DAVID YOUNT Many asylum seekers languish in refugee camps
Even before the war against Saddam Hussein, fleeing Iraqis constituted one of the world's largest single category of refugees seeking a better life in the world's wealthiest countries.
Every year, half a million people from the Third World apply for asylum in one of 15 wealthy countries, among them the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia.
The cost to the taxpayers of those countries is more than $10 billion annually, only a portion of which is spent on the asylum-seekers themselves. Most is absorbed by bureaucrats, lawyers and support workers, and only 1 in 8 applicants is approved.
The compassionate motive behind giving sanctuary to the oppressed is of Christian origin. Toward the end of the fourth century, Roman law recognized that fugitives could seek at least temporary protection from physical punishment in the sanctuaries of churches. In 1623, James I of England and Scotland abolished that privilege in criminal cases, but not civil cases. Asylum was honored in France until the Revolution. During the Cold War, embassies of Western nations offered asylum to political dissidents oppressed by the communists.
Unfortunately, asylum today is being offered to those who least need it. Asylum-seekers are disproportionately male and well-to-do, and travel alone. It can cost $10,000 for a refugee from Sri Lanka to be smuggled to the West.
The impoverished
By contrast, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees cares for 20 million people, mostly poor families with children in refugee camps. The office enjoys a budget of only $710 million for all those people -- less than one-fourth what Britain alone spends each year on its 109,500 asylum claimants.
Only 1 in 5 asylum-seekers worldwide arrives with identity papers. During the war in Kosovo, many countries welcomed refugees, but The Economist suggests that some "came from neighboring [peaceful but poor] Albania." Its editors add: "No doubt some of today's 'Iraqi' refugees really come from other unpleasant places."
In the wake of 9/11, Western nations have scrutinized asylum-seekers as possible terrorists. Member nations of the European Union now fingerprint all asylum claimants and share the information.
The new archbishop of Canterbury cautions that asylum-seekers cannot be assimilated overnight but may need to be detained for a time for their own safety as well as that of the host nation.
Meanwhile, millions of the world's homeless languish in refugee camps. The West might better spend its taxpayers' money to improve their plight.
XDavid Yount writes for Scripps Howard.