This report is a product of notes and writings and prepared by the participants, faculty members and members of CRG desk for the winter course on forced migration.  Thanks are to the participants and all others who contributed to it.  Thanks are in particular to the UNHCR, the Brookings Institution and the Government of Finland whose generous help and advice made the programme possible.

Contents

1. A Unique Programme
2. Structure of the Course
3. The Participants
4. Members of Faculty and Speakers in Roundtables
5. Partnerships: Supporting and Collaborating Institutions
6. Schedule of the 15-day Programme
7. Distance Education, the Modules and Assignments
8. Creative Assignments
9. Field Visit
10. Public Lectures
11. Interactive Sessions
12. The Film-Tales of the Nightfairies
13. Inaugural and Valedictory Session
14. Evalution
15. Follow-Up Activiries
16. CRG team on Forced Migration

In the current political, social, and cultural climate of India, South Asia, and the world in general, the significance of a human rights and peace education programme on the inter-linked phenomena of massive forced migration, racism, and xenophobia cannot be overestimated. Attacks on civilians, atrocities on individuals and groups mostly belonging to minority communities, public espousal of national chauvinism, sexism, and masochism, intolerance, majoritarianism, and wars and war hysteria have increased. The scenario is marked by less tolerance, increase of hatred against foreigners, immigrants and refugees, a reduction of the civic-cultural space for discussion, debate, and dialogue in a context dominated by globalisation and a concomitant reduction of capacity of the states to listen to public voice for democracy, tolerance, and inter-cultural understanding. The situation is compounded by two trends: on one hand, education is becoming more nationalistic, majority-centric, consumerist, and is littered with hate-words and hate-speech, which impact on mass culture and reinforce the mass populist basis of war and militarism; on the other hand, there is a general decline of human rights standards, erasure of human rights protection mechanisms, and an increasing contempt and derision for appeals to heed to human rights laws and humanitarian laws in public life and follow the ethics of considerations for vulnerable sections of society.

Ranabir Samaddar, Director of Calcutta Research Group addresses course participants

Never before in this region was there such dire need to work for peace education that would be based on the ethos of culture of peace so as to foster respect for human rights.

Most conspicuous, because of conflicts, developmental policies, and environmental hazards, population displacement has taken alarming proportions and the victims of forced displacement are becoming targets of xenophobic frenzy, inter-state rivalry, suspicion, and hate speech and hate acts. The flows are of mixed and massive types called for grater atten5tion to human rights standards and humanitarian protection – across boundaries and within nation-states. In short, the situation calls for greater mobilisation of the civic-political space, of human rights, peace, and humanitarian institutions and activists, grater dialogue among all concerned on the related issues of rights, justice, and protection.

Developed through last few years as a programme on human rights and peace education, the annual winter course on forced migration organised each year by the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (CRG) has come to be recognised in the region of South Asia as one of the most well known educational programmes on issues of rights and justice relating to the victims of forced migration. In the from of a certificate course, certified by the UNHCR and supported by the Government of Finland and the Brookings Institution, the winter course is aimed at scholars and educationists working on issues of rights and justice, functionaries of humanitarian organisations, national human rights institutions, peace studies scholars and activists, and minority groups, refugee communities, and women’s rights activists. Participants come from all over South Asia, with some joining from Thailand and Burma, and from the Europe and the Americas. The course attracts a renowned international faculty, and is now recognised by the National Human Rights Commission in India, and several universities along with various grassroots organisations have collaborated over the years to make it a success.

There are several features of the course, which make it a unique programme. Readers of the report will find the details in subsequent pages; however it is important to summarise them and place them at the beginning:
 
(a) Emphasis on distance education, its innovation, and continuous improvement through interactive methods, including the use of web-based education;
(b) International standard, rigorous nature of the course, field work, and a comprehensive regional nature of the course;
(c) Emphasis on experiences of the victims of forced displacement in the conflict zones; such as the Northeast, Jammu Kashmir, and Jharkhand.
(d) Emphasis on gender justice
(e) Special attention on policy implications
(f) Follow up programmes such as spreading it to universities, innovating local modules, training participants to become trainers of the future programmes;
(g) And, finally building up the programme as a facilitator of a network of several universities, grassroots organisations, Mothers Fronts, research foundations, UN institutions etc.

The compulsory modules:

1.       Nationalism, ethnicity, racism and xenophobia

2.       Gendered nature of forced migration, victim-hood, and gender-justice

3.       International, regional, and national regimes of protection

4.       Internal displacement – causes, linkages, and responses

The optional modules:

5.       Resource politics, environmental degradation, and forced migration

6.       Ethics of care and justice

This year the course activities besides the writing assignments, included workshop assignments, group discussions, field visit, creative sessions, review discussions, and face-to-face sessions with resource persons experienced in related areas and with refugee activists working with refugees living in camps. The course also included film and documentary sessions.

Duration and activities

The course was of three (3) months duration with two and half months duration of distance education, communication on related issues of displacement studies, course assignments by participants followed by fifteen days of direct course work in a winter workshop. Upon the participants being selected, course material was sent to them in a phased manner Short introductory note on each module was sent to the participants; along with these notes, lists, bibliographies, and other announcements were also sent. The reading material was also sent to the participants in a phased manner.  For review assignments and term papers lead-questions and discussion points were sent at regular intervals. Each module had a tutor and a number of faculty members. On the basis of the modules chosen by them the participants were encouraged to contact the faculty persons for necessary advice and inputs. Chat sessions were organised so that participants could discuss their assignments with module tutors.

Participants were required to prepare an assignment paper each and bring the papers with them for the workshop where the papers were discussed. These papers were first read and commented upon by the module tutors and then made available for wider circulation and discussion on the CRG website. The participants were also given assignments termed as creative assignment so that the period of three months could also be used for training in communication aspects of humanitarian and human rights work, and other practical aspects such as providing the participants with information and documentation skills, preparing local data base, campaign for fund-raising for human rights and humanitarian efforts, and report writing. Creative assignments were made mandatory this year and its results were varied and rich. Participation in the field visit was also compulsory.

The preparation of course material was of great significance. The course material included mandatory, optional and supplementary material. The mandatory material included a number of books, essays and web-based material. Supplementary materials including a short write-up on fieldwork was handed to them when they arrived in Kolkata. Three weeks before the participants arrived in Kolkata they were given workshop themes. They were required to participate in one of the workshops. Participants were graded on all these assignments and on the valedictory day these grades were handed to them. Since 2005 the course also includes two optional modules. The participants were asked to select any one of the modules of their choice. They were given one assignment from the optional module that they selected. They had to write a review essay analysing some of the reading material given in that module.

Participants

Twenty-four participants were selected for the course, of whom twenty-one could complete the course. These participants were selected through public notifications and were drawn from backgrounds of law, social and humanitarian work, human rights work, and academic and research work. Most of them came from South Asia but few were also from other regions such as Europe, Africa and Australia and brought forth with them wider experiences of refugee-hood and of rehabilitation and care.  Those who could not complete the course were to do so mainly due to visa problems.

Faculty

The faculty was drawn from people with recognised backgrounds in refugee studies, studies on internal displacement, university teaching and research, humanitarian work in NGOs, legal studies, UN functionaries, particularly UNHCR and ICRC functionaries; public policy analysis, journalism, and concerned human rights activism and humanitarian work. Attention was paid to diversity of background and region. Importance was attached to the requirements of the syllabus; the faculty was also involved in developing on a permanent scale a syllabus, a set of reading material, evaluation, and follow-up activities. The resource persons also helped in harmonising the syllabus of this course with the requirements of the participants, and similar syllabi in various universities, workshops, and courses. They graded participants on their skills such as speaking and writing skills, analysis of themes chosen, execution of creative assignments etc.

Evaluation

The participants were evaluated by a number of resource persons. The core faculty evaluated each of their assignments. All the resource persons present evaluated their presentations, including the presentation of their term paper. They were given a grade for the distance education segment and another for the Kolkata workshop. At the end of the course they were given a cumulative grade. The course is equivalent to six credit hours of graduate level work.

The course has a built in evaluation system. Each participant is required to present a written evaluation and each resource person is also expected to do the same. Every year CRG invites independent scholars of renown, social activists and administrators to evaluate the course. This year Professor Tarja Väyrynen of Tampere University, Finland, Professor Barbara Ramusack of University of Cincinnati, USA, and Dr. Khalid Koser of the Brookings-Berne Project on Internal Displacement evaluated their course. Excerpts from their evaluation are presented in Section 14.

Follow-Up

Considering the growing popularity of the course the advisory committee asked the CRG organisers to look into possibilities of organizing short courses in collaboration with willing centres and departments of Universities in India as follow-up activity.  On the basis of such advice the CRG is now in the process of designing a number of short courses for different Universities and research centres. This year two such short courses were held. The first was held in Guwahati and it was organised in collaboration with Panos, South Asia. The second course was held in Delhi in collaboration with Jamia Milia Islamia University (JMU).

Apart from this a number of workshops on forced migration were held in different parts of South Asia. The CRG also collaborated with a number of institutions and organised a number of public lectures. This year three fellowships were given to the participants of the Winter Course. Also CRG conducted a many research projects on the theme of forced migration. For a detailed report on follow-up activities please read Section 15.

The follow-up activities of the winter course have now assumed the character of an entire programme with other allied work. The CRG established the forced migration desk to look after the entire programme.

Abdur Rashid is a Senior Programme Officer at the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Dilip Gogoi is a lecturer in Political Science at Cotton College, Guwahati, India.

Eeva Puumala is a doctoral student and research assistant at the Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI), Finland.

Hina Shahid is a Program Officer with Action Aid, Pakistan.

Jason Miller is a researcher monitoring human rights in Burma.

Judith Macchi is pursuing her Master’s degree in Human Geography at the University of Berne and working on her Master’s thesis on the Sri Lankan immigrants to Switzerland.

Ksenia Glebova,Eeva Puumala, Uma Joshi & Judith Macchi

Course participants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan

Faculty members in discussion before the inaugural session

Keya Dasgupta Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata

Khalid Koser Deputy Director, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Brookings Institution

Manabi Majumdar Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata

Manuela Bojadzijev Projekt Migration, Frankfurt and Berlin   (European Experiences of Racism and Immigration)

Mario Gomez Berghof Foundation, Colombo (Human Rights Commission and the Protection of the IDPs in Sri Lanka

Meghna Guhathakurta Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

O.P. Mishra Centre for Refugee Studies, Jadavpur University

Oishik Sircar Pune ILC, The Politics of Asylum Jurisprudence and International Protection

Paula Banerjee Historian and women’s rights activist, member of the Calcutta Research Group, Faculty, Department of South and South-East Asian studies, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.

Pradip Phanjoubam Editor, Imphal Free Press

Ranabir Samaddar Political thinker and Director, Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, India.

Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury Secretary of the Calcutta Research Group and Faculty, Department of Political Science, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India.

Samir K. Das Political analyst on the North East and member of the Calcutta Research Group, and Faculty, Department of Political Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India.

Sohini Ghosh Filmmaker, Jamia Milia Islamia University

Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty President of the Calcutta Research Group and Faculty Presidency College.

Sudeep Basu Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata

Sumbul Rizvi UNHCR, New Delhi

The Government of Finland, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, New Delhi, and the Brookings Institution, Washington DC are the sponsors of the programme. With their un-stinted support and goodwill, the programme has become one of the most well known events in the field of studies on forced migration studies, and an academic event in Kolkata.

Preparation for the Fourth Winter Course on Forced Migration commenced on 14 December 2005, a day before the Third Winter Course formally ended.  By that time CRG members and its collaborators had realised that the Winter Course has grown into a full-fledged programme with components of research, networking, particularly partnership between Indian and Finnish institutions, and training under innovative and different formats.  This was later accepted and endorsed by the advisors during the advisory committee meeting in June 2006.

The collaborative nature of the programme was underlined from the beginning by the participatory nature of the advisory meeting. The Advisory Committee Meeting of the Fourth CRG Winter Course on Forced Migration was held in Swabhumi Kolkata, on 13 June 2006. The participants included the following:

Abu Ahmed (OKD)
Ajay Darshan Behra (Jamia Milia Islamia University)
Anita Sengupta (MAKAIAS)
Anna-Kaisa Heikkinen (Government of Finland)
Jyrki Käkönen (University of Tampere)
Krishna Banerjee (Khoj Akhon, CRG)
Monirul Hussain (Guwahati University)
Oishik Sircar (Pune University)
Paula Banerjee (CRG)
Pradip Kumar Bose (CRG)
Pritima Sharma (CRG)
Ranabir Samaddar (CRG)
Ritu Menon (Women Unlimited)
Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chaudhury (CRG)
Samir Das (CRG)
Sharmistha Chakraborty (Calcutta University)
Shivaji Pratim Basu (Sri Chaitanya College)
Shoumitra Dastidar (Independent Filmmaker)
Shreyashi Chaudhuri (CRG)
Subhas Chakraborty (CRG)
Sudeep Basu (IDSK)
Sudhir Chowdhury (NHRC)
Sumbul Rizvi Khan (UNHCR)
Swati Ghosh (Rabindra Bharati University)
Uttara Chakraborty (Bethune College)

Several suggestions emerged as a result of the advisory meeting including greater engagement with the concept of ‘refugee’, more emphasis on Bhutanese and Nepalese refugees in the course, and introducing the Sub-Saharan as well as Latin American dimensions would make the course more interesting and far-reaching.

It was also acknowledged that collaboration with Finland is proving significant as more Finnish students are getting interested in joining the course. Sending selected Winter Course participants to Tampere University for a week-long exposure trip was one of the suggestions later put into practice.

Four areas of experiment were identified including structuring of module, distance education, participants profile and participants assignments. Suggestions were made for a short-term course with SDPI or LUMPS in Islamabad and ICES in Colombo, including growing violence against the displaced as an optional module, looking at the refugee problem as a cultural problem and making the field visit longer in duration. Also, the distance education segment can be reduced so that the time for direct orientation workshop in Kolkata can be increased. In the assignment component CRG can also think of a collaborative research of participants of two or three countries together.

Sumbul Rizvi, UNHCR Protection Officer

In terms of furthering existing co-operation and creating new collaboration networks, Professor Jyrki Käkönen confirmed his intention to further CRG-Tampere University exchanges.  He stated that Dr. Paula Banerjee was to be invited to teach a course in Tampere for one week.  This course can be on forced migration. Professor Ranabir Samaddar has been invited by Turku University as part of the emerging cooperation. Professor Abu Ahmed stated that the OKD Centre was willing to sign a MOU with CRG for further exchanges.

Support for the winter course has also been expressed at individual level. Several faculty members came without full or any travel support and offered to contribute their knowledge and expertise for the benefit of the course. Many institutions such as the National Human Rights Commission have supported the course by sending participants. Finally, the cooperation from various quarters in circulating the announcement on the course was tremendous. In all these, the cooperation of the participants and the ex-participants was the most valuable asset. CRG remains indebted to all for making the course a success.

Due to the growing popularity of the course the advisory committee asked the organisers to look into possibilities of organizing short courses in collaboration with willing centres and departments of Universities in India as follow-up activities. As a result of a series of follow-up activities the CRG is building partnerships with many new institutions. A number of organisations and institutions have shown willingness to collaborate with CRG on this.  Included in these are NALSAR, Secunderabad, Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi, Omeo Kumar Das Centre, Guwahati, Punjab University, Chandigarh. Women’s Studies Centre, Utkal University, Department of Law, Guwahati University, Department of Political Science, Rabindra Bharati University, Department of South and South East Asian Studies, Calcutta University and several Finnish institutions. Besides as reported earlier the CRG has collaborated with a number of institutions to organise public lectures and discussions as part of its follow-up activity. CRG remains grateful to all the organisations that have showed willingness to collaborate on programmes on forced migration.

Short Course in Jamia Milia Islamia
A five-day course on issues of forced migration was held in Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) University with full cooperation of the Honorable Vice Chancellor, Professor Mushirul Hasan.  The course coordinators were Ajay Darshan Behera of JMI and Paula Banerjee of CRG. Lectures were delivered by Rashmi Doraiswamy (JMI), Navneeta Chaddha Behera   (Delhi University), Ritu Menon (Women Unlimited), Urvashi Bhutalia (Zubaan), and Walter Fernandez (NESRC) among others. Details of the above course are provided later.

Fellowship Program
This year three fellowships were given to the participants of the Winter Course.  Eeva Puumala came from Tampere University and spent a month in CRG in December 2006 working on the theme, Calcutta: A migrants’ City. Two Indian participants, Nanda Kishore and Priyanca Mathur Velath were sent to Tampere for a week and they worked on Finland’s policies of providing asylum in February 2007. Again details can be found on the following paper.

Khalid Koser of the Brookings Institution in an interactive session with the participants

Workshops Held
Prior to the Winter Course a number of workshops were held. One workshop was held in collaboration with the Punjab University, Chandigarh.  In that seminar CRG organized two panels on the issue of forced migration.  The speakers in these panels included Samir K. Das, Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chowdhury, Paula Banerjee and Mika Aaltola.  In April 2006 CRG organized a workshop in Guwahati in collaboration with Panos, South Asia. The participants were from different parts of East and Northeast India. Other than CRG members the resource persons included scholars and activists from Northeast India such as Walter Fernandez, Sujata Dutta-Hazarika, Sanjay Borbora etc. In the summer of 2006 CRG members Ranabir samaddar, Sanjay Chaturvedi and Anita Sengupta participated in a seminar on the issue of borders in Europe and Asia.  In August another workshop was held in Kohima, Nagaland in collaboration with Naga People’s Movement on Human Rights.

Between January and March 2007 a number of workshops were held in different parts of South Asia on the occasion of the release of the report on “Voices of IDPs”. The report has been released in Katmandu in Nepal in collaboration with Nepal Institute of Peace in February 2007.  Around the same time the report was released in Guwahati.  Panos, South Asia facilitated the release in Guwahati.  This was followed by a daylong trip of the media people to camps in Kokrajhar, where part of the fieldwork was held. Detailed report on this is in the later part of this report.

Public Lectures
The CRG collaborated with a number of institutions to organize public lectures before and after the course.  With the Institute of International Law Jeevan Thiagrajajah’”s lecture was organized in New Delhi.  Ranabir Samaddar and Paula Banerjee delivered two public lectures in Dhaka University, Bangladesh in August 2006.  CRG members including Sabyasachi Basu Raychowdhury delivered public lectures in February 2007 in Katmandu in collaboration with Friends for Peace in Nepal.  In Kolkata Professor Sonia Dayan-Hezbrun of University of Paris VII, France addressed a public lecture in February 2007.

Research Programme
The CRG has designed and organized a number of researches on the theme of forced migration in collaboration with different institutes in South Asia.  The research on the “Voices of IDPs” was organized in collaboration with a number of human rights group.  In Sri Lanka the research was conducted in collaboration with National Peace Council in Colombo, in Nepal with the Nepal Institute of Peace, Katmandu and in Bangladesh with Research Initiative of Bangladesh, Dhaka. 

The CRG has been able to set-up a well-organized network of institution and individuals passionately committed to the cause of forced migrants in South Asia. In the field of studies and discourses on forced migration it has been able to establish itself as a premier institution.

11.30 –   1.00 PM            Participants’ presentation under Module A (Moderator: Ranabir Samaddar)

  1.00 –   2.00 PM            Lunch break

  2.00 –   3.30 PM            Module A/Jagat Acharya, Bhutanese Refugee and Activist, Nepal Institute of Peace, Kathmandu ("Political, Social and Economic Discriminations in Bhutan and Bhutanese Refugee Question")

  3.30 –   5.00 PM            Panel discussion on "Do Partition Refugees have a Right to Return? ( Jagat Acharya, Ranabir Samaddar, Subhoranjan Das Gupta, Institute   of Development Studies, Kolkata, Samir Das, CRG & Calcutta University, Kolkata/ Vanita Banjan, Malkit Singh,(participants) Moderator: Keya Dasgupta, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences,  Kolkata)
  6.00 –    8.00 PM           Library hours

4 December (Monday)

11.30 –   1.00 PM            Module B/ Manuela Bojadzijev, (EU and European States' Policies towards Refugee and illegal immigrant women)

  1.00 –   2.00 PM            Lunch break

  2.00 –   3.30 PM            Participants’ presentation under Module B (Moderator: Paula Banerjee)
  3.30 –   4.00 AM            Tea break

  4.00 –   5.30 PM            Lecture by OP Mishra, Centre for Refugee Studies, Jadavpur University
  6.00 –   7.00 PM            Discussion on revision of term papers under Modules A and B with Ranabir Samaddar and Paula Banerjee and other concerned resource  persons (only with participants presenting papers under these two  modules)
  7.00 –   8.00 PM            Library hours

  9.30 – 11.00 AM            Module C/ Oishik Sircar, Pune ILC (The Politics of Asylum Jurisprudence and International Protection)

11.00 – 11.30 AM            Tea break

11.30 –   1.00 PM            Module C/ Parivelan Information Officer TNTRC, Tamil Nadu (The Need for National Legislation and Regional Convention for Refugees and other Victims of Forced Migration)        

  1.00 –   2.00 PM            Lunch break

  2.00 –   3.30 PM           Participants’ presentation under Module C (Moderator: Khalid Koser, Deputy Director, Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement, Brookings Institution)

  3.30 –  4.00 PM            Tea break

  4.00 –  5.30 PM            Module C / Khalid Koser, (Human Rights Origins of the International Regimes of Protection of the Victims of Forced Migration)

  6.00 –   8.00 PM           Library hours

6 December (Wednesday)
  9.30 – 11.00 AM            Module D/ Khoti Kamanga, Lawyer, Coordinator of the Centre for the Study of Forced Migration-University of Dar es Salaam and Secretary of the International Association for the study of Forced Migration (IDP Situation in Africa)

11.00 – 11.30 AM            Tea break

              5.00 PM             Valedictory Session, Sojourn Hotel (Salt Lake, Sector III, near Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata 700106) Closing Remarks              Ranabir Samaddar and Tarja Vayrynen
Presentation of
Certificates
Valedictory Address          Hameeda Hossain, Ain O Kendra, Dhaka on " Forced Migration and Trafficking of Labour-Migrant Women Workers of Bangladesh"
Vote of Thanks                 Paula Banerjee



                                                                       Roundtable Discussion in Calcutta University

  

The course is structured around six modules that have already been mentioned before.  The participants are given reading materials on all six modules.  The readings are divided in two sections - essential and supplementary. The course material is sent to the participants in a phased manner. The essential readings are sent to them during the distance education period, and the supplementary readings are given when the participants arrive in Kolkata for the direct orientation programme. The essential or core material is in many forms: books, and electrically sent material in form of attachments, CD, and web-posted and web-linked material. The supplementary materials included essays and book sections meant strictly for classroom, journals, are relevant web based materials. Some of the reading material is provided free of cost and some has to be bought by the participants at heavily subsidised rates. 

The distance segment of the orientation course begins from 15 September. By 30 September most participants get the books and the module notes. An introductory note on each module is sent to the participants; along with these notes, lists, bibliographies, and other announcements are also sent. Introductory notes are considered extremely useful by the participants as they discussed the modules at some length. The abstracts of these Introductory notes to the modules are given below:

Module A (Forced Migration,racism,immigration,and xenophobia)
core faculty member: Ranabir Samaddar

The first module deals with linkages between the phenomenon of forced migration and those of racism, xenophobia, and immigration.

While international law on protection of refugees deals with the condition, status, and the rights of persons who have already escaped the persecution and crossed the border to seek asylum, this module deals with what may be called the “root causes” of the flight. It is in this respect that we have to discuss the phenomena of racism and xenophobia, and the relation of the state controls on immigration with the issue of protection of refugees.

Also it must be borne in mind that whatever be the cause, refugees have a right to care, protection, and settlement, though it is true that if the root causes are not considered seriously, then there is a probability that we shall consider the refugee situation as a banal one, and neglect thereby the question of the rights of the refugees or the duty of the States and the international community to protect the escapees of violence. One example is around the concept of “well-founded fear” which is a test for grant of refugee status.

The “well-founded fear” concept has evolved from a relatively simple inquiry within which the refugee's subjective feelings of "terror" were prominent, to a much more complex and wide-ranging inquiry within which concepts such as the "safe state" have become increasingly the sole determinants of the issue of the well-founded fear. Or take this case, on which a jurist had to comment, “Refugee determination procedure on individual basis and the unequal sharing of burden of care have now produced confused, traumatized, and nervous shelter-seekers who travel rarely with supportive documents, false or no papers, and land in alien systems which are frequently hostile or incredulous" hosts”. In this case involving a Sri Lanka Tamil who had fled persecution allegedly at the hands of the LTTE (R. SSHD ex parte Karunakaran 25 January 2000, unreported), the judge commented, “The civil standard of proof, which treats anything, which probably happened, is part of a pragmatic legal fiction. It has no logical bearing on the assessment of the likelihood of future events or (by parity of reasoning) the quality of past ones... The method of evaluation is itself not one of hard facts. But it requires knowledge not only of applicant's own tale, and what is accepted of it, but a whole range of other factual matters.”

In any case, the dual phenomena of racism and xenophobia have become almost universal phenomena. Xenophobia is a related phenomenon; aggressive attitude towards national differences produces neo-racist differences. It had been so earlier also. Partition of states produces the most concentrated violence, reshaping states reshape minds, and the formation of new states happens amidst mass murders, mass dislocations, and mass displacements. Partition refugees are a special category, for they lose the right to return even a right granted at least nominally to other groups of refugees.

The right to return is a significant issue in this context.  Although much debated internationally the right to return is most clearly enshrined in the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) under its provisions on the right to freedom of movement (Article 12.4) which says that No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.  But this right has often proved to be a chimera at least in South Asia.  A historian has shown that perhaps the first group of people, though not refugees, whose right to return was denied by a South Asian state were the Indian emigrants who travelled abroad in the nineteenth century to work as plantation labourers. All through the nationalist period the fate of these labourers in their country of domicile was a rallying point for Indian leaders to portray the dark side of foreign rule. There was constant reiteration that the state was responsible for all the people who were born in India. Yet during the legislative assembly debates in 1944 the leaders came to a consensus that these émigrés rightfully belonged to their country of domicile and not in India. Unlike nationalists during the colonial period, the leaders of the post-colonial State formation project no longer looked forward to the return of the emigrants who were slowly being considered as foreigners.  South Asian independence was accompanied by a blood bath. The partition of India and Pakistan resulted in two million deaths and about 15 million people were displaced. Most of the refugees were lucky enough to get domicile and often citizenship in their country of domicile. Yet problem arose over the issue of return. South Asian states passed legislations whereby property of the displaced were confiscated by the State and treated as enemy property.  So the home that they wanted to go back to remained only in their own imagination. One often hears the argument that because partition refugees got an alternate citizenship they lost the right to return. In South Asia there are however, other groups of refugees who remain as stateless people; yet they are denied the right to return. We have the instances of two such groups of refugees: the Chakmas (Jumma people) and the Bhutanese. The focus in any discussion on the right to return of citizens expelled has to be thus on the need to move away from the classical theories of sovereignty, democracy, State, and citizenship, and take the exile, the alien, the displaced (both internally and trans-border), and the half-citizen as the central figure of the politics in South Asia, the figure who is with us like the eternally accompanying shadow, so normalised that we forget its existence which we have taken for granted. In this physical milieu of expulsion, de-enfranchisement, and nationalisation, the right to return is at once the most crucial question and the most hallucinatory claim.

List of Participants and Assignments

One of the significant features of the course was the segment of creative assignments, which were taken up and completed by the participants with great satisfaction. 

Suggestions for the creative assignment were sent to participants before they arrived in Kolkata and they were asked to bring completed assignments along with them to the course. The assignments dealt with refugees or IDPs and treated situations of displacement in creative ways.  Creative assignments were then exhibited, presented, in case of documentary films shown, and discussed by the faculty and all the participants in Kolkata. 

The following suggestions for creative assignments were made:

1. Suppose you are an editor of a magazine. Prepare a special issue of the magazine on issues of forced migration.

2. Prepare a 4-5 day course syllabus, which will include issues of Forced Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons.

3. Prepare an investigative report of any situation of forced displacement in your region (local or national).

4. Prepare short commentaries on the recent reforms towards relief & rehabilitation of IDPs in your countries; these can be posted on Refugee Watch Online.

5. Write a short story on the situation of any refugee/IDP group.

6. Prepare either a photo exhibit or a poster exhibit on situations of forced displacement.

7. Write few songs on the situation of the victims of forced displacement.

8. Collect some literary pieces (songs, poems, stories) on the theme of forced migration and prepare a compendium with them.

9. A ten minutes documentary on any situation of forced displacement.

10. A short play on a refugee situation that might be performed during the cultural evening.

Accordingly some of the participants set up a photo gallery during the course made up of photographs of refugee life and different displacement situations. One participant presented an exhibition of black-and-white photographs with detailed captions documenting the situation of internally displaced Burmese and Burmese residing in refugee camps in Thailand. Dilip Gogoi also presented a series of photos on the aftermath of the Karbi Anglong conflict and displacement. A few others presented their photo exhibitions in the form of power point presentations. Priyanca Mathur Velath prepared a presentation documenting the daily lives of Tibetan refugees living in Majnukatila in Delhi, while Hina Shahid did the same for refugee women in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan. Eeva Puumala prepared a photographic essay featuring her interviews with asylum seekers in a detention center in Tampere. Vanita Banjan and Surendra Kumar prepared separate course syllabi for an introductory course in forced migration. Nandu Kishor made a short documentary featuring the condition of those displaced as a result of urban development in Hyderabad. Participants from NHRC presented cartoons with short poems on the situation of displaced.  Shiva Dungana of Nepal wrote a short story.  The creative assignments emerged as one of the most attractive segments of the course.

List of the Creative Assignments

The field trip to Darjeeling was an exciting break after the lengthy sessions in Kolkata. It was also intended to give the course participants some practical experience and a better understanding of the daily life of refugees.

Prior to the visit a detailed briefing about the existing centers of Tibetan refugees in Darjeeling was given to the participants on 8 December 2006, by Subhash Chakraborty, President of CRG along with Sudeep Basu, an ex-participant who has researched on Tibetan refugees. Together, they provided first-hand information as to how to understand the whole scenario of the refugee center.

Course participants at Sealdah Railway Station on way to field visit

Tibetan Refugee Self Help Centre

The more we care for the happiness of others,
The greater our own sense of well-being becomes,
Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the minds at ease.
This helps remove whatever fears or
Insecurities we may have and gives us
The strength to cope with any obstacles
We encounter.
It is the ultimate source of life.

The next day participants went to visit the Tibetan Refugees Self Help Centre. The Centre was born on October 2, 1959 with four people. The Tibetans deem this place momentous not only from a practical point of view but also from an emblematic point of view since the 13^th Dalai Lama spent two years of his exile in this place. The Centre was registered as a charitable organisation under the Indian Law and the donations it receives are exempt from income tax.

Tibetan refugee at work in Darjeeling

The eye-catching feature of the centre that attracts the visitors is the handicraft goods beautifully designed and presented by the resident refugees. These goods are being exported to 36 countries around the world to represent Tibetan culture. Training programmes are also part of the centre as to promote traditional Tibetan handicrafts around the globe. A promising future for the Tibetans refugee youth is ahead as the day care centre along with nursery, established in 1960, is providing care and education to the kids.

The day care centre allows mothers to concentrate and produce the best out of their hard work. Another prominent feature is a medical wing of 20 beds with extended medical services such as X-ray, ultrasound and pathological laboratory etc. in town. The mobile medical clinic helps not only the residents of the center but also used in organising medical camps for poor people of the area. The center also has its printing press in town with modern techniques to print news bulletins and other publications related to refugees.

Tibetan refugee women at work in the Self Help-Centre

The group had a round of the different sections of the centre along with the manager. Here they had a chance to take a closure look at the manufacturing of the handicrafts such as carpet weaving, woolen clothing, wool spinning, tailoring, knitting and painting, carpentry etc.

The winter course participants were also told that there were around 650 residents in the center in the year 2001. But presently there are only 350 residents (150 families). Those who left the center went abroad in search of jobs, where some of them are well settled.

This was the second visit to the Centre by participants of the course, as in the Third Course also in 2005 the participants had visited Darjeeling, visited the Centre and had learnt a lot.

The Tibetans Self Help Center has not only provided the opportunity to this refugee group to settle down but also helped to build its sense of self worth, confidence and courage to face the challenges of the society and the state. They are in the hope to return to their roots. The center’s sale counter facilitated the participants to buy the handicrafts to make their visit memorable.

At the Tibetan Refugee Self-Help Centre

Another settlement in Sonara was supposed to be visited by the winter course group but due to short span of time it could not be done. It was briefed to the group that the settlement had a monastery and a hostel. The refugees residing in this place are associated with agriculture.

The field trip provided an opportunity to the group to see the realities of Tibetan refugee life in exile, where they have been living for decades. It was felt by the participants that this field trip would help to enrich their research and practical experiences.

The fourth winter course included two public events – a public lecture by Ranabir Samaddar, the Director of CRG, and panel discussion on Settled states and Unsettled Populations: Evolving discourses on Social Justice in India in Loreto College, Darjeeling on 11 December and a public lecture by Hans-Joachim Heintze, University of Rurh, Bochum on Legal Regimes of Protection for the Victims of Forced Migration on 13 December at Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Settled States and Unsettled Populations: Evolving Discourses on Social Justice in India
Panel: Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, Ranabir Samaddar, A.S. Rai, Fr. George Thadathil

Professor Ranabir Samaddar opened his speech by drawing attention to the geographical location of Darjeeling on the border of West Bengal, where the upper caste southern Bengali culture ends and another culture begins. In the eyes of the Bengali people, this is a region of migrants but why do we so often think in terms of settled identities? In today’s world, one of the primary forms of demanding justice is based on political identity, as was the case, for example, in the Indian struggle for independence. Identity, in turn, is defined in terms of settled borders. Indeed, settled politics begins with settled borders. Historically this has not always been the case and there are many cases of trans-border existence.

Borders do not only exist on the periphery of states, borders are also lines that have a life of their own. Sometimes people obey rules of immigration and at times they neglect them. Borders also have a tendency to divide people as life centers around borders but at the same time life on the borders do not respect the border. One of the greatest injustices in the past two centuries has been the injustice done to people who did not respect borders and thought they could live a trans-border life. This injustice was done by means of boundary making, state demarcations and partitions. Defining borders began with the Roman Empire now marking 2000 years of leading our lives this way. Border is one of the fundamental conditions regulating the institution of state, whereby non-citizens do not enjoy the same rights. We still do not know what trans-border citizenship means. Citizenship began with the declaration and assumption of political rights and socio-economic rights for chosen some but is this enough? What about the aliens, the non-citizens? The border still regulates these principles, so what about substantive citizenship rights? We must rethink the institution of borders. Another question characteristic of globalisation is about the moving populations, the undocumented and uncountable mass of individuals, moving outside and within national borders.

Hans-Joachim Heintze speaking at 
Jadavpur University

How do we retain the sanctity of the border today? Land is once again one of the most important factors in politics. Land is a source of contentious politics. This brings us back to the classic question of politics – how do we deal with the question of land, on which large proportion of the population depends?

Father George Thadathil began his speech by placing himself within the Rawlsian distinction between justice and ethics and subtitling his talk as “ethics and ethnicity or unsettled populations within apparently settled states”.  He was speaking of the people of Darjeeling. Ethics is the need for fair treatment of others, premised on correct self-understanding. A philosophical starting point is the primacy of ethical over the ontological, which is exactly the opposite approach compared to Western philosophy. Reason cannot unveil everything about being. Are our perceptions born within the group or outside the group? Philosophy needs to be rooted in ethics. However, ethics worldwide has taken a backseat due to globalisation. For example, dalits are not yet in the mainstream of political life. We are living in a situation where we fought to attain a degree of justice.

Racial, ethnic, social, demographic and linguistic differences prevent assimilation process. There was perception of neglect in Darjeeling followed by the emergence of ethnic identity. Whereas imperialism gave space to dalits, sixty years of independence did not achieve what Indian constitution recommended to achieve within ten years. There also exists a local discourse on justice in Darjeeling. Local leaders call it counter violence – “if the state did not use violence, we would not have either”. Another dimension worth mentioning is the notion of the self i.e. defining oneself as anti other, “I am not you”. I am capable of defining myself not only against you but also along with you. I am also the other.

Social justice is an attribute we should possess in terms of treatment of groups and individuals. The stress should be put on benefits of social justice; however there hasto be the burden of responsibility needed. One’s involvement in social justice should be based on practices and principles – the two must be compatible i.e. just.

Legal regimes of protection for the victims of forced migration
Professor Hans-Joachim Heintze, University of Rurh, Bochum

Hans-Joachim Heintze’s lecture took place at Jadavpur University. He addressed the subject of legal regimes of protection for the victims of forced migration on the basis of examples taken from the former Yugoslavia. Heintze was speaking on the basis of personal experience as he had worked in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The question of whether return is a right or a duty in the case of Yugoslavian refugees was raised at the outset of the lecture, which then attempted to address the question from different perspectives.

Even though the state of Yugoslavia was first established after the First World War, the forging of a common Yugoslav identity failed to materialise alongside the process of state formation.  The multinational state of Yugoslavia ceased to exist in 1991, when deteriorating inter-ethnic relations led to a full-blown armed conflict and eventually ethnic cleansing. The ICRC and UNHCR were both involved in relief operations in the region. Bosnia-Herzegovina provides a good example of ethnic cleansing, whereby conscious attempts have been made by the governments to create homogenous citizenry. As a result, out of 4.4 million inhabitants of 

Panel discussion on women's access to citizenship in India

Bosnia-Herzegovina 1.5 million people became internally displaced and 700.000 were forced to move abroad. These people were invited by the German government to come to Germany and were granted the right to work. However, their legal status in Germany was unclear as they were first granted half-a-year residence permits, which were later renewed on short-term temporary basis. 

The Dayton Agreement of 1995 specified that these people residing in Germany would now be obliged to return to their former places of residence. The so-called peace courts were established to ensure the end of the ethnic cleansing, thus people were obliged to return. Thus international law was not applied in this case. Bosnia-Herzegovina became a federal entity; a union of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the general approach was in support of peaceful multicultural co-existence. Also, emphasis has been given on the regional dimension financed by the European Union. But the key problem remained – the people of ex-Yugoslavia did not want to live together and lead a multicultural co-existence. Rather, they wanted to leave the country and they did so in large numbers thus contributing to the brain drain.

The war in Yugoslavia is a terrible fact for the whole of Europe because it revealed a glaring failure on behalf of Europe to end the war. This was a failure not only of the European collective effort but also of the international community as a whole. The question Heintze raised at the end was: Is our aim only to provide effective humanitarian assistance to the victims of the conflict or should we make efforts to stop this sort of massive violence?

Mario Gomez and Parivelan in an interactive session

The CRG winter course is special is because it has a number of interactive sessions in the form of round tables and panel discussions.  This year each compulsory module had at least one interactive session.  Some modules had more than one interactive session such as module B.  Participants for these sessions included administrators, members of institutions that deal with issues of  refugees and IDPs such as the UNHCR and the National Human Rights Commission, human rights activists, refugee activists, creative writers, legal analysts and refugees and IDPs who have had experiences of living in camps. 

Most of these sessions were public sessions. The themes of the sessions were:
1.       Women's Access to Citizenship in India-Twenty Years After Shah Bano (2 December )

2.       Is the Right to Return a Symbolic Right? (3 December)
3.       How Effective is the NHRC in Protecting the Victims of Forced Migration? (6 December )

4.       Resource, Gender, and Forced Migration (7 December)

5.       Forced Displacement in North East India (8 December) 

6.       Is the Palestinian Experience a Unique Experience in Refugee Annals? (13 December)

The interactive session on the Right to Return

7.       Humanitarian Institutions and their Task of Care (14 December )


Women’s Access to Citizenship in India – Twenty Years after Shah Bano

The discussion began with the panelists attempting to answer the central question, why is citizenship so important for women? Women are both the ‘other’ and the citizens of a nation. There are different rules for women. Shah Bano is a Muslim woman who fought for her alimony rights for over 14 years in the Supreme Court. Yet when she got that right the state stepped in and negated that.  Their allies were the patriarchal community leaders. In fact community leaders have more voice than women in women’s affairs. Social justice does not apply to the internal workings of the family unit. Female welfare was considered synonymous to family welfare. Multiculturalism creates new complexities and women become minorities within minorities. Why put women’s rights against community rights? Why can’t they go hand in hand?  There are also many cultural barriers that obstruct women’s access to citizenship rights? The Shah Bano case, the Bhanwari Devi case and the Alinagar killings all portray the patriarchal attitude that inhibits the discourse on women’s rights.

Course participants listening to alecture

The media representation of the question of women’s rights is also skewed.  The media always takes the more sensational path and often sacrifices justice in the process.  What right do the media have to put a rape victims’ face on the television when law prohibits it? Sometimes the media puts women demanding her rights on trial. Is it fair to have a trail by media? The panelists agreed that today the collective responsibility lies with the media, the courts, and all of us if we want women to access her rights of citizenship and make this a more just world.

Is Right to Return Merely Symbolic?

The Right to Return is central to any refugee movement.  The Refugee Convention of 1951 recognizes it. It does not mean taking the refugee back to the border and pushing them back rather it is a recognition of the right of a refugee to go back to her country with honour. In Bhutan, many people from the South were deprived of their citizenship and then thrown out. The notification came out in Junkha in the national newspaper of Bhutan. Today most of these people are in UNHCR run camps in Nepal. The essential question of return of Bhutanese refugees is a very difficult one as they have hardly any access to citizenship.

International law has clear provisions on origin and succession of states but no clear guideline on how states can be partitioned if they are. When a group of policy makers or decision makers decide to partition a state/population then who is to bear the consequence of the decision? Thus international law is much behind international development. When we partition territory do we ask what we are partitioning? How do we thus ensure that people who do not want their land to be partitioned get a chance to return or is such a dream mere hallucination.

A number of questions emerge tied to the existential condition of refugees and in reality the Right to Return was found to be flouted in most situations. The stateless Biharis of Bangladesh are still hanging in mid-air. This right is honoured in paper but much flouted in practice. Neither Nehru nor Liaqat Ali kept the promises that they made in the Nehru-Liaqat Ali Pact. Thus saying that refugees have a right to return becomes more a tongue in cheek reply. It may be considered as sacrosanct as any right included in our constitution but are often violated in practice.

The Right to Return can be seen from three angles: legal, political and emotional. It has its legal basis in UDHR, the International Covenant on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and ICCPR. The political angle to the Right to Return can be seen in the example of the Bangladeshi Muslims in Mumbai. The Shiv Sena in Mumbai welcomes Hindus but not Muslims as it says that they had already laid claim to their own religious state i.e. Pakistan. The emotional appeal of ‘Vibhajan Asweekar’ (Partition Not Accepted) lies at the base of the emotional desire to return to one’s place of birth wherein borders become hurdles. Perhaps all countries together should ensure visa relaxation rules.

For refugees, the most important right is the right to return. Has providing a legal framework for them solved any problem? Partitions have created histories and memories of killing, destruction and displacement. Then in the post-colonial era, the trappings of sovereignty have given rise to nation-states and visa regimes. We should focus on the rights aspect of this Right to Return than on the legal aspect.  Partition refuges have a right to return, provided states left long back are able to transcend and go beyond the logic of partition. It requires a radical reimagining of the body politic and the ethical collectives in which minorities do not fall prey to majoritarian democracies. There is no one way to such re-imagination that can make good the democratic deficit. Once this is done across states, the right to return is unlikely to be claimed and it becomes redundant. When every side of the border is appropriately re-imagined and is considered as 'right’ it does not matter whether one lives in India or in Pakistan or in Bangladesh and that is the way how borders lose their significance.

How Effective is the NHRC in Protecting the Victims of Forced Migration?

The panelists highlighted role of national human rights commission with illustrations from IDPs situation in India and Nepal. Various initiatives taken by NHRC of Nepal under Human Rights accord 2004 were mentioned; lists of causes of displacement in Nepal and its impact on Neplai society and economy were mentioned. Finally various challenges which include lack of national legislation difficulties in identifying the IDP’s human rights violation and lack of implementing mechanism, political instability with lack of political will and lack of humanitarian assistance were mentioned.

The representatives of NHRC India tried to identify the problem of refugee and IDPs. They gave three categories of forced migration- refugees, IDPs and the trafficked (especially women and children). They spoke about various aspects of human rights violation by stating few case studies. They spoke about the role of NHRC in protection and promotion of the rights of the above mentioned categories of people. Regarding the legal station of NHRC it was said that as NHRC is not a substitute of judiciary and it does not qualify as court. But it enjoys the power of civil court. The nature of the function of the NHRC is investigation and recommendations can be made. They presented a note on formation and composition of NHRC in India under the 1993 act. They mentioned that the success of the commission could be judged on the fact that the member of the complaints went up from initial 400 to 75,000 complaints in the recent past. All most in all the cases the state and the central governments have accepted the recommendation of the NHRC. They spoke about the various aspects of autonomous character of the commission and finally gave some successful cases handled by NHRC such as for slum dwellers in Delhi, displacement due to developmental project at Bastar district, Dalit resettlement in Haryana, Chakma in Tripura, ethnic conflict and displacement at Karbi Anglong etc.

Mario Gomez spoke about the situation 1987 since when there has been a growth in human rights institutions, which are gaining increasing credence with the international community. Human rights institutions have the potential to engage in various activities. He gave the example of the NHRC in south Philippines and said that they had a series of workshop on displacement whose objective was to arrive at a national policy. Interestingly the Philippines government does not use the word IDP but ‘evacuees’. The Sri Lankan NHRC has taken a study to look at the equity issue of Tsunami victims. All displaced people should have access to fair process at the minimum. The panelists agreed that NHRC should be pro people and not pro state.

Resource, Violence and Displacement

At the outset the chair of the discussion defined resources as the conditions that nature has given to us which can be used for one’s own survival including cultural survival, which are non-replenishable and hence perishable. Resource crisis occurs when there is loss of ownership or control over resources or change in resource use pattern. The questions posed to the panelists were 1) Do you think that new economic policies since 1990’s prepared the way for transfer of people’s resources to private and corporate sectors? 2) Does marginality of the people expose them to the resource crisis or does the resources crisis contribute to their marginalization? 3) How does denial of access to resources become potential source of conflict between indigenous and non-indigenous people? 4) Do you think that changes in resource use pattern also trigger off conflicts or violence?

In Nepal many have been displaced because of roads, airport construction, hydroelectric projects and creation of national parks. Development projects have created problems for victims. Even those who have got compensation have had to endure hardships, which has increased the problem of marginalized people. Problems arise because of inbuilt hierarchy and because political elite is acquisitive and unwilling to share. One should learn from the indigenous as they can best tell us how to use resources.

The 1980’s oil crisis led to liberalization of economies and new senders such as the World Bank today not only giva money but also dictate the direction of state economies. The New Economic Policies have taken resources away from people by diverting the resources the market where they become commodities to be bought and sold by those with purchasing power. The Singur problem in West Bengal is indicative of changes in resource use pattern. But how do we justify violence and displacement? The Sardar Sarovar Project shows that 50,000 adivasis have to pay so that others may get irrigation. It is because they are marginalized that they cannot access people’s rights? They do not get a fair share back.

In Bangladesh the Right to Information is important. When people are not consulted the scope for their displacement increases. Jhum cultivation has decreased the fertility of land and caused resource crisis. It is the marginality of the people that exposes them to the resource crisis. The panel farther deliberated whether we should then not question the very paradigm of development that is being followed?

Forced Displacement in North East India

In the context of the widespread displacement in Northeast India, the issue of access to justice by the indigenous people has assumed crucial importance. In Bangladesh the plight of the indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts has shown the significance of the criticality of the right of access to justice in the context of displacement. Development-induced displacement first began in the CHT with the Kaptai Dam, which had serious impact in NE India. In the Northeast the influx of migrants from neighbouring states has led to increase in population and competition among groups for resources and jobs. Besides the prolonged insurgency problem and the absence of any government policy with regard to the IDPs, there is no accurate data also on the IDPs. Displacement has been caused by natural disasters also, such as erosion by river Brahmaputra and its tributaries.

One should also take note of the ethnicity-induced displacement in places like Karbi Anglong in Assam. The ethnic conflict between Dimasa and Karbi communities has claimed more than 80 lives, burnt around 50 villages and rendered 60,000 innocents homeless and displaced. The worst affected are women and children and most of the displaced are taking shelter in local administration sponsored 57 relief camps in and around Diphu, Manja, Dhansiri and Nagaon district.  The multiplicity and the plurality that comprises the ‘Assamese’ identity has been challenged by such ethnic groups conflict.  There can be two methods - structural and operational - of dealing with such situations. In NE India, opposition to immigration is grounded in the numbers game. The politics of demography is ingrained in a democracy and it shouldn’t be seen as just xenophobia. Thus, the problem of in the NE is one of democratic deficit.

The Burmese Chin state bordering Mizoram has ethnic minorities that have been suppressed by the military regime.  In the resultant insurgency, CNF has been fighting the central regime. As militarization increases so does human rights violation like forced migration and forced labor. Villagers from 10 different villages cleared Six hundred acres of forest in one week. Religious festivals also got disrupted as a result of the draconian rule of the junta. The knee jerk reaction of the government to the problem of insurgency in Assam has also been criticised. Instead of deploying the armed forces, the state should have addressed the grievances of the people regarding the influx of population from neighboring Bangladesh. At the same time the people should remember that nationhood is not always a viable concept. In a country with a colonial history any attempt to build projects of “people-hood” on the basis of colonial categorization can have dubious results - agreed most of the panelists.

Is the Palestinian Experience a Unique Experience in Refugee Annals?

This session explored the uniqueness of the Palestinian refugee situation. The speakers accepted that the Palestinian refugee displacement was a massive and over helping experience- one for which no solution has been found. It should be considered seriously because it is a humanitarian issue, and international agencies should draw attention on it.

The question is an odd and a difficult one to answer simply because of the exalted status it holds. Just as the Jewish case is seen as a template, the Palestine case is also seen as a defacto case to look at when setting any terms of reference for refugee groups.

The status of Palestinian refugees is very special and from the international law point of view to appreciate its uniqueness one has to see into its history. In the future the Palestinian refugees are entitled to earn statehood but the question of right to return remains. It is a problem whose solution can be attained only after long negotiations. There were comments that though their return is a distant dream one should keep in mind that Jerusalem became significant because of its significance with Judaism. Besides do we have any other instances of an entire refugee community nurturing a political resistance movement for fifty years? Some may compare it to the Tibetan, but the Tibetan government in exile is nothing but a shadowy presence between India and China. Edward Said had said that the unique characteristic of the Palestinian refugees is that they have for long seem themselves as tragic victims and this has given different form to their distinct culture of the general mood of gloom. There is also an added sense of helplessness as there is nothing to enforce an international law. One should also not forget the role that imperialism has played in this whole area.

Humanitarian Institutions and their Task of Care

The panel was asked to address three questions. 1) What is their idea about humanitarian institutions and their task of care? 2) Are they really caring? 3) Question of Interrelation and interface of the rights approach and the humanitarian approach? The entire refugee movement is predicated on two approaches. The humanitarian approach sees refugees as people in humanitarian need of protection. Joya Chatterjees’ paper on Rights of Charity had argued that the government had treated refugees in a manner as though refugees were in need of charity when refugees instead wanted to claim it as a right. We need to go back to history and see how the Geneva Convention and the 1951 Convention were framed. Humanitarian institutions are established to give protection and care to war-affected people, as war victims are deemed innocent. Care means food, relief, temporary shelter and a sense of belonging. It was also felt that we would need to review the lives of these victims in post conflict situations.  

In Sri Lanka the Tsunami victims got more importance than war-affected victims and latter group of victims is today dissatisfied because of this discrimination. Thus is reality there is gradation of vulnerabilities. Human Rights Institutions have to try to help the vulnerable people to exercise their right to live with dignity. The Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal are one of the best self-run in the world, which shows how effective human rights institutions can be in small countries with less resource.

The issue that needs to be addressed is that whether they are addressing the human rights of the people or the needs of the people? In other words, what do need – a rights-based approach or a need based approach? One should note also that the Guiding Principles on the IDPs are explicitly based on the needs-based approach and one should ask if that is an appropriate path. Who defines who needs what? International agencies and states have proven to be quite futile. When we call it charity we introduce the notion of power. Refugees do not need charity but the “right to have rights”. The problem lies in the structure on which modern nation state and UN system has been built. Is there any modular form of humanitarian action?

Often, the problem is that the Human Right Institution take a top down approach and force their will on the people. They need to adopt a bottom up approach. They are not caring! Financial resources are spent on the wrong priorities. It becomes a number game and politics of pity.

On 8 December, the participants had the opportunity to see and discuss “Tales of the Night Fairies” with the film director Sohini Ghosh.

The film viewing was preceded by a discussion on what is a documentary. There were several types of answers including: documentary is political, sensitising, insightful, a vision, a view, a critique, a form of art, a probe, an evaluation, a fiction, a message and a reflection. The director went on to explain the hardship involved in making such a documentary or any motion picture. Before the show the director declared that the movie has been made for ‘feminists’ by a ‘feminist’. The film concentrates and revolves around the struggles in the life of the sex workers in Kolkata.

Meghna Guhathakurata and the film director Sohini Ghosh

The director said at the outset that the reason behind her making the film lay in her own life. The middle class family background and the sense in which they used the term “decent people” had its own significance. The film begins with entering the lanes where sex workers live and work. Shikha Das, a sex worker, explains how an organisation called DMSC was formed in 1995. Deepti Pal, another sex worker emphasized that DMSC was a big boost to them allowing them to work with dignity. She felt that now she did not pander to masculine desires of entertainment.

According to the sex workers the biggest achievement in forming the organisation, DMSC, was the normalisation of their lives. The sex workers were hitherto forced to be in between the four walls, entertaining the men clients, but they could not express their real feelings of being with other people like anyone else. The dream of coming out in public and celebrating their existence became a reality when they organised a programme called ‘Sex workers millennium carnival’ in 2001. The festival had several problems before it was allowed to take place. There were men who felt that the moral values of the society would depreciate. But the best part of the whole event was the participation of the non-sex workers who wholeheartedly enjoyed the programme and even signed the signature campaign. Eventually the organisation was successful in getting the permission from the governmental authority to occupy the space that was once denied to them. The film also went on to discuss the issue of safe sex. One sex worker spoke about the empowerment of the women and the “dignity of labour” that they felt in themselves. She felt so empowered that now she was able to come out of the clutches of the fear and disclose her identity as a sex worker, or the daughter of a sex worker. She wanted her daughter also not to be scared.

Women had different stories to tell as to the circumstances behind their becoming sex workers. They cited the history where they even collected waste on the streets. Another lady shared her experience of being brutalized by a policeman; she went on to say how she took revenge on the policeman by using the situation, which came in her way when they had an organisation. All of them felt that they should be empowered and educated so that they could face and fight back any type of atrocity. They felt that they were no more scared of the society. They felt that work had to be seen as work. They even questioned, why should the society feel their work to be bad? If it is bad then why did men visit them?

When the government of West Bengal proposed rehabilitation for sex workers, sex workers, part of DMSC, wanted to accept it and asked the government to give rehabilitation to those who were in real need and not to the ones who had work. They wanted the government to give rehabilitation to the women who could not work. The film ended with a conversation with a sex worker who got a chance to go to Mexico to represent the sex workers of Kolkata. That portrayed the long way she had come.

The session ended with a question and answer session, where Sohini Ghosh was asked several questions pertaining to the making of the film and the implications of the film for the society. The director was asked whether she had shown the movie to the sex workers and whether selling of one’s body was a civilised thing to do in a civilized era. The director answered that every human being sells his or her self in one or the other way and the sex workers were selling theirs in their own ways.  She also accepted the fact that on the grounds of sexuality all the sex workers might not be divided but they too were divided on communal, caste and class lines.

Inaugural Session

The inaugural session was held on 1 December 2006 at Hotel Sojourn, marking the beginning of an intense 15-day familiarization of participants with the lives of the refugees, the displaced and the vulnerable people, making an attempt to understand the politics behind their displacement, the issue of their survival and conduct investigations into the multi dimensional and multi layered issues involved in the study of these groups.

The programme began with the inaugural session where the introductory remarks were given by the Director of CRG, Dr. Ranabir Samaddar who initiated the participants from diverse backgrounds to the realities of the victims of forced migration in South Asia. Warmly welcoming all to the fourth consecutive and abundantly successful Winter Course he set the ball rolling with a brief overview of the content of the course. 

Course participants together with faculty members

The Valedictory session was held on 15 December 2006 at Hotel Sojourn. The president of CRG, Professor Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty, delivered the Welcome address. He welcomed guests and participants of 4th winter course and gave the floor to Dr Paula Banerjee, who read out a message from the Embassy of Finland and the Brookings Institution.

Dr Ranabir Samaddar made certain remarks on the final occasion of the course. He spoke about the nature of today’s forced migration, which is marked by mixed and massive flows. The problems and experiences of South Asia today are not unique to South Asia only. It is thanks to migration and migrants that the concept of borders has been challenged, despite the attempts at securitization by the great powers. A concept of a new type of woman has emerged from this, that of a migrant citizen which is a new feature of humanity. It partly carries traces of citizenship and partly traces of alienhood (that of being uprooted and displaced). Participants’ were asked to speak on the course and stay in Kolkata. All those who spoke heartily thanked and congratulated CRG for such an enlightening and well-organized course.

Faculty members interact prior to the Valedictory Session

Tarja Väyrynen also spoke on this occasion as an independent evaluator. She talked about the direct airline connection between Helsinki-Delhi, which was established in 2006. Lots of Indians work for Nokia. Nokia is investing a lot in India. There is now a small Indian community in Finland and vice versa. However, it is the case of mostly business-dominated exchange although learning exchange may be more important. One example of such exchange – is between Tampere University and CRG, based on equal partnership, a true dialogue. So far this has Included exchange of lectures and will now include exchange of students. She said that they were also working very hard to establish a network of scholars interested in South Asian issues. According to her the Winter Course has many strengths, and she highlighted three in particular: the variety of professional and regional backgrounds of the participants, the strong emphasis on gender, and the non-eurocentric approach. She felt that there was future potential for great cooperation in forced migration studies.  In conclusion, Professor Väyrynen thanked the organisers and wished the participants good luck in their work.

Bishnu Mohapatra addresses the course participants

After her lecture certificates were awarded to the participants, who spoke briefly on how they felt highly of the course and their sense of belonging to the institution called the CRG and its work relating to forced migration.

The Valedictory lecture was given by Hameeda Hossain from Ain O Shalish Kendra, Dhaka who spoke on ‘Forced Migration and Trafficking of Labour – Migrant Women Workers of Bangladesh’. The excerpt of her lecture is as follows:

Recent debates in international agencies have sensationalized migration by linking it to trafficking in arms and drug smuggling and terrorism, and AIDS/HIV.  The migrant, whose labour has served to build the wealth of other countries, has been reduced to being a carrier of crimes and disease.

The use of the word “forced” is, of course, susceptible to many complex nuances of interpretation that serve different interests or reflect different perspectives. It is indeed a contentious issue between countries of origin and destination, and government responses have been both contradictory and hypocritical. While countries of origin welcome foreign remittances from workers, they do little to facilitate their terms and conditions of employment. In receiving countries, much of the infrastructure development in cities and much of the service sector owes to the labour of migrants. Dubai or Kuala Lumpur would not have been architectural show cases without the contribution of engineers, contractors and workers from South Asian countries.  The concerns of governments are more than regulatory, they seek to control borders, and to restrict movements across boundaries. Many governments have been prompted to seal borders, to reinforce border controls or other restrictions on people’s movements.   Across land borders, the push back techniques have kept people in a de-nationalised limbo. The more powerful countries such as the US have gone to the extent of using trade sanctions against the country of origin. At the same time the US has tempted migration through the sale of lotteries.

Flavia Agnes delivers the inaugural lecture

On the other hand, for ordinary citizens, freedom of movement is a choice for survival.  Migration can be forced by political and economic circumstances in the country of origin, but administrative controls in the country of destination also force migrants into exploitative relations.  People move unwillingly from their own habitats, and may often be compelled by conflicts and wars, by oppression and violence, by discrimination and poverty. While migration may be seen as a strategy for survival by families or an escape route for individuals, or even as presenting new opportunities, the human rights of migrants and their security fall at risk from state controls, exploitation of the market and social exclusion. Women, currently make up about one half of the world’s current migrant population.  It is only in recent years that a growing  number of women from Bangladesh have taken overseas jobs.  The demand has come mainly from the Middle East. But the conditions of work have not been particularly salutary and Bangladeshi embassies have had to cope with many complaints from women workers.  Rather than negotiate on behalf of the workers the government saw fit, in 1997, to ban the overseas employment of women for domestic work. This restriction was lifted subsequently, but women’s decisions to work overseas were subordinated to family approval, etc.

Hameeda Hossain delivers the valedictory lecture

Demand for seasonal labour provides an incentive for temporary movements. Case studies have documented how young women and children move across the river from Rajshahi to Maldah to harvest beetle nuts or wheat in the chars or marshlands of West Bengal.  Their daily movements are visible to the naked eye, and most of them are not hindered from working. Their labour is organised by informal agents. When some of them don’t return home, it is assumed that they were egged on by promises of work or marriage further west. But the rationale of the market is not evident to state forces and the policing of borders makes them into sources of extortion or oppression.

She raised the issue of how far does international law reach across to support women at the grassroots? The Adviser on Trafficking from the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva underscored the need to acknowledge that trafficking is both a cause and consequence of the violations of human rights, and that guiding principles of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights place protection of human rights at the center of any measures taken to prevent trafficking. Special care has to be taken to ensure that anti-trafficking measures do not adversely affect the human rights and dignity of persons, and in particular the rights of those who have been trafficked or those who are vulnerable to trafficking. States thus have a responsibility to act with due diligence to prevent trafficking, investigate and prosecute trafficking and to assist and protect trafficked persons. It is clear that grass roots experiences of women have influenced international awareness of the need to move beyond legal sanctions and legal punishments towards addressing the root causes that perpetuate gender discrimination, economic disparities and imbalances in power.

(The full text of the lecture is available in the forthcoming issue of Refugee Watch - 29)

The programme came to a formal end with a vote of thanks delivered by the course coordinator, Paula Banerjee who thanked friends and compatriots, UNHCR, Government of Finland, Brookings Institution, for helping CRG to organise the course.  She thanked Hameeda Hossain, Flavia Agnes, all the resource persons, NHRC of India and Nepal, participants, and the government of India for providing visas to the participants who could make it to the course. She beckoned civil society activists to gear up, get together, participate and organise exchanges on rights and justice-based activities. She finally thanked the CRG team for making the course a success.

The Course had an inbuilt evaluation system. Participants and faculty members were asked to fill and submit evaluation forms relating to various aspects of the course. Some faculty members gave a detailed evaluation too. The final evaluation was held on 15 December and was chaired by Prof. Ranabir Samaddar. Dr. Paula Banerjee explained the perspectives of evaluation, namely providing a platform for study, training, capacity building, and pooling of resources in displacement studies etc. On the basis of evaluation notes of the participants and the members of the faculty the following aspects emerged.

Course Structure

The overall design and the guiding idea of the Course were highly appreciated by the participants. They found it exciting and inspiring, as did the faculty members. Both thought also the Course to be not only intensive and comprehensive, but also to possess something quite particular in its wide range of participants and resource persons and in its non-Euro-centrism.

Reading Material

Almost all the participants got the reading material in time. The list of readings sent, combined with the additional material on the website, was found to be extensive, and capable of addressing the issue of forced migration from many aspects. The participants felt strongly that the material would be of use in their future work or research, and many mentioned that their understanding and knowledge of the South Asian migration issues has increased considerably by going through the list of readings.

Assignments

In terms of assignments, only one participant received the material after completing the first task. They felt that the material provided helped them in completing the assignments given to them. Also several suggestions were raised in terms of the assignments. It was proposed that more time would be devoted to creative assignments, both their preparation and their presentation, and that comments from the module tutors would be available also when still working on the first draft of the paper. Overall, the participants found the creative assignments very good and inspiring.

New types of tasks were proposed – some participants felt that it would be good to require a book review on one item of the reading material, or that the participants could do a country-specific case study where they would address the issue of forced migration in their respective countries.

Field Trip

The field trip was organized for the participants of the winter course to give them practical experience of meeting the refugees and interacting with them, which would give a better understanding of the situation and the life of refugees. The impressions among participants on the trip were, however, quite divided. All found the idea as such a very good one, but criticism was directed towards the exhaustiveness of the trip – although many mentioned that during the trip the cohesiveness of the group was greatly enhanced – and the short time that actually was spent in the refugee center. Also participants hoped for more detailed information with regard to the place they were about to visit, and hoped that at least one more day could have been spent in the field. This extra time, the participants felt, could have been used in meeting and interviewing the Tibetan refugees and preparing individual or group reports on the trip, and on the methodology of doing fieldwork. Some of the participants hoped that there would have been trips to the migrant communities of Kolkata, the city of migrants.

Participatory Sessions

The participants termed the participatory sessions as one of the most valuable components of the course. They found them interesting, intriguing, thought provoking and felt that the sessions added to their knowledge of the refugee issues. Special compliments were made on the idea to organize some of the sessions as roundtables, so that the moderators could give specific questions to all the participants. This mode of working inspired thinking and conversation. Each session was seen to add something new to the issue of forced migration, although some participants felt that the sessions were a bit too long. Also, a few of the participants hoped that the questions posed during the sessions could be given beforehand.

Film Session

The overall opinion was that the film was very interesting and enjoyable and provided a nice variation from listening. Especially it was appreciated that the film dealing with sex workers dealt with the issue in a very interesting manner, which also helped in understanding the complicatedness of the relation between trafficking and forced migration, and that they are not necessarily connected. However, some of the participants felt that the films shown were not relevant in terms of the course and more explicit linkages between the films and the course should be made.

Follow Up

The participants hoped that they would continue receiving information about the lectures, seminars and research projects organized by the CRG. They would also like to initiate a network of the participants, so that the contacts established during the course could be solidified and maintained in the future.

Core Strength Areas

1.Course design and planning
2.Diverse backgrounds of the participants
3.Strong emphasis on South Asia and Non Euro-centrism
4.Excellent resource persons
5.Comprehensive approach to the various aspects of forced migration
6.Good reading material

Problems

1.E-mail correspondence not always satisfactory
2.Shortness of the fieldtrip
3.More time needed in distance education
4.Easier access to printing and email facilities required
5.Further discussion on methodology needed

Excerpts From Evaluators’ Report

Khalid Koser pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of the course. The strength of the course were: A committed core staff supported by carefully-selected external faculty members, a good group of students from a range of backgrounds, a curriculum that focuses on cutting-edge issues, a well-designed course that integrates lectures with group work, presentations and a field trip; in 2006 a creative element has also been introduced which allows students to support their written work in other ways, for example through photography, poetry and dance. The course is well-integrated with other events for example public lectures on related issues. The weaknesses he felt were A significant gap in the curriculum was methodology. There could be a greater focus on ‘transferable skills’ – Some participants presentations were poorly prepared and presented. He also felt that more contact time should be made available between students and visiting faculty members in particular – an office hours system could easily be introduced.

Tarja Väyrynenmade certain suggestions to make the course even better. Few of her suggestions were: If the MCRG wanted to experiment with a new module structure, the new modules could include, for example, Media and representations of forced migration; Urban development and internally displaced people; ethnopolitical conflicts and forced migration; and Peace processes and the question of the right to return. Also the resource persons could be more fully utilised and there should be a clear structure to do this (e.g. individual consultation hours). The forthcoming courses as the present one should draw largely from regional knowledge and experience rather than have faculty from US or Europe. If a comparative element (e.g. South Asia/Africa) is brought in, that should be done in a structured manner. Lastly she felt that some participants should also engage in field research.

Barbara Ramusackfelt the schedule for the participants in the programme was rigorous but diverse in format and effectively paced.  Each day there were either informative presentations by resource persons that ranged from lectures to videos and documentary films.  Significantly the resource faculty initiated lively discussions of how we should assess sources of information such as documentary films both before and after viewing films and power point presentations. The lunches and dinners provided excellent opportunities for informal exchangers among the participants, resource persons, and faculty. The Winter Course was the best organized such event she had attended in India.  Living arrangements were excellent; events started on time except for a few instances when mechanical difficulties intervened; the organizers coped when a few faculty and resource people had to cancel at the last minute and when various bandhs or strikes were in effect during the Course.

Participants’ Evaluation

Participants’ Evaluation (charts)

Participants’ Evaluation (percentages)

16.CRG Team on Forced Migration

1.      Paula Banerjee

2.      Krishna Banerjee

3.      Pradip Bose

4.      Subhas Chakraborty

5.      Ratan Chakraborty

6.      M. Chatterjee

7.      Shreyashi Chaudhuri

8.      Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chaudhury

9.      Samir Kumar Das

10.    Ashok Kumar Giri

11.    Samaresh Guchhait

12.    Raj Kumar Mahato

13.    Sanam Roohi

14.    Ranabir Samaddar

CRG office team

                                 Shreyasi Chaudhuri & Sanam Roohi

                               Samaresh Guchhait & Ratan Chakraborty