Refugees and UNHCR
UNHCR Regional Office for the United States and the Caribbean
History1921 - Nansen named 1st High Commissioner for Refugees
1945 – WWII ends with 3 million refugees still homeless
1950 – UNHCR is founded
1951 – Refugee Convention is adopted
1950-60s – Hungarian, Algerian, Tibetan, and Rwandan outflows
1975 – SE Asia exodus begins
1980’s – Afghan, Ethiopian, Iranian, Central American outflows
1990’s – Bosnian, Liberian, Rwandan, Somali, & Sudanese outflows
2000’s – Darfuri, Iraqi, & Congolese outflows
2012-2013 – 1 million + Syrians flee
Who is a refugee?Of the 7,000,000,000 persons in the world
15,000,000+ are refugees.
“Refugee” – A universal definition Article (1) 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees
A refugee is any person who owing to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted
for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,is outside of his country of nationality, and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country …”
Rights of Refugees
Non Refoulement Non- Return
Documentation-I.D. docs-Travel docs
Civil Rights-Religion-Association-Property-Access to courts-Movement-Naturalization
Social Rights-Education-Employment-Public Assistance/Relief-Housing
Durable solutions
Repatriation
Local Integration
Resettlement
Steps for Refugee Resettlement
Refugee status determinationor registration process
Identification of aneed for resettlement
Resettlement country refugee status determination
and admissibilityprocedures
Clearances
TravelReception & Integration
Submis
sion
How Refugees Access the US Resettlement Program
Individual Referrals byUS Embassies
UNHCROverseas NGOs
Designated groups ofconcern to the US
Family Reunion
Nationalities of refugeesresettled to the US in 2012
Nationalities of persons granted asylum in the US in 2012
More information on refugees
WWW.UNHCR.ORG
Data.UNHCR.org
UNHCR Refworld
WWW.UNHCRWASHINGTON.ORG
Refugee Processing Center – www.wrapsnet.org
Office of Refugee Resettlement -http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/
Center for Applied Linguistics - www.cal.org
Thank you!