According to the State Department Website, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) provides aid and sustainable solutions for refugees, victims of conflict and stateless people around the world, through repatriation, local integration, and resettlement in the United States. PRM also promotes the United States' population and migration policies.
Who exactly is a refugee?
The State Department defines a refugee is a person who has been forced from his or her home and crossed an international border for safety. He or she must have a well-founded fear of persecution in his or her native country, on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
IDP
The State Department defines an IDP as an individual who has been forced or obliged to flee or leave his or her home temporarily, and who expects to return eventually. IDPs have moved within their country, while externally displaced persons have crossed an international border. Depending upon their ability to return, and whether they are subject to persecution in their home country, externally displaced persons may be entitled to recognition as refugees under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' (UNHCR) mandate.
Assistance
I work in the Office of Refugee Assistance for Africa. We work with three major International Organizations (IOs): United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to give relief to refugees and conflict victims. This usually includes directly funding the work of the IOs and NGOs to provide relief such as shelter, water and sanitation, food, education, livelihood training, and legal/physical training.
Three Durable Solutions:
The three durable solutions are three long term solutions typically sought for refugees. They include repatriation, resettlement, and local integration.
Repatriation: Voluntary return of a refugee to his/her country of origin when conditions permit. For most refugees, this is the "best case scenario.”
Resettlement: The process of relocating a refugee from to which they fled to another country. When it is clear that a refugee will not be able to return to his/her home and cannot be integrated into the country to which he/she has fled, resettlement is often the only solution left. This option occurs for less than one percent of all refugees. The United States resettles more refugees than all other countries, combined.
Local Integration: The process of resettling refugees into the country to which they fled with full legal rights.
Within the Great Lakes region, my area of concentration for the summer, Burundi is an example of where the three durable solutions are at play.
Burundi
The three durable solutions can be seen in Burundi when citizens fled during the genocides of 1972 and 1993 and went to neighboring Tanzania, DRC, and Rwanda.
On June fourth I attended the 145th meeting of the Great Lakes Policy Forum: “Burundi’s Refugees: Repatriation, Land Disputes and Naturalizing in Tanzania.” The Central Africa Program Officer presented on PRM’s role in finding durable solutions for Burundi refugees, as well as the largest challenges facing Burundi: the lack of engagement of the development community and land tenure disputes for repatriated (and incumbent) Burundi. There is concern about the scheduled June 30 closure of Mtabila Refugee Camp in northwestern Tanzania, the last Burundi refugee camp. It remains unclear what will happen to the 1993 refugees if they choose not to return to Burundi. Unlike the refugees that left Burundi in 1972, the more recent arrivals have not been offered Tanzanian citizenship or permanent residence in Tanzania. Alternative solutions to repatriation remain unclear for the approximately 20,000 Burundi refugees who fled in the early 1990s and are expected to still be in Mtabila when it closes officially.
Also this week, 444 Burundi refugees in Rwanda were likely forced to repatriate to Burundi. This may be considered refoulement , which is a breach of international law. International law prohibits the involuntary return of refugees to their country of origin. Burundi has received little media attention and there is little development support to help with the strengthening of the country, yet the need is great.
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