Voluntary Repatriation UNHCR

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Voluntary RepatriationUNHCR
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Global Role of UNHCR

• Provide international protection
• Non-refoulement
• Access to rights and benefits of asylum

• Provide Durable solutions
• Volrep
• Local Integration
• Resettlement

• Monitor and advocate State compliance with norms
  of international refugee protection
• UNHCR Statute
• 1951 Refugee Convention
• 1969 OAU Convention
• 1984 Cartagena Declaration
• Other legal principles

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Persons of Concern

• Refugees falling under any of the accepted
  international definitions
• UNHCR Statute
• 1951 Refugee Convention
• 1969 OAU Convention
• 1984 Cartagena Declaration

• Asylum-seekers
• Returnees
• Stateless persons
• IDPs (sometimes)

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Legal Basis for UNHCR Volrep

• The Statute
• (General Assembly Resolution 428 (V) 14 Dec 1950)
• 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees and
  Customary International Law
• Non-refoulement to territory where life or
  freedom would be threatened.
• Other General Assembly resolutions
• UNHCR Executive Committee Conclusions
• Requests by the SG

Fundamentals of Volrep

• Voluntariness
• - Forced return of a refugee is refoulement
  and illegal.
• - The overiding motivation for the refugee must
  be positive pull-factors in the country of origin
  rather than push factors in the host country or
  negative pull factors at home.
• Return in Safety and Dignity
• - Legal safety
• - Physical security
• - Material security
• - Treatment with respect and full restoration of
  rights.

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Core components for sustainable return

• Physical safety
• Legal safety
• Amnesty laws or declarations
• Effective nationality
• Registration and documentation
• Family unity
• Housing land and property rights
• Rebuilding and supporting basic administrative
  and judicial infrastructure and rule of law
• Material safety

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Role of UNHCR in Voluntary Repatriation Operations

• Promotion of Solutions
• Promotion of Repatriation
• Facilitation

Promotion of Repatriation essential
preconditions

• Improvement in the situation in the country of
  origin
• Voluntary
• Safety assurances by country of origin.
• Free and unhindered access by UNHCR to refugees
  and returnees
• Formal repatriation agreement between UNHCR and
  authorities concerned

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Facilitation

• UNHCR may facilitate voluntary repatriation when
  there is an indication of a strong desire to
  return voluntarily, even where UNHCR does not
  consider that it is safe to return.

Implementing Voluntary Repatriation

• Provide objective information on the situation in
  the country of origin.
• UNHCR on both sides of the border
• Volrep staff and returnee monitoring staff.
• Information campaigns
• Go-see visits
• Register applicants for Volrep
• Provide individual counselling to potential
  Volrepers
• Special procedures for vulnerable groups
• Minors
• Elderly
• Unaccompanied women
• The sick or disabled

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Implementing Voluntary Repatriation

• Verify the voluntary character of the Volrep
• Each adult is individually interviewed
• VRF is filled out
• Establish procedures to avoid double volrep.
• Facilitate actual return
• Who gets on the bus when and where and where will
  they go.
• Who will meet them on the other side.
• Material or financial support
• Money
• Food
• Building materials

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Extract - Major voluntary repatriation/returnee
movements, 2003
Source 2003 ASR. Data are provisional and
subject to change. Date of query 9 June 2004.
Figures are based on country of asylum and
origin reports.