UNHCR WORRIES TRADITIONAL CASELOAD WILL SUFFER DUE

UNCLAS MOSCOW 002692 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PGOV PHUM RS SUBJECT: UNHCR WORRIES TRADITIONAL CASELOAD WILL SUFFER DUE TO DONORS' CAUCASUS EMPHASIS ¶1. (SBU) Summary: In a conversation with Refcoord, UNHCR Russia's new Deputy Country Representative worried that donors' focus on recent displacements in the Caucasus will undermine the refugee agency's efforts to provide life-sustaining support to its core caseload of urban refugees. He agreed to consider organizing a donor mission, suggested by Refcoord to encourage national aid agencies to reexamine the needs of forced migrants living in Russia's big cities. End summary. UNHCR Russia Faces a Lean Season -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Against the backdrop of South Ossetia's post-conflict Russian-financed rejuvenation, UNHCR Deputy Country Representative Olivier Mouquet on September 4 enumerated UNHCR financial problems he has encountered since arriving in Moscow this summer: -- The cost of medical services has risen 20 percent in Russia in the past year, while strict Russian customs and public health and sanitation regulations eliminate international procurement as an alternative. -- The rent on UNHCR's Moscow reception center (which is separate from its administrative offices) is scheduled to rise 15 percent as of December 1. -- As of January 1, 2009, the RF will tax all UNHCR grants to its implementing partners as though they were income, thus decreasing their value by about 20 percent. -- Across-the-board inflation and the weak dollar further diminish the organization's spending power. ¶3. (SBU) Mouquet, whose last post was in Geneva, admits that his former colleagues tease him for having gone from penny-pinching headquarters suit to anxious field operative warning of dire consequences should new funding not become available. Back in Geneva, Mouquet had hoped to cut the Russia office's urban caseload because it costs a lot of money to help relatively few people. But now, he confessed, he could see this would not be so easy, due to incredible Russian growth rates and accompanying economic dislocations. With little fat left to cut in his agency's assistance to mandate refugees and asylum-seekers in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Mouquet is considering decreasing the number of houses UNHCR constructs for long-term IDPs in Ingushetia. Donors tend to focus on the North Caucasus, but the Asians and Africans who have fled their homelands to Russia's big cities remain the refugee agency's core caseload, Mouquet affirmed. He went on to ask whether PRM would consider funding a second JPO for his office this year, primarily to assist in reviewing mandate refugees' files for resubmission to the FMS for refugee status determination. (Note: Any long-term asylum seeker that Russia agrees now deserves status is one less beneficiary for UNHCR's scarce assistance. End note.) ¶4. (SBU) Refcoord pointed out that UNHCR Moscow has been less aggressive in courting donors than other refugee agency offices in the region and might benefit from inviting both Moscow mission and capital foreign affairs staff to visit urban refugees in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and possibly a third city (such as Krasnodar or Rostov in the south) to witness the dire conditions in which many Afghan, African, and Asian forced migrants live. UNHCR protection and program officers could then explain the country conditions that stymie integration and suggest interventions for foreign funding. Mouquet appeared not to have considered this approach before and said he would take it up with colleagues. ¶5. (SBU) Comment: While the plight of Russia's urban refugees and the old caseload of Caucasian displaced, who continue to live in poverty and uncertainty, has been overshadowed by the latest Caucasus crisis, there is a continued role for U.S. support in resolving this caseload. End comment. BEYRLE