Immigration and Refugees a central problem up for debate at HNMUN.

By SUSAN BINCHY, HAARETZ

The committee of the European Union opened with a heated debate over immigration. Denmark claimed it was a matter of peace. Peace rang through through Spain’s plea to discuss the Euro Zone crisis, stating that the economic state of their country, with unemployment at twenty percent, was a risk to peace.
Poland, a currently thriving economy, claimed this was due to increased immigration, stating that it was “the key to stimulating the economy.” The United Kingdom, infamous for its stance against immigration, naturally wished to address the pressures faced by its social system by immigration. Catherine Satiyarova, a delegate of the United Kingdom, told me that “the economy is primary and immigration was secondary.” Her stance was that the Eurozone crisis was too much of a threat to their country. Little was mentioned or debated about refugees.
The Executive Committee, UN High Commissioner for Refugees discussed both Topic A, Urban Refugees, and Topic B, Problems in East Africa. The underlying current is that the problems in East Africa are being worked out while the plight of the urban refugee has yet to be addressed. I spoke to Refugee International who sided with the need to address the sudden growth of urban refugees. They stated that it is “a global problem that overlaps with the problems in East Africa”. He hoped that the issue of better tracking of refugees would be discussed as well as work permits. These are a key to truly grasping the extent of the problem, and a matter of human rights.
In Israeli the prominent problem is the “right of return” for all Palestinian refugees and displaced persons on several points. The absolute right of return for all Palestinian refugees and displaced persons is a direct threat to Israeli statehood. There are concerns that the return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their offspring would interfere with the area’s demographic composition. There is a fear that a number of refugees might constitute a security threat and upon readmission could band with other Palestinian extremists to target Israel. Instead, Israelis contend that an agreement on the refugee situation should be based on three interrelated components: resettlement of refugees and their descendants in the nations where they currently reside, international efforts to improve quality of life in refugee camps, and restricted readmission based exclusively on humanitarian considerations
The resolutions of both committees will be directly applicable to Israel and thus we wait with great anticipation.