She was toasted by women's refugee advocates at a swanky luncheon at the United Nations.

Arthur Helton (January 24, 1949 - August 19, 2003) was a lawyer, refugee advocate, teacher and author.

Outside the small world of refugee advocates, the bill remained pretty much unknown.

But refugee advocates argue that the men now have a solid claim to refugee status.

These refugee advocates also say that such a law would be incompatible with international humanitarian standards.

Doing that, in turn, could encourage more northerners to flee, refugee advocates contend.

Such a procedure would be seen by refugee advocates as a formality leading to forced returns, the officials predicted.

But given the realities, many refugee advocates say they are braced for more disappointments.

That is already emerging as a fear among refugee advocates and Albanian-American groups.

While refugee advocates sympathized with the administration's need to protect against terrorist infiltrators, he said, "The system clearly didn't work this year."