FORUM: General Assembly Third Committee

QUESTION OF: Promoting the facilitation of rescue and settlement of refugees in the Mediterranean

SUBMITTED BY: The United Kingdom

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

Led by the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and articles nine, twelve, fourteen, twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-nine of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

Stressing the importance of fair treatment of refugees,

Acknowledging that refugee status may now extend to decades or generations and over 2,700 people have been killed attempting to make this crossing,

Congratulating all countries that have signed and ratified the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees,

Appreciating the progress that has been made on this issue by the UNHCR

Recognizes all NGOs that have taken action to this cause,

  1. Encourages relevant member states involved in the immigrant crisis to educate their local populations, in ways such as but not limited to:

a)enforcing the education about the cultural and religious differences between the refugees and locals in their curriculum,

b)educating the public about the negative impacts of racial discrimination, through ways such as, but not limited to:

  1. creating a commercial to air on television in areas where large amounts of refugees are stationed
  2. newspaper advertisements to be placed in major newspapers in areas where large amounts of refugees are inhabiting
  3. placement of advertisements on major websites
  4. put out a monthly government statement on the current situation of refugees in their nation

c)endorses full communal support and integration of resettled refugees by promoting activities such as but not limited to:

  1. social interaction between locals and refugees through encouragement in carrying out community building activities, local and cultural festivals and running errands for the local staff or community;
  1. Recommends member nations to work collaboratively with relevant organizations, especially AI and the International Police (Interpol), to combat the trafficking and abuse of refugees through ways such as but not limited to:

a)increasing the actions of member states involved in the trafficking where the refugees are trafficked to in ways such as but not limited to:

  1. increasing military action on the borders through the use of tighter border patrols with the sole aim of combating trafficking
  2. increasing the flow of information between the international community and the involved member states on the trafficking networks by dispersing information, with the incentive of gaining information from the databases of the other nations on coveted individuals or groups

b)increasing domestic awareness amongst the community into which refugees are being trafficked by greatly condemning this act and enforcing harsher penalties against individuals involved

c)educating refugees about the dangers of human trafficking gangs, especially the false job prospects they offer, in ways such as holding educational forums in refugee camps and in areas with a multitude of refugees

d)staff/authorities that are able to ensure that living areas are safe and that crime rates remain low using methods such as but not limited to:

  1. prosecuting individuals who have violated the set of regulations laid forth by the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugeesputting individuals who have violated such regulations on probation

e)fair trails for suspected crimes, with a jury and a certified legal professional to determine the verdict under the supervision of Amnesty international;

  1. Calls upon member nations to work closely with relevant NGO’s such as Amnesty International as well as the UNHCR in creating standards for handling refugee by ways including, but not limited too:

a)creating world wide standards for the treatment of refugees, that declare that all refugees are entitled to clean drinking water, food and shelter

b)ensuring that basic standards of living are being met for all refugees,

c)creating a common code of asylum for all member states

d)create a common approach to managing borders for refugees through actions including, but not limited to:

  1. training border guards on the proper way to handle refugees in a variety of situations
  2. create a universal open door policy for refugees attempting to enter a nations borders
  3. creating designated living areas where refugees can live for short periods of time as their asylum requests are processed

e)requires all member states to take action to register each refugee at each nations border through means such as, but not limited to:

  1. assigning them papers that have their basic information and proof of registration that signify that they are a refugee and should be assisted

f)establish a database that would collect information of refugees, including but not limited to where do they come from, when they arrived, and where are they currently at

g)Work with Human Rights Watch and the UNHCR (UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees) togather and distribute necessary equipments;

  1. Advocates the reinforcement of protection for the most vulnerable refugees, such as children, women and the physically and mentally unstable, within refugee camps through ways such as but not limited to:

a)establishing separate facilities for these refugees such as separate living quarters with in a camp

b)implementing penalties for offenders of physical crime against these refugees depending on the degree of the offense, with the highest degree of punishment being expulsion from the camp to a different facility

c)increasing the amount of security personnel in camps with a high number of vulnerable people, through the collaboration with security-related institutions such as the UN Security Council or the NATO;

  1. Calls upon relevant countries to aid and secure the safe maritime passage of refugees using methods such as but not limited to:

a)ensuring the safety of transport boats using methods such as but not limited to:

  1. regular patrols in waters often used by immigrants
  2. the offering of aid to any and all refugees in need of assistance
  3. providing safer means of transportation

b)publicly announcing their willingness to take in refugees;

  1. Strongly urges all European nations bolster their search and rescue efforts in the Mediterranean in ways including, but not limited too:

a)deploying Navy vessels to search for refugees

b)providing funding for volunteers to continue search and rescue operations

c)organize civilian search and rescue teams

d)deploy European border nations national guards to patrol the waters, along the coastline of their nations;

  1. Calls upon governments of MEDCs to consider UNHCR approved refugee support programs that may include but are not limited to:

a)adequate temporary housing consisting of, but not limited to:

  1. a minimum of 5 square meters per person
  2. health and sanitation conditions that meet the standards of the World Health Organization and UNICEF

b)creating designated settlement areas where refugees will be granted small areas to live in all member states, under the supervision of the UNHCR and NGO's

c)education and schooling for refugee children that includes staff that are able to communicate in their language to break the language barrier

d)psychological support for traumatized refugees including, but not limited to:

  1. counseling
  2. forms of therapy including but not limited to: Psychoanalytic Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, Group Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy
  3. co-counseling therapy

e)sources of food and clean water for the refugees funded by the IRC and provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization

f)overseeing the aid mission in the temporary camps, using methods such as, but not limited to:

  1. resolving any internal conflicts amongst the varying groups
  2. acting as a center of communication within the aid mission, and for external groups, such as the media and local governments
  3. allocating funding amongst the groups in the aid mission;
  1. Encourages the host countries to build national programs in order to help the refugees to resettle in the region, by the means such as but not limited to:

a)establishing educational systems that are especially targeting refugees regarding different languages and cultures

b)establishing a medical help program, especially the newly arrived refugees, to help them recover from the maritime disasters, provided by certified doctors from NGOs such as Red Crescent

c)establishing a training program to reduce the unemployment rate among refugees overseen by the IRC;

  1. Encourages willing and able member states to continue and fund discussion platforms with relevant countries along with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), United Nations Organizations (UNOs) and regional organizations such as the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the African Union (AU) with aims such as but not limited to:

a)continuing multilateral discussions and conferences to establish new ways of helping and gaining access to facilitation of refugees

b)acknowledging key issues related to and settlements of refugees, such as conflict, criminality and physical abuse

c)addressing solutions to the core reasons to causation of refugees, such as conflict and natural disaster;

  1. Requests for relevant nations in the Mediterranean region to cooperate and collaborate in reference to this issue through means such as, but not limited to:

a)holding bi-annual summits so countries can report collected data and progress on the issue, and encourage collaboration as a whole

b)publishing reports in regard to the following:

  1. statistics involving rate and number of refugees entering into and departing from their nation
  2. number of refugees integrated into the nation and how many were deported or transferred to another nation

c)consulting with member states with high amounts of departing refugees and question short term and long term causes for this so that they may be addressed;

  1. Calls for the IMF and all member nations to contribute funding to an emergency response fund for nations under heavy burden because of large influxes of refugees with uses including, but not limited too:

a)providing food for refugees

b)providingshelter

c)providing clean water

d)relocation of refugees

e)payment for government agencies working to help the migrants;

  1. Further recommends that relevant NGO’s such as Amnesty International and UNO’s such as the UNHCR oversee these operations and ensure that:

a)refugees are being treated humanly and fairly

b)all member nations continue to cooperate to combat this issue

c)see that all refugees are given basic human necessities

d)refugees are living in sanitary environments

e)member nations are meeting the terms set in this resolution.