Less than 5 per cent of refugee resettlement needs met last year

The Refugee Brief, 19 February

By Kate Bond | 19 February, 2019 WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Less than 5 per cent of refugee resettlement needs met last year. New data shows that despite record levels of worldwide forced displacement, only 4.7 per cent of global refugee resettlement needs were met in 2018. Released by UNHCR, the data shows that of the estimated 1.2 million refugees who were in need of resettlement in 2018, just 55,692 were resettled. The largest number of UNHCR-facilitated resettlement departures were from major refugee-hosting countries, including Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Uganda. Resettlement remains a life-saving tool, as residents and volunteers in Pessat-Villeneuve in central France recently demonstrated by helping 60 Africans evacuated from Libya build new lives. The Global Compact on Refugees calls for States to offer more resettlement places, by expanding existing programmes or establishing new ones. EU calls for peace in South Sudan’s Central Equatoria region. The European Union yesterday urged South Sudan's warring parties to cease hostilities following recent clashes. In a statement issued in Juba, the EU also condemned the fighting at the start of February that left several people dead and said the impact of the ongoing violence on the lives of civilians was “grave and unacceptable”. Last week, UNHCR estimated that the violence had displaced 5,000 civilians who have sought refuge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as an additional 8,000 people who remain displaced inside South Sudan, on the outskirts of the town of Yei. The clashes are blocking humanitarian access to thousands of vulnerable people in the affected areas. WHAT’S ON OUR RADAR Council of Europe raises alarm over camp conditions in Greece. The Council’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture has raised concerns over what it calls the “inhuman and degrading” conditions in Greece’s refugee camps. According to a report released by the committee, the situation is particularly alarming at Fylakio reception centre, near the land border with Turkey, which was set up with backing from the European Union to speed up refugee processing. In Poland, the homeless and Chechen refugees form bond. Thanks to a Warsaw-based human rights activist, friendship has been blossoming between people without permanent homes in Poland, including the homeless and Chechen refugees. “We are homeless too, in the end,” says one refugee. “We had to leave our land and live in a foreign country.” Sick refugees on Manus and Nauru will not be sent to Australian mainland. Refugees and asylum-seekers on Manus Island and Nauru who need medical attention will be sent to Christmas Island, not the Australian mainland, under new legislation enacted in Canberra. Meanwhile, Nauru’s government has passed laws banning medical transfers based on telehealth assessments. GET INSPIRED Over 2,000 children were registered as stateless in Europe last year. UNHCR and UNICEF issued a call for urgent action to ensure all children can say #IBelong. DID YOU KNOW? In 2019, it is estimated that 1.4 million refugees who are currently residing in 65 refugee-hosting countries worldwide will need resettlement.

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