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.
