Refugees faced with open hostility, resentment worldwide in 1986; Assembly backs plan for conference on plight of refugees in Southern Africa.

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Refugees faced with open hostility, resentment worldwide in 1986

Assembly backs plan for conference on plight of refugees in southern Africa

Open hostility and mistrust toward the world's 12.6 million refugees escalated in 1986, threatening to paralyse international co-ordination and co-operation on the issue, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told United Nations delegates in November 1987. Jean-Pierre Hocke, the United Nations High Commissioner, outlined the highlights of his report on the global status of refugees before a crowded meeting of the Third Committee.

The year 1986, he stated, had been dominated by four major trends: a majority of refugees had been compelled to stay longer and longer in the countries of first asylum; the number of refugees was multiplying as a result of old and new crises; refugees and asylum-seekers were arriving at frontiers in a growing number of countries on all continents; and the tendency to confuse refugees and economic migrants was becoming stronger, confusion which could...