wfn.org | Episcopalians and Kosovo resettlement

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

99-096

Agencies study ways to help refugees ponder their return to 
Kosovo

by Kathryn McCormick

(ENS) The agencies that have been wrestling for months with 
the care and resettlement of refugees streaming out of Kosovo are 
confronting a new problem: How to help the refugees return home. 

As Episcopal Migration Ministries continued to settle some 
Kosovars in new homes across the United States, EMM Director 
Richard Parkins flew to Macedonia to visit the camps where 
thousands of refugees had been gathered immediately after they 
had fled or were forced from their homes.

The NATO security force was being deployed in Kosovo, 
Parkins said after the June 9-13 visit, and relief officials were 
occupied with efforts to safely return refugees to that area.

"We found the refugees in fairly good condition," he said, 
"a result of a great deal of NGO [non-governmental organization] 
humanitarian assistance." He noted particularly Catholic Relief 
Services, which manages the first of two camps visited by the 
group representing four of the nine agencies designated by the 
U.S. State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S.

Parkins described the camp, Stankovac 1, as hot and 
desolate, as was the second camp the group visited, Cegrane. 
Together, the camps were housing 62,000 people. The group also 
met with a refugee family sheltered by host families in the 
Gostavari municipality.  

"Most refugees are eager to return home," Parkins said, "but 
they are weighing the prospects of doing so any time soon. It was 
fairly clear to our group that the resettlement abroad options 
should continue to be made available given the number who are 
likely to find returning to Kosovo impossible."

He noted that "there are also other vulnerable refugees such 
as women at risk and severe medical cases where resettlement 
abroad could make the difference in returning to a more whole 
life."

The group later recommended that:

*Given the security risks--such as the presence of land 
mines--in Kosovo, the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees must work to see that refugees are fully informed before 
they decide to return home. The option to resettle in other 
countries must be kept open for those refugees who will find it 
impossible to return.

*The government of Macedonia should be commended for 
its efforts to help refugees and should received economic aid to 
offset the costs of hosting the refugees. The UN and humanitarian 
agencies should plan for winterization of the refugee camps if 
substantial numbers of refugees are unable to leave them. These 
plans should include providing for schools.

*The U.S. must work with agencies at the camps to 
clarify the ways in which it can help refugees with special 
needs, such as severe medical conditions. Confusion resulted in 
some refugees being refused resettlement because those doing 
preliminary paperwork for them did not realize that they were 
eligible for aid.

*The U.S. resettlement agencies should keep considering 
the cases of refugees seeking help in the camps and should do 
more effective outreach to inform refugees of the resettlement 
options available.

Meanwhile, in a separate meeting shortly before the 
Macedonian visit, 40 church leaders and high-ranking officials 
across Europe and North America agreed to make the Balkans a 
major focus for aid, development and relationship-building to 
repair the devastation of the decade-long conflict in that 
region.

The consultation, held in Budapest in late May, was 
organized by the World Council of Churches and the Conference of 
European Churches in cooperation with the Lutheran World 
Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The 
Ecumenical Council of Churches in Hungary hosted the event. 
Representatives of these organizations were invited, along with 
officials from Yugoslavia's main churches, churches in NATO 
countries and churches in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

The agreement echoed the recommendation of another 
ecumenical group, including representatives of the WCC, that 
visited refugee camps and churches in Albania and Macedonia and 
called for large-scale church aid in the region.

Both groups stressed the complexity of the situation in the 
Balkans and the need to focus aid on areas beyond immediate help 
for refugees.

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church.