UNHCR Regional Office for the United States and the Caribbean Refugees and UNHCR UNHCR Regional Office for the United States and the Caribbean

History 1921 - Nansen named 1st High Commissioner for Refugees 1945 – WWII ends with 3 million refugees still homeless 1950 – UNHCR is founded 1951 – Refugee Convention is adopted 1950-60s – Hungarian, Algerian, Tibetan, and Rwandan outflows 1975 – SE Asia exodus begins 1980’s – Afghan, Ethiopian, Iranian, Central American outflows 1990’s – Bosnian, Liberian, Rwandan, Somali, & Sudanese outflows 2000’s – Darfuri, Iraqi, & Congolese outflows 2012-2013 – 1 million + Syrians flee

Who is a refugee? Of the 7,000,000,000 persons in the world 1 out 700 persons in the world is a refugee. 15,000,000+ are refugees.

“Refugee” – A universal definition Article (1) 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees A refugee is any person who owing to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of his country of nationality, and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country …”

Rights of Refugees Non Refoulement Non- Return Civil Rights Religion Documentation I.D. docs Travel docs Civil Rights Religion Association Property Access to courts Movement Naturalization Social Rights Education Employment Public Assistance/Relief Housing

Durable solutions Repatriation Local Integration Resettlement

Steps for Refugee Resettlement Resettlement country refugee status determination and admissibility procedures Refugee status determination or registration process Submission Clearances Identification of a need for resettlement Travel Reception & Integration

How Refugees Access the US Resettlement Program Individual Referrals by US Embassies UNHCR Overseas NGOs Designated groups of concern to the US Family Reunion

Nationalities of refugees resettled to the US in 2012

Nationalities of persons granted asylum in the US in 2012

More information on refugees WWW.UNHCR.ORG Data.UNHCR.org UNHCR Refworld WWW.UNHCRWASHINGTON.ORG Refugee Processing Center – www.wrapsnet.org Office of Refugee Resettlement -http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/ Center for Applied Linguistics - www.cal.org

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