Beyond Repatriation: UNHCR’s Comprehensive Solutions for Refugees

When we think about refugee protection, the first image that often comes to mind is people crossing borders to escape danger. But what happens after they reach safety? The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has developed a range of comprehensive solutions that extend far beyond simply providing temporary shelter. These strategies address the unique vulnerabilities of specific groups, tackle environmental challenges in displacement settings, combat statelessness, and promote global cooperation to ensure that the burden of refugee protection is shared equitably.

Understanding the three pillars of durable solutions 🔗

At the heart of UNHCR’s work are three durable solutions designed to help refugees rebuild their lives with dignity. These are voluntary repatriation, local integration, and resettlement.

Voluntary repatriation remains the preferred solution for most refugees who dream of returning home. This solution requires the full commitment of the country of origin to help reintegrate its own people, along with continuing support from the international community through the crucial post-conflict phase. UNHCR facilitates voluntary repatriation through various means, including organizing visits for refugees to assess conditions in their home regions, compiling updated information about their country of origin, engaging in peace and reconciliation activities, and providing return assistance and legal aid to returnees. In 2023, approximately 1.052 million refugees returned to their countries of origin.

Local integration offers another pathway for refugees who cannot return home due to continued conflict or persecution. This complex process places considerable demands on both the individual and the receiving society but also brings benefits, allowing refugees to contribute socially and economically to their host communities. Over the past decade, more than one million refugees around the world have become citizens in their country of asylum.

Resettlement provides a solution for vulnerable refugees who face urgent or specific risks in their country of asylum and cannot return to their country of origin. UNHCR submits individuals for resettlement under seven categories, such as women and girls at risk and legal or physical protection needs. However, resettlement remains limited, with less than one percent of the 20.4 million refugees of concern to UNHCR submitted for resettlement annually.

Special protection for refugee women and children 🔗

Women and children constitute a significant portion of refugee populations, often facing distinct protection risks. UNHCR has developed specialized approaches to address their unique vulnerabilities.

The international community has called upon states to extend greater protection to refugee women and children by implementing measures to ensure protection from physical violence, sexual abuse, abduction, and circumstances that could force them into illegal activities. UNHCR’s approach emphasizes integrating the resources and needs of refugee women into all aspects of programming to ensure equitable protection and assistance activities.

Addressing gender-based violence and exploitation 🔗

Refugee women face heightened risks of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly when traditional social protection systems no longer exist. UNHCR works to maximize protection through better lighting in camps, more private areas, and special accommodations for single women and women heads of households. When abuses occur, UNHCR responds by identifying individuals responsible, protecting victims from reprisals, and providing counseling and medical care.

In 2016, UNHCR and UNICEF launched special support centers known as Blue Dots along the most frequently used migration routes in Europe. These hubs provide a safe space for children and their relatives, vital services, family tracing, protection and counseling in one single location, with a particular focus on the many unaccompanied or separated children at risk of sickness, trauma, violence, exploitation and trafficking.

Protecting unaccompanied and separated children 🔗

Children traveling alone face extraordinary risks. In 2015, more than 90,000 unaccompanied or separated children registered and applied for asylum or were in care in Europe, mostly in Germany and Sweden. UNHCR has established databases to track the location of families who may have been separated from their children and works with partner organizations to design healthcare, educational, and recreational services geared specifically to the needs of refugee children.

Tackling environmental degradation in refugee settings 🔗

The environmental impact of large-scale displacement presents both immediate challenges and long-term consequences for refugees and host communities. When thousands of desperate people concentrate in one area, the results can be significant for local ecosystems.

UNHCR estimates that 20 to 25 million trees are cut down in and around refugee settlements each year, with 90 percent of this deforestation driven by the urgent need for cooking fuel. This results in large-scale environmental and social degradation. An environmental impact assessment carried out in Zimbabwe in 1994 showed a reduction of 58 percent in woodland cover around camps where Mozambican refugees had been hosted.

Innovative environmental solutions 🔗

To address these challenges, UNHCR has launched the Refugee Environmental Protection Fund to invest in impactful reforestation and clean cooking programs in climate-vulnerable refugee situations around the world. The Fund aims to plant tens of millions more trees and enable hundreds of thousands of refugees and their hosts to access clean cooking solutions over the next decade.

UNHCR has implemented various environmental initiatives including the establishment of solar farms in Jordan’s Azraq and Za’atari refugee camps, clean fuel and waste treatment plants for refugees in Bangladesh, renewable energy solutions for refugees in Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, and land restoration projects such as the Green Refugee Camp project at Minawao Refugee Camp in Cameroon.

Combating statelessness through prevention and reduction 🔗

Statelessness affects millions of people globally who are not considered nationals by any state under the operation of its law. This legal limbo prevents individuals from accessing basic rights and services, creating devastating consequences across generations.

Through a series of resolutions beginning in 1995, the UN General Assembly gave UNHCR the formal mandate to identify stateless people, prevent and reduce statelessness around the world, as well as to protect the rights of stateless people.

Four key approaches to statelessness 🔗

Identification goes beyond acquiring statistics on stateless populations. UNHCR and partners examine the causes of statelessness, the characteristics of the population, and the problems they face to craft effective response strategies.

Prevention requires UNHCR to provide legal advice to governments about how to ensure their nationality laws comply with international standards, including those set out in the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. This includes advising states on safeguards required in nationality laws to protect against childhood statelessness and strengthening civil registration systems to ensure people have necessary documents to prove their nationality.

Reduction means finding a solution for those without a nationality through acquisition of citizenship, usually of the country with which stateless people have the strongest ties. UNHCR works with governments to make necessary changes to legislation and procedures and liaises with civil society organizations to publicize these changes so stateless people know how to become nationals.

Protection ensures that stateless people can exercise their human rights until they acquire a nationality. UNHCR provides guidance and technical assistance to governments to establish procedures to recognize stateless people and give them legal status along with basic human rights.

Between 2003 and 2013, action by states led to more than 4 million stateless people acquiring a nationality or having their nationality confirmed. Since the launch of the campaign to end statelessness in 2014, more than 166,000 stateless people have acquired or had their nationality confirmed, and nine states have established or improved statelessness determination procedures.

The critical role of burden-sharing and international cooperation 🔗

Solving refugee crises requires collective action. No single country can address large-scale displacement alone, making international cooperation and responsibility-sharing essential components of effective refugee protection.

The refugee protection regime is enhanced through committed international cooperation in a spirit of solidarity and responsibility-sharing among all states. This principle recognizes that respect by states for their protection responsibilities towards refugees is strengthened by international solidarity involving all members of the international community.

What does burden-sharing look like in practice? 🔗

International cooperation can manifest in many forms. These include material, technical, or financial assistance, as well as physical relocation of asylum-seekers and refugees through resettlement programs. The provision of financial support, technical assistance and capacity-building, consultation and sharing of information all constitute important elements of burden-sharing.

The term has evolved from burden-sharing to responsibility-sharing, reflecting a more positive image of refugees and a stronger framework for international cooperation. This shift acknowledges that refugees are not merely burdens but individuals with rights and potential contributions to their host societies.

On 17 December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Global Compact on Refugees, a framework for more predictable and equitable responsibility-sharing. The compact recognizes that sustainable solutions to refugee situations cannot be achieved without international cooperation and focuses on four key objectives: easing pressures on host countries, enhancing refugee self-reliance, expanding access to third-country solutions, and supporting conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.

Historical examples of successful cooperation 🔗

Past experiences demonstrate that international cooperation can produce tangible results. The Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese Refugees of 1989 showed how burden-sharing between North and South can work when states commit to resettlement and financial support. Similarly, the International Conference on Central American Refugees found solutions for hundreds of thousands of displaced people through an integrated development approach that combined refugee protection with economic development assistance.

However, countries of asylum, particularly those in the developing world, continue to face ongoing problems in coping with the consequences of mass influx situations, especially when they become protracted. Two-thirds of refugees are hosted by low and middle-income countries, highlighting the urgent need for more equitable distribution of responsibility.

Moving beyond traditional approaches 🔗

UNHCR’s comprehensive solutions demonstrate that protecting refugees requires multifaceted strategies that address immediate safety concerns while working toward long-term stability. By focusing on the specific needs of vulnerable groups like women and children, tackling environmental degradation, eliminating statelessness, and promoting international cooperation, UNHCR seeks to ensure that refugees can live in dignity and ultimately find permanent solutions to their displacement.

These efforts require sustained commitment from the international community, adequate funding, and political will to implement policies that uphold refugee rights. The success of these solutions depends not only on UNHCR’s work but also on the active participation of states, civil society organizations, and refugees themselves in designing and implementing programs that meet their needs.

What do you think? How can countries better balance their national interests with their international obligations to protect refugees? What innovative approaches could strengthen burden-sharing mechanisms to ensure more equitable distribution of responsibility for refugee protection?

References

1. https://www.unhcr.org/us/what-we-do/build-better-futures/solutions
2. https://reporting.unhcr.org/global-report-2023/outcome-areas/voluntary-repatriation-and-sustainable-reintegration
3. https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/build-better-futures/solutions/resettlement
4. https://www.unhcr.org/publications/refugees-and-displaced-women-and-children
5. https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/stories/unhcr-unicef-launch-plan-protect-refugee-women-and-children
6. https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/how-we-work/environment-disasters-and-climate-change/refugee-environmental-protection
7. https://www.unhcr.org/us/what-we-do/protect-human-rights/ending-statelessness/how-unhcr-helps-stateless-people
8. https://www.unhcr.org/us/news/press-releases/four-years-its-ibelong-campaign-end-statelessness-unhcr-calls-more-resolute
9. https://www.unhcr.org/us/publications/conclusion-international-cooperation-and-burden-and-responsibility-sharing-mass-influx
10. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/refugees