Hollenbach, David (ed.); Refugee Rights: Ethics, Advocacy and Africa. Washington DC, Georgetown University Press, 2008. RRP $26.95. ISBN 9781589012028
Titles on the ethics of forced migration are surprisingly rare. There is a plethora of works defining operational guidelines and standards for agencies working with refugees, of which the Sphere Project is one of the more well known. Guy Goodwin-Gill and Jane McAdam's The Refugee in International Law leads a sizeable literature on refugees in relation to international human rights law. Among titles that approach the question of how to deal with forced migrants in an ethical manner, Matthew Gibney's The Ethics and Politics of Asylum is the stand out in a sparse field.
In Australia too, there is voluminous historical literature opposing the lamentable practices of succeeding governments and their deleterious effect on the most vulnerable people that seek the refuge of our shores. Frank Brennan's Tampering with Asylum and Klaus Neumann's Refuge Australia: Australia's Humanitarian Record provide essential background on the Australian stance towards asylum seekers. Only Brennan's book discusses the ethics in detail, however, looking to practice overseas in suggesting possible ways forward.
It is into this context that David Hollenbach's Refugee Rights, Advocacy and Africa arrives. The book's collected essays construct a comprehensive framework for effective advocacy and thinking around refugees in the African situation. In doing so, they create a narrative for a group of people who, by definition, are cut off from the mainstream narrative of nation-building. This creation of a 'narrative of the dispossessed' is the collection's strength and major contribution.
The opening essay grounds the work: Abebe Feyissa, an Ethiopian refugee, has spent over 15 years in refugee camps in Kenya. He elicits surprisingly refreshing insight from his experience, and gives them articulate expression (with the help of co-author Rebecca Horn). Emphasised is the denial of the right to freedom of movement of refugees and the dangers of prolonged encampment. In this nether world, people create their own mental landscape into which they increasingly escape. Absentmindedness, both laughable and sometimes with tragic consequences, is rife. Domestic violence is endemic, as small events prick the artificial thought-bubble and assume outlandish importance: as simple an occurrence as a late-served lunch can provide the spark needed to unleash violent forces within.
This first-hand narrative becomes the foundation on which all the other contributions rely. In a volume of strong contributions, O'Neill's and Hollenbach's are particularly insightful. O'Neill