Conflict and the refugee experience ; Flight, exile and repatriation in the Horn of Africa

Population migration is one of the most serious threats to peace, security, and the sovereignty of nations in the post-Cold War era. A particularly volatile form of this threat is the global refugee crisis, and nowhere has this problem been more severe and persistent than in the Horn of Africa. While attention today focuses on West Africa and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, conflicts between and within nations have caused similar movements in the Horn of Africa for about four decades. Huge numbers of people have suffered dislocation. Some have been, internally displaced, and others have crossed international borders to seek asylum in neighboring countries. Governments have manipulated these movements out of concern for national security, undermining the security of other states, and the resulting diffusion of conflicts has invited intervention by powers from outside the region. Despite the seriousness of this problem however, the Horn of Africa has not attracted the necessary attention. At the academic level, there is a missed opportunity to develop a better understanding of continuity and change of the refugee problem - a problem unprecedented in its persistence and severity (Holborn 1975; Zolberg et al. 1989). At the policy level, the lack of understanding and appreciation of this problem has created problems in the modalities of allocation of resources to manage the refugee problem in the region. Therefore, the lack of attention at both levels has adversely affected the emergence of a refugee regime capable of formulating an effective refugee management policy with potential applications elsewhere. Although conflicts and the ensuing refugee problems have disproportionately affected the Horn of Africa, other countries have had their share of problems as well and have divised contingent policies in dealing with them. Some countries especially those in the developed North, see refugee influx into their territories as a national security threat. In response, they have adopted policies that restrict immigration and have maintained strong pressure to bring about a speedy repatriation of those