In 2020, the resettlement places made available for refugees in Chad were 1,300 individuals, including 750 from France and 550 from Australia. The occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted resettlement activities, leading to a reduction of the initial quotas. Thus, for the entire Chad operation, only 583 individuals out of the expected 1,300 could be submitted. In the urban context, the target was drastically reduced from 39 to 18 individuals. But in the end, 26 urban refugees were resettled, including 21 individuals in France and 5 individuals in Australia. These submissions represented a completion rate of 144% for the urban context and 4.5% for Chad as a whole (583 individuals). The main categories of referrals were Women and Girls at Risk (9 cases from 21 individuals), Medical Needs (1 case from 4 individuals) and lack of Alternative Durable Solutions (1 case from 1 individual).
Resettlement departures were suspended from mid-March to October 2020 due to COVID-19. After the reopening of the aerial borders by Chad, IOM in collaboration with UNHCR and CNARR facilitated the departure of 312 individuals compared to 300 individuals initially planned. Thus, for urban refugees, 17 cases of 53 individuals (i.e., 17% of the total number of departures -312 individuals-) were resettled, including 06 individuals in France, 38 in Canada and 09 in Australia. In 2020, UNHCR hosted a screening mission for France and two RSC-Africa missions that went to Gore and Maro (data collection and pre-screening). To manage the expectations of refugees, telephone counselling sessions were held for 605 individuals.
Technical supervision and coordination of activities continued from N'Djamena, which liaised with UNHCR regional office to ensure departures and missions or for technical issues. On 24 and 25 June, UNHCR Chad participated in the Annual Tripartite Resettlement Meeting (ATCR) by video conference. In this way, a plea was made in favor of Sudanese refugees, so-called long-term refugees, for whom durable solutions remain very limited. The planned face-to-face training was not organized because of COVID-19, but the resettlement staff attended online training, oraganized by RBEHAGL, Nairobi and by RBWCA.
Four main documents related to the complementary tracks were drafted: a strategy outlining priorities for 2021; SOPs on Family Reunification, a consent form for information sharing and a project proposal to improve opportunities for refugees in Chad to study in French universities in 2021.
The arrival of the deployment for complementary track activities in October helped to speed up the follow-up of individual cases. As a result, as of 31/12/2020, 27 applications for family reunification were received and were in various stages of follow-up.
To strengthen the fight against fraud in resettlement activities, resettlement SOPs were revised. The review of all cases is now done in N'Djamena while BIMs control is done at all stages of the process.