Vatican Radio interviews Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of UNHCR.

Q: World Refugee Day this year coincides with the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the adoption of the 1951 Geneva Convention on Refugees. What has been done and how much still has to be done in the humanitarian engagement?

A: UNHCR has been assisting millions of refugees over the last sixty years. The organisation has also developed solution s so that they could become citizens in the country where they resettled or proposed opportunities to settle in another country. Most refugees were assisted to return home, and were helped to reconstruct their lives again.

The existence of UNHCR already indicates that the problem is far from over. The organisation was first established to remain in function for three years. This has been extended and only a few years ago, UNHCR became a permanent organisation. The problems faced are also changing and its mandate broadened.

In the beginning the organisation was exclusively European oriented, dealing with 19 million uprooted citizens, displaced before 1951 related to the world war. The first broadening was the situation of Hungarian refugees in 1956 during the uprising. The following years, different situations like Algeria, Cambodia and Tibet, obliged the High Commissioner to intervene in other continents.

This has led to a situation that UNHCR became responsible for refugees worldwide. This mandate has been expanded by the General Assembly of the United Nations to groups of people who were not covered, like stateless people and persons displaced by military conflicts. During the past few years UNHCR took responsibility for certain groups of internally displaced people, namely those displaced by military conflicts or human rights violations.

New challenges are waiting. Who will take responsibility for those people who will be forced to leave their country for climate induced reasons?

One has to remark that the political climate also has changed. There is a hardening attitude of countries so that it seems that refugees are the problem and not the reasons why they have to flee.

Q: How is the engagement of the Church towards refugees and asylum seekers expressed today?

A: The Church is present with refugees and the internally displaced in many different ways. It depends very much on the involvement of the episcopal conference or the local bishop. Priests and sisters are staying with refugees in camps. In some places a bishop made the camp a parish, and treats it in the same way as other parishes. In addition, many religious congregations got individual members involved, while others joined the Jesuit Refugee Service. This service was founded in 1980 by Father Arrupe, Superior Generalof the Jesuits to respond to the needs of the Vietnamese boat people, refugees fleeing from Vietnam.

A special role is played by the International Catholic Migration Commission. They have become specialists in the resettlement of refugees to third countries. More than one million people have been resettled. In addition, they are involved in different socioeconomic projects, like micro-credits.

In addition, Caritas, both at diocesan level or national level, is assisting in many different ways, from emergency aid to directly involved in managing refugee camps. They also got involved in counselling of traumatic refugees, and the reintegration of child soldiers.

One of the new challenges will be to have a presence among the urban refugees, a new phenomenon. An increasing number of refugees, at present half of them, settle down in cities. One of the questions is how to reach them as they have become invisible in the crowds of others, especially in slum areas.