Refugees and their money

InternationalMay 15th 1999 edition

ABOUT a month ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross flew three plane-loads of blankets from its warehouse in Nairobi to the Balkans. The blankets had been earmarked for people displaced by the war in Eritrea and Ethiopia, but it was decided that the need was greater elsewhere. The needs of the Kosovar refugees are indeed immense: at least 900,000 people driven from their country without food and shelter. But aid officials are beginning to be concerned that other refugee disasters which enjoy less television exposure—the 1m displaced Angolans, for instance—are in danger of neglect.

On May 11th, Sadako Ogata, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said her agency had received only half the $143m asked for Kosovo for the first half of the year, and most of this had already been spent. She called for more—and will no doubt get it. Last year the UN appeal for Kosovo reached 93% of its target. Nowhere else, except Sudan, which also had a lot of television coverage, came close. Overall, UN appeals raised just over 50% of their targets. As one UNHCR official points out, Kosovars have two advantages over the world's other 22m refugees: their children look like the children of the principal donors, and they are on television every night.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline "Refugees and their money"

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