While the eCentre’s strength lies in its network of partners and resources worldwide, it also maintains a small secretariat that coordinates and implements its activities.  The eCentre Secretariat is located within the UNHCR Representation in Tokyo, Japan and is headed by a Regional Training Coordinator, a UNHCR staff member.  In addition to coordinating the eCentre’s training activities, the Regional Training Coordinator acts as an advisor on matters relating to emergency and security preparedness in the region, with a view to strengthening collaboration among the network or responders to humanitarian emergencies. The eCentre Secretariat is further supported by a consultant in Tokyo and an administrative assistant Bangkok.

From the eCentre Coordinator

Life-or-Death Negotiation at the Border of Suremia

UNHCR eCentre Training in Responding to Refugee Emergencies Offers for Lessons for Peacebuilders as well

Fleeing from persecution in their home country of “Mardon,” Wachira and his family have reached the border of neighboring “Suremia.”  But there they have been stopped by Suremian border guards who may prevent them from entering the country.  The fate of Wachira and his family hinges on the efforts of a small team of humanitarian workers, who must negotiate with officials for safe access and asylum for these refugees.

Refugees fleeing persecution in their home country may be denied asylum unless humanitarian workers can intervene to resolve the situation, in a training simulation organized by the UNHCR eCentre with support from the Royal Thai Army in Pran Buri, Thailand.

Although sadly this drama is enacted for real in many parts of the world, Wachira’s story, like Mardon and Suremia, are fictitious.  They are part of a realistic simulation run by the Tokyo-based UNHCR Regional Centre for Emergency Training in International Humanitarian Response, or eCentre, in its humanitarian response training workshops held in Pran Buri, Thailand.  In simulations supported by the Royal Thai Army and over 100 “actors,” workshop participants, humanitarian workers from over 40 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, will have to use quick thinking, understanding of international standards and good negotiation skills to resolve the situation.

This humanitarian worker will need good listening and negotiating skills to ensure that refugees’ basic rights are respected.

It should come as no surprise that eCentre training emphasizes responding to refugee emergencies.  After all, ensuring the right to asylum of people fleeing persecution and war, and preventing their forcible return to the place where they feel afraid, are at the core of UNHCR’s humanitarian mandate. 

What might not be expected, however, is that the same scenario can be found in training offered by the UN Department of Peacekeeping for high-ranking peacebuilders.  In 2004, when UNDPKO sought to develop a course for senior staff deploying to post-conflict areas, they turned to UNHCR to create a module on humanitarian assistance.  eCentre staff undertook the development of the module, providing cases from real experiences involving refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in post-conflict situations.  This training is used today to help prepare senior peacebuilders to face the complex challenges of today’s “multidimensional” peacebuilding environment.

But why do peacebuilders need to know about issues of forced displacement?  Isn’t this a “humanitarian” problem, handled by “specialized” agencies like UNHCR? 
Humanitarian problems are invariably linked to political conflict and instability, and addressing them effectively supports the broader objectives of preventing the reoccurrence of conflict and peacebuilding. 

Specifically, the safe and sustainable return of refugees and IDPs plays a vital role in achieving the broader goals of preventing the reoccurrence of conflict and building a lasting peace.  Significant UNHCR repatriation efforts have recently worked alongside and cooperated with peacebuilding efforts in Afghanistan, the Balkans, Burundi, East Timor, Liberia and Sierra Leone.  While ensuring the conditions for return with safety and dignity is fundamentally a responsibility of the host government, peacebuilders are often a part of the solution through presence, liaison, monitoring, reporting of problems, capacity building, logistics and infrastructure support, and other activities.  

Another important issue of mutual concern is maintaining the civilian character of refugee and IDP settlements and camps.  The presence of armed elements in camps can increase the risk of attacks from the country of origin, fuel tensions with the local community, lead to recruitment of refugees and endanger staff safety.  Again, separating armed elements is fundamentally a government responsibility, but humanitarian and peacebuilding actors alike may assist through monitoring, training, advising, reporting and other supporting activities.

Finally, because unstable countries are found in unstable regions, even those working in a post-conflict environment cannot exclude the possibility of an influx of refugees from a neighboring country.   This lesson has been underscored in recent experiences in the Balkans, West Africa, Central Africa and the Middle East.  Such a situation, however unwanted, may jeopardize hard-earned gains in building peace if not successfully handled.

The refugees will be granted asylum for the time being, but further negotiations will be needed to ensure their safety and basic rights.

On the Suremia border our humanitarian team has persuaded border authorities to grant the refugees temporary asylum pending further instructions from their headquarters.  While more negotiations will be needed at the capital, Wachira and his family will sleep safely tonight.  Respect for human rights and international law have been preserved, and this will reinforce overall efforts for peace and stability in Suremia.  Most important, future aid workers and peacebuilders, whether undergoing training with the eCentre or DPKO, will leave with a better appreciation of the need to balance immediate humanitarian needs and long-term peacebuilding strategies.  In this way, people facing Wachira’s plight for real can hope to enjoy life and liberty today, and lasting peace and stability tomorrow.

Lesson number one: the person who coined the saying that getting there is half the fun probably wasn’t clinging to the side of a farm tractor grinding its way over the 46 km of mud-soaked roads connecting the Fly River boat ramp to the East Awin refugee settlement.  That is, unless the definition of fun being used includes being splashed with muck from an oversized tractor wheel, second-degree sunburn and watching with chagrin as the refugees sharing the journey--oblivious to the hardships-- laugh and joke their way through the ride.

Lesson number two: carry lots of water--or good climbing shoes.  East Awin is a Bring-Your-Own kind of place; anti-globalizationists will be content to know there is still at least one spot that Starbucks hasn’t reached.  Or potable water, for that matter.  If, like me, you find that you have underestimated your body’s need for this precious liquid, relax: a plentiful and delicious source is available in the form of wild rambutans—at least for those with the daring and treeclimbing skills to pluck them.  Fortunately for me, there were refugees up to the task, who nimbly scaled the highest branches to produce the succulent fruit, refusing out of principle or pity to accept any payment from the hopelessly out-of-place “waitman.”

Lesson number three: “bagarap” is in no way a profanity; it is a perfectly respectable verb meaning “to ruin.”  Example: “the tractor ride did completely bagarap my clothes.”  Anyone who has read the essay by Mark Twain in which he laments the final-syllable stress of the German word “damit,” will reflect with regret on the consolation that would have been his had he only discovered Tok Pisin.

Of course, this is just a start; befitting one of the greatest regions of human diversity (over 800 different societies, 1/5 of the world’s known languages), the lessons offered by this astoundingly rich country are equally varied.  As is often the case when working around refugees, many of these come from witnessing the courage and resilience of people who have lost so much, and the sacrifices made by those who endure daily hardships to help them.

This trip also highlighted the unique versatility of the eCentre, which in two short weeks was able to support the UN Country Team through an emergency management workshop in Port Moresby, security assessments in East Awin and a contingency planning workshop in the Western Province.  The highly diverse group of participants, representing government, civil society and UN staff, appreciated the eCentre’s interactive and participatory methodology, and the contingency planning session succeeded in validating and updating response measures for a mass arrival of refugees.  The events were also notable as an effective collaboration, as the cooperation of the UNOCHA and UNHCR offices in Papua New Guinea added depth to the session contents and made the results cost-effective for all. 

The UN Country Team has expressed interest in following up these workshops with a similar event in 2008.  If the eCentre is again invited to participate, this would certainly not bagarap my schedule.  Only, about that tractor…

Michael Dell’Amico is the Coordinator of the UNHCR eCentre based in Tokyo, Japan.  The eCentre provides training for NGO, government and UN staff in the Asia-Pacific region with the goal of improving response to humanitarian emergencies.