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UNHCR looks for alternate solutions to refugees as resettlements decrease
As most developed countries have steadily reduced their refugee intake, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is being forced to formulate "alternate pathways" to a third country.
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Refugees tend to a baby on a sidewalk in Kebon Sirih, Central Jakarta on July 5, 2019. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
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s most developed countries have steadily reduced their refugee intake, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is being forced to formulate "alternate pathways" to a third country.
The newly appointed UNHCR representative to Indonesia, Ann Maymann, said the "alternate pathway" is an umbrella term her organization has been using to describe efforts to develop other solutions for refugees beyond the traditional approaches of resettlement, voluntary repatriation and local integration.
“It's actually not precisely defined because we are still working with states on finding more alternatives because as resettlement goes down, people can’t go back because their countries are still at war and local integration is very difficult to obtain,” she said at a media briefing on Tuesday.
Among the most successful alternative programs is Canada’s private sponsorship of refugees, which has resettled and provided support to more than 200,000 refugees since it was introduced in 1978.
Unlike the traditional resettlement programs, a sponsorship does not have to go through the long UNHCR waiting list but rather just the regular immigration program. One of the sponsorship initiatives is the “group of five”, by which five Canadians can support one refugee from anywhere in the world, including Indonesia.
As many as 57 foreign refugees who were in Indonesia were resettled to Canada under this program last year.
Maymann said some other countries have their own similar programs and the UNHCR continues to push more countries to have alternative mechanisms that would accommodate refugees, such as through family reunification or humanitarian visas.
