Month: April 2022

YAOUNDE – A new declaration calling for more concerted action to help nearly 1.4 million displaced Central Africans has been signed after a key regional conference organized by the Government of Cameroon and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Speaking at the three-day ministerial conference in Yaounde, which ended Wednesday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the aim of the conference was “to create a positive regional dynamic in the search for solutions for Central Africans refugees.”

“This must be done in a large alliance of governments, aid communities, businesses, development actors, civil society, private sector groups and, crucially, the refugees themselves, in particular women,” he added.

The Yaounde Declaration marks the first step towards the establishment of a regional coordination mechanism for advancing solutions to one of Africa’s largest displacement crises.

Since 2013, the CAR has experienced successive crises affecting six neighboring countries that today host around 700,000 refugees. Cameroon has received the largest number of refugees (345,000), followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (212,000), the Republic of Chad (119,000), the Republic of Congo (29,000), Sudan (28,000) and South Sudan (2,500).

Speaking of the challenges of hosting large numbers of refugees, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute of Cameroon said that despite the efforts States were making, the economic context was difficult. Hence, “the necessity to pool efforts in a framework of a regional approach to define global and concerted solutions to obtain better results.”

The parties to the Declaration agreed to “establish a regional cooperation framework to strengthen protection and the search for solutions for persons forcibly displaced by the Central African crisis with the support of the international community.”

In reference to the 2019 peace accord and the recommendations of the March 2022 Republican Dialogue, in which refugees and internally displaced people participated, the signatories of the Declaration further committed to “support the ongoing reconciliation process in the Central African Republic and urge for the effective participation of forcibly displaced persons and returnees.”

Represented by Ministers and senior government officials, the countries of asylum committed to enhancing refugee protection and promoting their socio-economic inclusion while they wait for conditions to improve so that they can return home.

These solutions include the removal of legal barriers to employment opportunities, training, and access to social services. In the declaration, the signatories agreed to integrate refugees in national registration systems, “facilitate the issuance of civil documentation and to ensure their recognition by public and private services and financial institutions.”

Despite the challenges, opportunities for return exist. Over 100,000 Central African refugees have already returned home spontaneously, while between 2017 and 2021, UNHCR facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 27,000 refugees. In addition, 60,000 internally displaced people have also been able to return.

However, as these efforts have occurred in isolation, the Conference agreed to establish a coordination mechanism for solutions with support from UNHCR, which has three such regional instruments in place: for the Afghan crisis; in Central America and Mexico; and in the East and Horn of Africa.

Virginie Baikoua, CAR’s Minister for Humanitarian Action, thanked partners for their support and reassured them of her country’s determination to restore peace and stability. Organized under the aegis of the President of the Republic of Cameroon, the Regional Ministerial Conference on Solutions in the Context of Forced Displacement Related to the Central African Crisis brought together 300 participants: donors, the UN, development and humanitarian partners, the private sector, as well as refugees. Representatives from the European Union and the Economic Community of Central African States indicated their support.

Before attending the conference, Grandi met Central African refugees in Yaounde, who welcomed the focus on their situation. A community leader told him that the refugees want to be considered as development facilitators, not a burden.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

The overall goal of the Framework is to achieve transformative change characterized by peoplecentred, human rights based inclusive and participatory governance and peacebuilding systems and strengthened trust and social contract between state and citizens that will contribute to change Africa’s narrative to one of promise, and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and Agenda 2063.

The renewed framework will support implementation of the Regional Programme for Africa within the following Regional Programme priority areas:

Priority Area 1 – People: African citizens (especially women and youth), in a context of reinvigorated social contracts, have a stronger voice and influence in AU and RECs’/RMs’ policymaking and implementation processes.

Priority Area 2 – Prosperity: African citizens (especially women and youth) benefit from a regionally integrated, structurally transformed, and inclusive economy

Priority Area 4 – Peace: African citizens (especially women and youth), supported by the AU and RECs/RMs, make measurable progress towards sustainable peace.

The Framework takes a regional approach, while providing tools for adaptive responses to governance and peacebuilding at the country level. The Framework takes a flexible, adaptable and fully integrated portfolio and systems approach to its implementation, leveraging opportunities, partnerships and capacities across the Regional Service Centre for Africa (RSCA) while harnessing advisory assets within RBA. Based on context analysis, review and evaluation of regional and national projects, including an extensive consultative process reaching 1,285 people through UNDP’s Reimagining Governance and Peacebuilding, it focuses on the implementation of six key pillars through an integrated systems approach: prevention and early action; investing in Africa’s youth; economic governance; democratic governance and civic participation; promoting the rule of law, justice and human rights; and, local governance and delivery of public services.

Source: UN Development Programme

As Africa and Europe consolidate their renewed partnership, UNHCR will work to support their “Joint Vision” on migration and mobility to address root causes in countries of origin and asylum; to enable states to regulate asylum and protection in accordance with international law; to save lives; to address grave and systematic violations of human rights of people on the move; and to enable sustainable solutions.

UNHCR will seek to mobilize support for these priorities through the Khartoum and Rabat Processes under the Joint Valetta Action Plan, and the AU-EU-UN Tripartite Task Force on Libya, guided by the Global Compact for Refugees and its Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF). UNHCR will also draw inspiration from inter alia, the Final Recommendations on International Protection in Mixed Movements in the Central Mediterranean of June 2021 by North African and the League of Arab States in Sharm El Sheikh,4 the Comprehensive Solutions Strategy for Sudan and South Sudan,5 the Roadmap for Comprehensive Solutions for Ivorian Refugees,6 the Reaffirmation of the Commitments of the Abuja Action Statement and their Implementation,7 and the Conclusion of the Bamako Dialogue on Protection and Solutions.8 UNHCR will also seek out routes-based partnerships through the Cities #With Refugees initiative, in common efforts on protection and solutions.

The number of victims who died, were reported missing, or who endured unspeakable violations of their human rights in 2021 bears witness to this very public and sustained tragedy, with no end in sight. Public attention remains fixated on mixed movements by land from south to north, across the Sahara Desert to and through North Africa and on the more mediatized sea movements to Italy, Malta, and Spain, all producing a devastating human toll.9 Much less attention was paid, and research done on the equally important south-to-south mixed movements, which present similar protection risks. And with rapidly increasing numbers of IDPs in the Sahel, there is an urgent need to understand whether this group will also embark on to dangerous onward movements in the absence of solutions where they are.

In 2021, 1,153 refugees and migrants were reported dead or gone missing on the Northwest African maritime route to the Canary Islands, and 1,924 along the Western and Central Mediterranean routes.10 Many crossings took place in packed, unseaworthy inflatable boats, which often capsized or deflated, leading to the loss of life.11 The sea journey from West African coastal states such as Senegal and Mauritania to the Canary Islands is long and perilous and can take up to 10 days. Many boats have drifted off course or otherwise gone missing without a trace in these waters.12 It is estimated the majority of those lost at sea crossing from Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco to Spain, Italy, and Malta, were nationals of North African countries, with many others from West and East Africa. Some 6% of arrivals to Europe through Mediterranean routes were from Bangladesh.13 However, accurate data on deaths and missing are difficult to access and data collection and sharing of incidents at sea remain incomplete for these maritime routes.

Even greater numbers may have died along land routes through the Sahara Desert and remote border areas, in detention centres, or while in the captivity of smugglers or traffickers. A joint report by UNHCR and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) published in 2020 indicated that some 1,750 people may have died along the land routes to and through Libya and Egypt between 2018 and 2019, an average of at least 72 deaths a month.14 No such route-based study was possible in 2021 due to the pandemic, but partial information from the West and North African maritime route and the Central Mediterranean suggest that land routes continued to be equally dangerous during 2021.15 Various media documented incidents of death en route in the desert along mixed movements routes or stranded in places with no adequate shelter in 2021.16 Refugees and migrants also continued to share such incidents they had personally witnessed.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees