With camps limiting many refugees, the UNHCR’s policy change is welcome

We would like to reproduce hereafter an article by Lucy Hovil called "With camps limiting many refugees, the UNHCR’s policy change is welcome" dated 02 October 2014 and published in The Guardian. It analyses UNHCR new position on alternative to refugee camps. 

It is rare to witness a paradigm shift in refugee protection. But such a shift has just happened with the release of the new policy from the UN high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) on alternatives to refugee camps.

For refugees and their advocates, who have been shouting for years about the perils associated with camps, the policy is almost too good to be true. As it states: “From the perspective of refugees, alternatives to camps means being able to exercise rights and freedoms, make meaningful choices regarding their lives and have the possibility to live with greater dignity, independence and normality as members of communities.” It makes perfect sense. But why has it taken so long? For decades, the default response to refugee crises has been to set up camps or settlements and coerce refugees into them. Camps, it was argued, were best suited to meet the social, economic and political realities in which refugees are living.

Asylum Access and The Refugee Work Rights Coalition release Global Refugee Work Rigths Report

Asylum Access and the Refugee Work Rights Coalition have recently released the publication, Global Refugee Work Rights Report 2014: Taking the Movement from Theory to Practice. We reproduce hereafter the abstract of this major paper (as posted on Asylum Access Refugee Work Rights blog). 

The report examines the laws, policies and practices for refugee work rights in 15 countries around the globe (affecting a total of 30% of the world’s refugee population). The reports' findings reveal that almost half of the 15 countries examined in the report have a complete legal bar to refugee employment, and in the countries where some legal right to work exists, significant de-facto barriers to employment, like strict encampment, exorbitant permit fees or widespread discrimination, undermine refugees’ ability to access lawful employment.

In simple terms, refugees’ work rights are respected as the exception, not the rule.

The publication also calls upon stakeholders – governments, UN agencies, civil society, refugee and local communities – to take concrete steps to bring national employment laws and policies around the world into line with international human rights and refugee law standards. In doing so, the report (i) provides a breakdown of the right to work under international law, which may be used by advocates to inform policy makers of their legal commitments; (ii) an explanation of the economic arguments in favor of granting refugees’ work rights, which may be used to supplement legal arguments; and (iii) concrete recommendations for achieving legal reform, and administrative and judicial support for work rights domestically.

UNCHR Website on Urban Refugee Programs and best Practices

The Website on Urban Refugee Programs and Best Practices is a place to look for resources and insights on effective programming for urban refugees. This collaborative project is meant to serve as a compilation of positive examples of urban refugee services. These best practices are categorized by sector, organization, and geographic location so users can easily search for the information most relevant to them. Check it out, and help the site grow by submitting your own success stories!

Brochure on the right to work of refugees in Kenya (in French, Somali and Oromo)

The International Rescue Committee and the Refugee Consortium of Kenya have produced brochures to inform refugees residing in Kenya of their right to work. This brochure perfectly illustrates the need for awareness campaigns to inform refugees of their rights.

Right to Work Brochures

These materials educate refugees on their right to access employment.  Available in French, Somali, andOromo.

Refugees' Right to work is vital to individual dignity said Kenyan High Court (July 2013)

We reproduce hereafter an extract of the first High Court ruling (26 july 2013) quashing the Kenyan government directive planning to send urban refugees living in Nairobi into refugee camps. This extracts recalls that the right to work of urban refugees contributes to human dignity and allows for self-sufficiency of refugees. 

Right to dignity
The petitioners and other refugees have established roots in the country and are productive residents and if the policy is implemented they will be uprooted from their homes and neighbourhoods in what is intended to be a security operation.

Kenya: decades of integration efforts by refugees at stake

We would like to reproduce an article by James Stapelton, International coordinator at the Jesuit Refugee Service and Professor of Human Rights published in June 2014 on the situation of urban refugees in Kenya (see also our previous post on the same topic: Unlawful Refugees' transfer to violate human rights dating 22/01/2013).

The right to work and live a decent life of self- sufficient urban refugees is again at stake in Kenya...

JRS | KENYA: DES DÉCADES D’INTÉGRATION DES RÉFUGIÉS MISES À MAL, publié le 20 août 2014

Counting the Cost, Barriers to employment after Direct Provision in Ireland

In the report 'Counting the Cost, Barriers to Employment after Direct Provision' (May 2014) the Irish Refugee Council evaluates the negative consequences (based on interviews with refugees) for the Irish society and refugees of prolonged stays in the Direct provision system while being deprived from the right to work. 

Among other recommendations (p.38-41) the reports highlights that permission to work should be granted to asylum seekers within a period of maximum six month after the lodging of their protection claim. 

Toward a right to work for asylum seekers in Ireland? Long is the road!

We reproduce an article extracted from the Irish Times (author Carl O'Brien, dating 12 August 2014) highlighting the difficulties experienced by asylum seekers who have been denied the right to work in Ireland and left dependent from the direct provision system for years: 

Government to review conditions for asylum seekers

The Government is to establish a working group next month to review the State’s controversial direct provision system for asylum seekers. Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald said issues such as welfare payments for adults and children, restrictions to third-level education and supports for children will be among the issues to be examined. 

However, she ruled out extending the right to work for asylum seekers who have been in the system for long periods, due to the high level of unemployment in the State.

Host economies benefit when refugees work

In an article published in Forced Migration Review (n° 44, dating Sept. 2013) Emily E Arnold-Fernandez (Executive Director at Asylum Access) and Steward Pollock argue that host economies benefit when refugees are granted the right to work. Illustrations from Australia, Thailand and Ecuador are analyzed in this article that usefully recalls why refugees should be granted the right to work. 

The article 'Refugees' rights to work' is available in PDF or in an audio- format:

PDF

mp3

-See more at: http://www.fmreview.org/detention/arnoldfern%C3%A1ndez-pollock#sthash.g9lotdf9.dpuf 

Honk Kong Court Denies Refugees Right to Work (Feb. 2014)

We would like to share the following article (authored by Te- Ping Chen), already dating from 18 February 2014, that has been published in the Online Newspaper ChinaRealtime: 

A refugee from Bangladesh stands at the doorstep to his room at a compound where asylum-seekers reside in the Ping Che area of Hong Kong.

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Hong Kong’s top court on Tuesday denied the city’s refugees—some of who live in slum-like conditions—the right to work, disappointing activists who say the decision is likely to force more refugees into deeper poverty.