Green light to UNHCR, green light to the desperate!

The closure of UNHCR and the order of expulsion by the Libyan government was good reason for all the desperate asylum seekers and refugees to worry. This action also worried the EU parliament, the IOPCR, Amnesty International and other human right groups. UN Refugee Agency's spokesperson Melissa Fleming, on June 8th said "We regret this decision as we believe UNHCR has a great deal of work to do in Libya to protect, assist and find durable solutions for the refugees there," Fleming said. "This will leave a huge vacuum for the thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers who are there already and, of course, those who continue to arrive steadily on boats every week."

Later in June 19th, Italian Refugee Council (IRC) expressed its deep concern on the arbitrary expulsion of the Refugee Agency. It appealed to the Italian government to do its best in pressurizing its number one trade partner to allow UN Refugee Agency to function. IRC jointly with International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) also wrote an appeal request to European commissioner for Home Affairs as so as it do its best in pressurizing Libya allow UNHCR to resume its work. From Libyan side, IOPCR- a leading Libyan NGO also expressed its deep regret on the intervention done on the activities of its partner on refugee protection.

The EU parliament in its 17th June 2010 decree, expresses deep concern at the closure of the UNHCR office in Libya and urges the Libyan authorities to ratify the Geneva Convention on Refugees without delay and to allow and facilitate the running of UNHCR's activities in Libya, including the establishment of a national asylum system.

After constructive discussion with Libyan officials at senior level, the UN Refugee Agency in Friday 25th June formally announced that the office is allowed to resume partially and handle the current caseloads at hand. But since it is good ground on which the office can negotiate more on its future existence, it can be taken as green light at this moment.

Thus, the desperate asylum seekers and refugees in Libya now expresses their happiness to the resume of HCR in Tripoli, and hopes it will be much stronger agency than before. It is good time for the agency to see deep inside itself and investigate the allegation by Libyan government for serious misconduct.

As for the partial green light, it is good offer, but not enough!!!