Though the urban refugee population has been relatively small, comprising of 258 refugees from various nationalities, the protection challenges and vulnerabilities remain complex requiring continuous counselling and assessment of the needs. The refugees are highly affected by lack of identity documents, and limited access to livelihoods and educational opportunities. Although the Government agreed to the admission of urban refugee children into Tanzanian schools to enable them to continue their education, the language of tuition and concerns about quality have meant that only some are benefiting from this. At the same time, refugees living in Dar es Salaam are not able to obtain work permits despite the provision of the ‘right to work’ under refugee law, making access to the formal job market and self-sufficiency impossible. Based on the results of the 2019 Participatory Assessment, UNHCR in coordination with the Ministry of Home Affairs will develop a harmonized needs-based policy on support to urban refugees. Provision of support will aim at building the resilience of refugees and fostering social cohesion, including community support to local schools, youth empowerment through study grants and start-up kits for income generating activities. Multi-purpose assistance to extremely vulnerable individuals will be prioritized and prevention of SGBV will be mainstreamed throughout the response. UNHCR will further ensure strengthening of the response to SGBV and ensure the participation of the refugee community in SGBV prevention and response through awareness-raising campaigns. In addition to the direct assistance and response to the protection challenges of the urban refugees, operation-wide protection challenges such as RSD, advocacy and broader stakeholder engagement, registration data management and transition to the Government, interventions to minimize risk of stateless, etc. will be addressed. Given the backlog of 40,260 pending asylum applications by the end of 2018 (21,632 Congolese, 18,414 Burundians and 214 others), and the limited capacity of State-run RSD procedures, support to the Government to ensure fair and efficient RSD procedures remains critical. In 2019, UNHCR will hold discussions with the Ministry of Home Affairs on how to better support the National Eligibility Committee through the introduction of continuous RSD capacity within the department. In 2020, UNHCR will continue to prioritise advocacy and capacity building interventions to improve access to, and the quality of, national status determination procedures including training, provision of equipment, staffing, and logistical support. In 2018, the Government requested UNHCR for support in issuing refugees with official identity documents that could potentially enable access to national services. In 2020, UNHCR will explore the possibility of piloting issuance of refugee identity cards to improve protection and support access to services. It is anticipated that at least 50% of the urban population will receive identity documents from this pilot programme. In addition, UNHCR will undertake an analysis of rights and ensure advocacy is undertaken to improve refugee access to rights, services and employment. Despite pledging during the 2011 inter-governmental Ministerial Meeting to mark the 60th Anniversary of the 1951 Convention and the 50th Anniversary of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, to ratify and domesticate the international instruments on statelessness, this has not yet been achieved. In 2019, UNHCR will organize a stakeholder meeting to validate the national plan of action on the eradication of statelessness. Other priority activities include a mapping of statelessness populations and advocacy on accession to the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness conventions. The 2019 efforts will ensure a sustained and increased engagement on issues of statelessness in Tanzania with the Government and other stakeholders, with possible accession to the two Statelessness conventions by 2020.
