Djibouti - Refugees

2016

- National law on asylum is of the main prioritized result. As a reminder apart from Geneva 1951 convention related to refugee status and its 1967 protocol and OAU 1969 convention related to refugee specific problems in Africa that Djibouti government ratified, currently there is no any comprehensive national law on asylum. Only decrees and ordinance related to the creation of ONARS and NEC are governing refugee status in Djibouti. In order to improve the protection environment, the office will assist in the drafting of a national asylum law that meets the international standards and will also advocate for its adoption by the Government of Djibouti. - Functioning of the NEC: The Office will advocate for the reactivation of the NEC in order to hold regular sessions and the establishment of the appeal mechanism in the process of RSD. - Issuance of late birth certificates for refugee children: In addition to the birth certificates procedure which already exists. The Office will advocate for the establishment of a mechanism for issuing late birth certificates to refugee children. - With regard to the durable solutions, the Office give a priority to the promotion of the socio economic integration of refugees, with a focus on self-reliance activities and livelihood. - Voluntary repatriation will be prospected and implemented where and when feasible, most especially for the remaining refugees from Somaliland and Puntland. - Resettlement will be used as a protection tool on case by case basis for refugees with specific needs. - In health, UNHCR will focus its effort to maintain the health indictors up to the standards and improve the quality of services in the camps as well as continuing to provide the basic health services to refugees. In addition, UNHCR will ensure the availability of drugs while continuing the implementation of integration plan developed in 2014. - Nutrition: The main effort will be to reduce the GAM rate mainly in Ali Addeh from 17.7% to below 10-13% and ensure that vulnerable refugees in the camps (under five children, lactating and pregnant women and HIV and TB patients) have access to nutrition services including supplementary, therapeutic and infant, young child and feeding programs. - Education was one of the most discussed themes in the 2014 participatory assessment exercise. The prioritized objectives for 2016 are the transition to the Djiboutian curriculum in the camps and access to public schools in the urban context. These priorities can be found in the 2015-2017 Education Strategy. - The priorities for SGBV are to have functioning reception centres, opened as often as possible, to provide psychosocial counseling and to refer the SGBV survivors to the relevant services and to have 12 mobile courts throughout the year. - In water, UNHCR will extend the actual water system network to all the sections of the camp (Ali Addeh) by constructing additional tap stands and by upgrading the water distribution system which requires the renewal of the pipeline, replace/fix and maintain generators and submersibles pumps as well as other equipments. - In hygiene, UNHCR will fill the gap in term of family latrines and to replace the latrines which are becoming full considering that the demand becomes very high. - In energy, due to the high cost of kerosene and firewood which is a challenge in a semi-arid country like Djibouti, the office will continue to explore alternative solutions while waiting to come out with long term solution. - In shelter, to improve the dwelling condition of people living in the camps, the office has developed a five years shelter strategy on long term shelter which needs to be implemented instead of continue to provide family tents which are not anymore suitable for protracted refugees. To implement this strategy there is a need to mobilize funds due to the high cost of long term shelter per unit (greater than1200 USD).