Statement by Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, at the UNHCR Session

(March 05, 2009) Sixty years after the adoption of the Declaration on Human Rights and fifty-seven years after the adoption of the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the international community must not abandon its commitment to receive and protect those who seek to demonstrate their flight from a well-founded fear of persecution and are under threat to their very lives. The increasing phenomenon of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum calls for attention especially because it points toward the desperate situation of some families and because it is too often resolved by an ambiguous system of detention,” said Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva at the 44th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme (UNHCR). He referred to the requests made by the Pope at the 95th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, observed on 18 January 2009 to take care of those refugees and displaced and look after their needs. He brought to the notice of the committee the difficulties experienced by asylum seekers to gain access to protection and to facilities through which they may put forward their request for asylum. The Prelate stressed that “Each country is, of course, entitled to define its own migration policy, but international refugee protection norms must be respected.” National and international policies and legal provisions need, therefore, to have a solid base on human rights, the right to life in the first place, he added. The Archbishop urged the governments to have the foundations for a good asylum policy and to keep asylum an effective option in all countries.