Third country resettlement

Third country resettlement or refugee resettlement is, according to the UNHCR, one of three durable solutions for refugees who fled their home country. Resettled refugees may also be referred to as quota or contingent refugees, as countries only take a certain number of refugees each year.

Selection and process

Refugees are referred by the UNHCR or other aid organisations according to the degree of risk and vulnerability in the first country of asylum. They may either be selected from the population of refugee camps or from urban centres. After the refugees are referred for resettlement they are suggested to the countries that run resettlement programmes. Each participating government can select from the referrals. Those who are selected for resettlement are assisted to travel into a safer country, usually by airplane. Upon arrival in the country refugees have the right to reside in the country and do not need to apply for asylum.

However, only about 1% of the over 10.5 million refugees the UNHCR typically deals with are submitted for resettlement. Around 108,000 refugees were considered for the opportunity to be resettled in 2010, with the primary countries of origin being Iraq, Myanmar, and Bhutan.^[1]

UNHCR referred more than 121,000 refugees for consideration for resettlement in 2008. This was the highest number for 15 years. In 2007, 98,999 people were referred. UNHCR referred 33,512 refugees from Iraq, 30,388 from Burma/Myanmar and 23,516 from Bhutan in 2008.^[2]

Resettlement Programmes

A number of third countries run specific resettlement programmes in co-operation with UNHCR. The size of these programmes is shown in the table.^[3] The largest programmes are run by the United States, Canada and Australia. A number of European countries run smaller schemes and in 2004 the United Kingdom established its own scheme, known as the Gateway Protection Programme^[3] with an initial annual quota of 500, which rose to 750 in the financial year 2008/09.^[4]

Europe

In September 2009, the European Commission unveiled plans for new Joint EU Resettlement Programme. The scheme would involve EU member states deciding together each year which refugees should be given priority. Member states would receive €4,000 from the European Refugee Fund per refugee resettled.^[5]

Bulgarian refugee children from Gorno Brodi after the Second Balkan War resettled in Pestera.

Japan recognized only 305 persons as refugees between 1981 and 2002.^[6] Only six people were accepted in 2013.^[7]

Unites States

The United States helped resettle roughly 2 million refugees between 1945 and 1979, when their refugee resettlement program was restructured. They now make use of 11 "Voluntary Agencies" (VOLAGS), which are non-governmental organizations that assist the government in the resettlement process.^[8] These organizations assist the refugees with the day-to-day needs of the large transition into a completely new culture. Usually, they are not funded by the government, but instead rely on their own resources and volunteers. Most of them have local offices, and caseworkers that provide individualized aid to each refugee's situation. They do rely on the sponsorship of individuals or groups, such as faith-based congregations or local organizations. The largest of the VOLAGS is the Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Catholic Conference.^[8] Others include Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, the Ethiopian Community Development Council, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the International Rescue Committee, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, and World Relief.^[9]

There are a number of advantages to the strategy of using agencies other than the government to directly assist in resettlement. First of all, it has been estimated that for a federal or state bureaucracy to resettle refugees instead of the VOLAGS would double the overall cost. These agencies are often able to procure large quantities of donations and, more importantly, volunteers. According to one study, when the fact that resettlement workers often have to work nights, weekends, and overtime in order to meet the demands of the large cultural transition of new refugees is taken into account, the use of volunteers reduces the overall cost down to roughly a quarter.^[10] VOLAGS are also more flexible and responsive than the government since they are smaller and rely on their own funds.

Other

Examples of controlled refugee movements that may be considered similar to resettlement (but not facilitated by the UNHCR) were Operation Moses, Operation On Wings of Eagles, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, Operation Joshua, Operation Yachin and Operation Solomon, in which Jewish refugees were resettled from Sudan, Marocco, Iraq, Yemen and Ethiopia to Israel.

Resettlement arrivals

Resettlement departures

In terms of resettlement departures, in 2008, 65,548 refugees were resettled in 26 countries, up from 49,868 in 2007.^[2] The largest number of UNHCR-assisted departures were from Thailand (16,807), Nepal (8,165), Syria (7,153), Jordan (6,704) and Malaysia (5,865).^[2] Note that these are the countries that refugees were resettled from, not their countries of origin.

References