There were more refugees and internally displaced people in 1996 than there have ever been before - and the number is likely to continue rising each year at least until the end of the century.
And yet almost every month of 1996 saw some part of the rich world reducing or infringing the rights of people seeking asylum from danger in their own country. In April an official of the UN High Commission for Refugees warned that legislation against illegal immigration pending in the US Senate could go against the International Convention of Refugees, which the US signed in 1968. The US passed the bill in May regardless.
On the positive side the US Government agreed to grant asylum to a woman who had fled from Togo to escape genital mutilation.
In June Britain tightened its laws on asylum and immigration and the next month scrapped a law giving asylum-seekers three days to register in the country. Record numbers of asylum-seekers were held in detention, 343 of them in prison; in August 38 African refugees went on hunger strike in protest at their inhuman treatment. In October a High Court judge decided that ministers would not be allowed to deny welfare payments to 10,000 asylum seekers.
The UN also attacked France for the introduction of new, 'racist' immigration laws, that include fingerprinting visa applicants, tightening border controls and denying free medical assistance and schooling to immigrants in 'irregular' situations. In August the French Government proposed setting up a special task force to 'hunt down' illegal aliens. In response more than 300 asylum seekers barricaded themselves in a church and began a hunger strike. Eventually police stormed the church and forcibly removed the hunger-strikers.
The 'global free market', it is clear, does not include human freedom of movement.