Transforming Refugee Management in the Context of Sustainable International Development

How is state experience in managing refugee in the EU and ASEAN Region?

What are the challenges of UNHCR in the resettlement process?

What are legal standing of partnership for refugee management in the SDGs?

How is sustainable refugee management transformed through the role of TNCs?

To identify state experience in refugee management in the EU and ASEAN Regions

To explore the role of the UNHCR in resettlement process

To explore the legal standing of partnership for refugee management in the SDGs

To investigate the transformation of sustainable refugee management through the role of TNCs

Data Collection

In collecting data, this paper focuses on secondary sources and literature reviews. In regards to state and UNHCR authorities in managing refugees, data in numbers and statistics are reviewed in order to provide a global picture of refugee management at the international levels. This includes statistical data about the population of refugees, resettlement quotas and state allocation for placement. In addition, data on SDGs particularly the goal of 17, which is partnership will be analyzed deeply together with other international rules and laws. These include data from Global Compact for Refugee, UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for businesses including TNCs as well as ILO and UNHCR Collaboration agenda in refugee management.

Data Analysis

In data analysis, this paper employs a statistical descriptive analysis. It draws data upon tables, graphs, circular diagrams and figures to search a connection and comparison to hypothesize the findings (Sugiyono 2017). These include for example a comparison between the necessity for resettlement and the quota of receiving resettled refugees. On one side, the UNHCR needs to resettle a large number of refugees but on the other side, states tend to reduce the number of resettlement quotas resulting in uncertainty and long periods of waiting for refugees in transit countries. In addition, the experience of some EU and ASEAN States in managing refugees at the regional level is also explored to strengthen a hypothesize that states have faced difficulties in finding a durable solution for refugees.

State experience in refugee management in some EU and ASEAN Regions

Until currently, it seems that the management of handling refugees by states globally still focuses on security and border tightening. Developed states who have ratified their Convention on Refugees in 1951 tend to refuse the arrivals of refugees by strengthening their security through immigration rules and borders. One of the main reasons behind those policies is sovereignty, in which the influx of refugees will harm their culture, economy and social benefit of their local population (Young et al., 2018). In addition, many developed states tend to build a high wall and fences to prevent refugees from entering the countries, although those refugees are in the need to seek protection and safety from war and persecution in their countries (Jones et al., 2017). As a result, there are a lot of issues of violation of human rights as well as attacks on a civilian in the border territory (Hollenbach, 2016).

Furthermore, there seems no comprehensive solution for states to deal with the increasing number of refugees. In the EU for instance, although some leaders express the need for extraordinary effort to help refugees, some others tend to respect those marginal people but with the position of not having refugees in their own areas (Grigonis, 2017). As a result, members of the EU apply different approaches in managing the arrivals of large numbers of international refugees particularly from Syria in 2015. Hungary, for example, built a high and thick wall in its border to refuse the coming of refugees, and thus, refugees will not be allowed to enter the country. A similar approach is also implemented by the Czech Republic where the country applies tight and secured immigration rules, in which detaining is conducted for illegal migrants and refugees from 40 to 90 days (Grigonis, 2017). In 2005, similar action was also taken by Spain to secure its border to prevent sea migrants from Senegal entering the country through Canary Island (Vives, 2017).

A different approach has been shown by Germany to receive Syrian refugees. Germany has been well known for its welcoming culture when accepting more than one million Syrian refugees in 2015 (Neis et al, 2018). The State also helps them with the direct and humanistic way through the integration process including supports on accommodation, job opportunities, and legal application process. Although integration is a complex and multidimensional issue, it needs to combine all factors including economic, health, educational and social contexts, because there is, in general, a lack of understanding of the diversity, experiences and knowledge refugees bring with them (Robila, 2018). The integration is also intended to bridge interaction with German citizens and neighbourhoods in order for refugees to start a new life in Germany and to have smooth relation with local people.

In the Asia Pacific region, particularly in the Southeast Asia region, approaches in dealing with refugees are also implemented differently. For example, members of ASEAN act in different ways in managing Rohingya’s refugees in the region due to no comprehensive policy from ASEAN. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have become three countries in the region that received Rohingya’s refugees after having mass criticism internationally due to being refused to give them protection previously (Wake & Cheung, 2016). Moreover, most ASEAN states have not yet ratified their Refugee Convention in 1951 as well as its Protocol in 1967. From 10 members of ASEAN, only the Philippines and Cambodia, have ratified their Convention on Refugees, while the rest are not signatory members including Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, Thailand and Vietnam (Taylor n.d.). Being not a party of the Refugee Convention means that protecting refugees internationally is carried out by the UNHCR including determining the status of refugees (JRSI, 2013).

Although ASEAN also does not have comprehensive management in dealing with refugees, the region has issued a human right declaration in line with international humanitarian law and human rights instruments, as a guide to international protection for refugees in the region (UNHCR, 2017). The ASEAN human rights declaration also provides common interests as indicated in the ASEAN Charter in which it focuses more on refugee fundamental rights including protection of the life of refugees, respect of their civil and political rights as well as promotes their social and cultural rights (Association of Southeast Asian Nations, 2012).

The role of the UNHCR in resettlement process

The UNHCR has the responsibility to handle the refugee matters for countries that are not a signatory of the Refugee Convention 1951 and Its Protocol 1967. In Indonesia for example, the management of refugees from Myanmar, known as Rohingya, is carried out by the UNHCR. There are three procedures conducted by the UNHCR, including repatriation to the origin countries, local integration, and resettlement process. The first two options are likely impossible to implement due to the fact repatriation to the origin country who still faces difficulty and persecution is strictly prohibited by the International Humanitarian Law as well as the national law which could be harmful to refugees to return. Furthermore, local integration is also unavailable since Indonesia, not a part of the Refugee Convention, has no right to integrate refugees with local people and thus it has to be carried out by the UNHCR. The most promising task by the UNHCR is then to resettle those refugees to third countries (Missbach et al., 2018). However, the process of the UNHCR to resettle refugees takes a considerable amount of time, which means that refugees are still staying in the neighbourhood or transiting countries with no certainty for their future livelihood.

In addition, UNHCR also faces a challenge in the resettlement process as shown in Figure 1 . It is predicted that there are 1.4 million refugees who have been decided to be resettled among nearly 20 million refugees in 2018. However, the number of refugees who have been successfully resettled to the third countries was only 75.000 in 2018 and predicted around 90.000 in 2019 (UNHCR, 2019a). Furthermore, the number of receiving countries has shown a decrease to nearly 50% since 2016 while the number of global resettlement necessity has increased by 17 %. This condition then creates uncertainty further for the future of the resettlement of refugees and makes them stay longer in-home or transiting countries.

The legal standing of partnership for refugee management in the SDGs

Since refugee is a complex issue with multidimensional actors involved, it needs sustainable and further international collaboration, including a partnership with relevant stakeholders. There are two important advancements stated in the goals of SDGs in relation to refugees. The first goal is related to promoting safe, orderly and regular mobility of people as stated in goal 10.7. In this goal, the SDGs have placed an important issue that migrants and refugees are the problem of the international community and not a single country problem. The second global agenda is laid out in goal 17, which is in the form of partnership with a global institution to strengthen the achievement of SDGs in 2030 (UNDP, 2015). This particular goal has stated that the world currently has more interconnected than before and problems could be solved through the implementation of global partnership. Therefore, it seems that collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, including private sectors would be an additional discourse for sustainable refugee management in the future.

Moreover, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration has specifically paid attention to migration matters globally. From 23 purposes of the Global Compact (GC), the objective of 23 in specific, has focused more on strengthening international cooperation as well as global partnership to promote safe, orderly and regular movement of migrants. These include bilateral, regional or multilateral partnerships to propose an appropriate solution to the mobility of people (UNHCR, 2018b). Furthermore, at the end of 2018, the UN members have also agreed to establish the GC for Refugee as a framework to deal with the current situation of refugees. Both Compacts are not the binding obligation, rather it is a mutual understanding with no pressure to its members, unlike the 1951 Convention on Refugee. Nevertheless, both the Compact of Migration and Refugee could be used as a guide for countries to implement a safe and orderly movement for sustainable refugee in the future in order to achieve the SDGs. Both are also coherent and relevant with guidance in the international humanitarian law, human rights instruments as well as other applicable international instruments including protection to stateless persons (UN General Assembly, 2018).

The GC for Refugees, in particular, has stated the importance of partnership in dealing with the refugee. Multi stakeholder and partnership approach has been a key tool for responsibility sharing in host and transit countries with humanitarian principles. The partnership in the GC for refugees includes the following: new institutional arrangements for the creation of business and financial instruments; and supports for refugees, host, and transiting countries in employment and labor mobility enabling greater opportunities for private sector investment (UN General Assembly, 2018). This is also in line with GC for refugee objectives including providing assistance for local burdens in origin countries, improving self-reliance of refugees, developing opportunities and access to developed states as well as providing a safe return of refugees in their home countries (Khasru, 2016).

Similarly, at the regional level, for example in the Asia Pacific region, the partnership with business entities is also addressed by the Bali Process Declaration to eradicate human trafficking, people smuggling, and other transnational crimes. It is because the movement of refugees particularly through the sea is much affected by the existence of smuggling agency. In the latest of the Seventh Ministerial Meeting in 2018, the Declaration initiated to participate in business leaders for the first time to collaborate in combating the irregular migration through Government and Business Forum. Business leaders have to take part in ensuring that companies will provide migrant employees with assistances and supports and take into consideration ethical and legal perspectives (RSO Bali Process, 2018).

The transformation of sustainable refugee management through the role of TNCs

As stated previously that limitation by states in refugee management has come to the involvement of other relevant stakeholders, including private sectors, through partnership to find a durable solution since refugee is not a single country problem. Collaboration among stakeholders will provide benefits for all, including those of refugees. Such a collaboration could be in the form of policy, implementation, and research altogether. In European countries, for example, the government has asked private sectors to become actively involved in a collaboration to formulate a migration policy (Menz 2009). In the Asia Pacific, the involvement of business leaders is also viewed as an advantage through partnership in the Bali Process Declaration. Similarly, Australian example in collaborating with public and private is also important to be taken into consideration, such as allowing migrants flow to business, providing returned incentives if the economy is slow, strong union monitoring to avoid cheap labor and other sympathy activities for migrants (Warshall, 2002).

This paper argues that the involvement of TNCs as business enterprises through a partnership would be an additional discourse in transforming refugee management. However, the role of TNCs could be a matter if not appropriately managed. On one hand, TNCs are expected to gain profit with the existence of refugees and thus they might be able to catch the opportunity to gain the best brain into their multinational companies. On the other hand, it is also a chance for smuggling and trafficking organizations to have refugee supply and demands as a result of the mobility of people either legally or illegally in reaching destination countries (IOM, 2016). The smuggling and trafficking network could also create labor exploitation, particularly for children and women who have a large percentage that violates human rights and further establish modern slavery in the labor market. There are 40.3 million people working in modern exploitation in 2018 and 71 percent of them are women and children who are working in the supply chain of industries worldwide (Walk Free Foundation, 2018). As shown in figure 2 , modern slavery and forced labor show an increase in five regions, although modern slavery has a higher increase than forced labor in every region. Unlike the refugee population, Asia and the Pacific placed the second-highest increase in both modern slavery and forced labour after the Africa region. However, labour exploitation needs to be taken into consideration when TNCs are largely involved in refugee management, and the UNHCR and states could cooperate together to seek a better solution.

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In addressing the issue of human trafficking and people smuggling, TNCs could play an important role by providing capacity building to refugees to equip them with updated skilled and becoming an asset for market expansion of TNCs supply chains worldwide. It is believed that business can contribute to the solution of migrants by providing training and skills for their future (Horowitz, 2016). Moreover, it is the fact that TNCs tend to hire workers from refugees to become their labor workers in supply chains rather than to hire local workers because diversity in the workplace will create and advance their competitive advantages in their supply chains globally (Wang 2014). In addition, TNCs also are better places to recruit migrant workers. It is because the firms can pick and choose refugees appropriate for their company goals since they are able to identify the skills that will be useful and productive for the company (Sharma 2017).

In relation for refugees to entering the labor market, it is a necessity to enable collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) to have a formal work possibility for refugees. UNHCR in collaboration with the ILO will provide a 5-year global education strategy (2019-2023) to reduce the gap in education for refugees and make the involvement of multi-stakeholders to develop refugee self-reliance in which attention will be given primarily to non-formal and skill training to support host countries (UNHCR, 2019a). Previously, ILO and UNHCR collaboration on market and value chain have been implemented in many countries including South Africa, Costa Rica, Pakistan, Mexico, Egypt, and Zambia to increase protection for refugees and their households. Those collaborations will also enhance positive economic development in the host countries and communities through the push and pull factors. The former will have the initiative to focus more on the target group of refugees for skill development while the latter is related to the expansion of the market and increasing employability for refugees (ILO, 2017). These guidelines of collaboration between ILO and UNHCR experience could be a case learned by TNCs as a framework to provide alternative solutions to the refugee issue.

The transformation of TNCs in sustainable refugee management could also be carried out through the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs. It is not only profit economically of the main goals of companies, but there is also a responsibility to have a wider purpose for the environment and social advantage. In the CSR principle, there are four layers of main activities of every company that needs to be taken into consideration, which later forms a pyramid, started by the economy, legal, ethical and Philanthropy (Carroll, 1991). The highest rank which is philanthropy is the layer that business entities need to be encouraged to perform economically, legally and ethically practices of business for the betterment of the community.

In relation to the refugee problem, the allocation of CSR for the purpose of building capacity for refugees would be an opportunity for TNCs. It is due to the fact that CSR includes integration between business strategy and social needs in the community. Furthermore, it would be an advantage if TNCs could work together with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to deliver training, education and skill development for refugees. While TNCs have a CSR program of capacity building for refugees, NGOs which are closer to the community will be able to implement the program through training and skill development program for refugees (Singh, 2017). Moreover, CSR at the international cooperation could also provide assistance for the government in host countries by pursuing TNCs to hire refugee workers in their companies as part of their integration programs and providing tax allowances for these companies (Saltaji, 2017).

In achieving the SDGs goals, TNCs are obligated to deal with societal and environmental issues to achieve economic development through CSR programs while avoiding negative impacts on the community (Schönherr, Findler, & Martinuzzi, 2017). Business entities with a good implementation of CSR will not only be able to help achieve the SDGs agenda, but they will also have advantages and trusts from business, government, policymakers, and investors. In short, it will enhance firms to have a more competitive advantage for their business future.