands of injuries and over 100 deaths since the "infitada" began in 1987. UNRWA-run schools were closed for part or all of 1989. However, despite the hardships and the lack of significant progress towards peaceful resolution of the conflict, UNRWA continued to provide health, nutrition, and education programs to Palestinian

Refugees have a conspicuous and regrettably long-standing presence in this strife-torn region.

Afghans continued to be the largest single refugee group. 1989 brought no significant changes in the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan. The Government of Pakistan estimated it hosted about 3.8 million refugees at the end of 1989 and there may be several million Afghans in Iran. Until peace can be achieved in Afghanistan, the Afghans are likely to remain the largest refugee population in the world.

Significant refugee movements also occurred elsewhere in the Near East/South Asia region. Beginning in August a resurgence of violence in northern and eastern Sri Lanka caused a new wave of people to flee to India. By year's end, there were an estimated 105,000 Sri Lankan Tamils in southern India.

India also provided refuge for an increased number of tribal peoples from the Chittagon Hill Tracts (CHT) of southeastern Bangladesh. The Government of India reported that as many as 25,000 persons came to India in 1989, although Bangladesh disputed the figures.

The situation of Palestinians was also basically unchanged in 1989. More than 873,000 refugees are

Israel was also the site of significant refugee resettlement in 1989, with more than 18,500 persons arriving. Two-thirds came from Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Due to more relaxed emigration controls in the Soviet Union, even larger numbers are expected in 1990. More than 55,000 have arrived in the first six months of 1990 alone.

East Asia

The issue of Vietnamese asylumseekers dominated refugee affairs in the region. Although Indochinese, in particular, Vietnamese, had been applying for asylum in East and Southeast Asia throughout the decade, their numbers increased greatly in 1989. The continuing political repression and harsh economic conditions in Vietnam caused more than 75,000 Vietnamese to flee their homeland in 1989.

Countries of first asylum and countries which had traditionally accepted Indochinese for permanent resettlement feared that existing policies were no longer adequate to resolve this unending movement of asylum-seekers. In June 1989, representatives of more than 50 nations met in Geneva at the International Conference on Indochinese Refugees and adopted a unique

multilateral framework to respond to this problem. The Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) called for measures to reduce clandestine departures, increased legal emigration from Vietnam, protection of asylum-seekers, status determination for new arrivals, resettlement of current asylum-seeker populations, and voluntary repatriation. Resettlement of the pre-cutoff date population progressed according to the target schedule of resettling 50 percent in the first year of the CPA.

With the cooperation of Vietnam, orderly emigration expanded rapidly in 1989. The U.S. Orderly Departure Program from Vietnam was bolstered in July when the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam reached agreement on a program to resettle former re-education center detainees. The first interviews took place in October. Plans are to resettle 1,000 former detainees and family members per month, beginning in January 1990.

In the first six months of operation, the CPA system slowly took effect. Serious problems remained, however. First asylum has generally been respected in the region. However, Malaysia regrettably continues its policy of denying first asylum to significant numbers of asylumseckers, putting them back to sea, albeit after providing most boats with necessary repairs and provisions. With the single exception of Hong Kong, it was not until well into 1990 before first-asylum countries commenced screening programs for post cut-off date arrivals to any meaningful extent. Similarly, except for Hong Kong, voluntary repatriation programs have only barely begun.

In the latter part of 1989, however, several CPA members began to argue that the constantly growing numbers of Indochinese seeking asylum made involuntary repatriation of those denied refugee status necessary, both to reduce strains on resources and to deter potential asylum-seekers in Vietnam. The

governments of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom were particularly outspoken. In mid-December, Hong Kong forcibly returned 51 screenedout asylum-seekers to Vietnam, a move sharply criticized afterwards by Vietnam and by the international community. There were no subsequent involuntary repatriations.

The United States opposes involuntary repatriation in principle and contends that the CPA's emphasis on voluntary repatriation has not had sufficient time to be effective throughout the region. By mid-1990, over 3,000 Vietnamese had returned voluntarily to Vietnam and 1,400 were awaiting arrangements to go back. The number of new arrivals in Hong Kong had dropped sharply. The same results are not yet evident in the ASEAN countries, however.

Elsewhere in East Asia, events in Burma produced an increase in refugees entering Thailand. In December 1989, a military campaign began against ethnic insurgents and dissident students living near the Thai/Burma border, forcing thousands to flee into Thailand. A large number of the students eventually went to Bangkok and sought UNHCR assistance. The approximately 15,000 ethnic Karen and Karenni from Burma remained in northern Thailand.

Although it generated comparatively few refugees, one of the most serious incidents of persecution in 1989 was the Chinese Government's brutal suppression in Beijing of the student-led democracy movement. Indiscriminate violence by the military in clearing Tiananmen Square on June 3-4 killed an undetermined number of protesters and left hundreds injured. In the following weeks, thousands of Chinese were detained in connection with the demonstrations. About a dozen were executed; many others were jailed. As a result of the government's actions, several hundred Chinese fled the country to seek asylum.

Western Hemisphere

The Americas enjoyed significant progress in some complicated refugee problems as a result of the return to democracy in several refugee-generating countries.

In Chile, the authoritarian regime headed by Augusto Pinochet lost the first free election since 1973 to a coalition of opposition parties. Within only a few months, several thousand Chilean exiles had returned from Europe and other countries in Latin America.

In Central America, the Tesoro Agreement in February started the process towards full and free elections in Nicaragua in early 1990. Large numbers of Nicaraguans were in exile outside their country, primarily in Honduras, which hosted over 275,000. Nearly 3,500 Nicaraguans were registered by UNHCR in Costa Rica and more than 10,000 lived in El Salvador. With Mrs. Chamorros's election in February 1990, the return of the refugees and resistance elements began with the expectation that the vast majority will follow.

Despite continuing guerrilla warfare and poor economic conditions, voluntary repatriation to El Salvador took place on a small scale. Two internationally supervised repatriations in late 1989 from camps in Honduras returned over 2,400 Salvadorans. Spontaneous returns totaled another 500.

Panamanians suffered through a year of turmoil that ended with the restoration of a democratic government. The populace had been subjected to increasingly repressive measures by the Noriega regime since the political crisis in 1987. Despite travel restrictions, large numbers of Panamanians left the country. Although the persecutory conditions disappeared after the overthrow of Noriega in December, few persons returned to Panama immediately.

The refugee situation in Guatemala was a mixture of the positive and the negative. In May, the