South Sudan continued to maintain an open door policy to asylum-seekers and refugees. Despite the prevailing volatile security situation in South Sudan, the number of refugees marginally increased in 2018. The total number of asylum-seekers and refugees in South Sudan stood at 294,365 in 2018 (of whom are 2,541 asylum-seekers and 291,842 refugees). Asylum-seekers: 611 new asylum-seekers were registered by UNHCR and South Sudan’s Commission of Refugee Affairs (CRA) in 2018 - a similar trend was observed in 2017, bringing the total number of asylum-seekers in the country to 2,541. The majority of them originate from Eritrea (75%) and Ethiopia (12%). They mostly reside in urban Juba while their Refugee Status Determination (RSD) claims are under consideration by the Government. The number of refugees increased by 3% to 291,842 persons (67,587 households). The refugees are spread over 21 different locations consisting of 9 camps and 12 settlements. The majority of the refugee population is hosted in Upper Nile and Unity states. 93% of the total refugee population are from Sudan (269,924 individuals) followed by DRC (15,617 individuals, 5%), Ethiopia (4,203 individuals, 1%), Central African Republic (2,006 individuals, 1%) and 92 individuals of other nationalities. Compared to 2017, the number of newly arrived refugees increased by 21% to 19,581 (of whom 18,469 are from Sudan) in 2018. Mainly due to intensified fighting and combined with food insecurity in South Kordofan, Sudan. 12,603 newly arrived refugees were registered with the peak arrivals of 2,480 reported in March 2018. After which the number of new arrivals slowed down towards the end of the year until December when over 1,000 refugees were registered. All newly arrived refugees were individually registered through the Biometric Identity Management System (BIMS) and issued with refugee documentation. The number of births increased by 56% as compared to 2017, with 14,653 newly born babies registered in 2018. About 53% of the refugees are female; 83% of all refugees are women and children, and 10% have special needs. Physical verification exercises were conducted in Ajoung Thok, Pamir, Doro, Kaya, Gendrassa, Pochalla, Yei and Makpandu refugee camps and settlements leading to a significant decrease in previously recorded refugee population. The reduction is attributed to spontaneous departures, deaths and correction of legal status for refugees with South Sudanese spouses. In 2018, the issuance/re-issuance of the joint Government-UNHCR Refugee ID Cards continued targeting refugees aged 16 years old and above. Over 51,566 ID cards were distributed as part the verification exercises. In line with the Yida exit strategy, UNHCR conducted 113 relocation convoys with 19,460 refugees relocated from Yida settlement to Jamjang camps (5,443 to Ajuong Thok and 14,017 to Pamir). The prospect for voluntary repatriation and resettlement remained very low for refugees in South Sudan.; only 7 refugees departed for resettlement in 2018. There was a steady increase in the spontaneous return of 136,155 South Sudanese refugees from neighbouring countries was reported from November 2017 to December 2018. They mostly returned to areas hosting IDPs as conditions are not yet conducive for returns. In 2018, the number of IDPs reached 1.87 million, with an estimated 85% to be women and children.
