Resettlement

2016

Problem assessment

Resettlement continues to play an important role in both durable solutions strategies in the region, namely in Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and as a protection tool in Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Botswana. In South Africa, resettlement provides relief to refugees who are victims of attacks motivated by xenophobia. In Botswana, resettlement is mainly used for refugees denied refugee status by the Botswana Government and recognized under UNHCR’s Mandate.

The overall resettlement needs is estimated with15,000 resettlement places and is based on multi-year projections. It is not expected that all cases will be submitted in 2016; this is especially the case for Malawi, Zambia, and South Africa, which have the largest numbers of refugees in need of resettlement. The resettlement needs figure has been determined by profiles of protracted refugees residing in camps/settlements and from protection needs assessment exercises.

One of the major stumbling blocks for resettlement remains to be the RSD backlogs in some countries in the region. In Malawi, the problem has become most acute, as asylum seekers residing in the country of asylum for many years can therefore not be considered for resettlement. In Mozambique, many of the vulnerable POC in Maratane Refugee Camp are asylum seekers and resettlement is not an option for them at present.

Resettlement is initiated through the case identification process, and the participation of non-resettlement staff is important to ensure that needs are identified in a non-resettlement context. However, due to limited protection and community services staff in country offices inclusion of non-resettlement staff in the assessments is limited. In order to address this gap, profiling activities in some countries in the region have been implemented since 2012, and are expected to continue in 2015 and 2016. Profiling has been a key identification tool in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Protection needs assessments remain an important case identification tool for resettlement in South Africa.

Governments in the Region are responsible for RSD and some Governments have ownership over the progress registration database. Quality of RSD in the Region is not of the expected requires improvement and resettlement staff is required to reconstruct refugee claims and conduct analysis of the refugee claims.

The deployment of resettlement experts offer flexibility and address important human resource gaps. Considering that the preparation of resettlement cases is a labour intensive endeavour, increased dedicated staffing is required to ensure resettlement processing consistency.

Prioritized response

With the expected level of funding, 4,500 persons will be submitted for resettlement from the Southern Africa Region Office. Of this figure, approximately 40-50% will be protracted refugees, mainly from the DRC. Profiling activities in the sub-region will continue and enhance resettlement of the protracted DRC refugee population will be a key focus of the sub-region.

Refugees facing serious legal and physical protection problems will be prioritized and submitted for resettlement, as well as survivors of violence and torture. Most of the cases will be identified from South Africa, where protection problems are most acute. Vulnerable cases, such as women and girls at risk and medical cases, will be assessed and referred to suitable resettlement countries that cater to their special needs.

Standard operation procedures (SOPs) for resettlement in the region will be updated and procedures for addressing fraud cases will be duly reflected, if not adequately accounted for. During missions to country offices, training will be provided to both UNHCR and partner staff on fraud prevention and awareness.

The regional office will conduct support missions to country offices especially those that have no or few dedicated resettlement staff, and to those countries which have high resettlement planning figures and require support.