(20 June 2014) On the occasion of World Refugee Day, the International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) is launching a paper aimed at policy makers dealing with refugees. Based on nine case studies across the region carried out by IRRI over six years, it contends that the framework of citizenship can contribute positively to a better…
Kenya’s High Court has just delivered a ground breaking judgement on the rights of refugees with implications for hundreds of thousands in Kenya. Affirming the right to freedom of movement and the prima facie right of refugees to live in urban areas, the Court put the right to dignity for refugees back at the heart…
Approximately 162,000 former Burundian refugees in Tanzania are living in legal limbo in Tanzania. Having been accepted for naturalisation and having renounced their Burundian nationality, they are now unable to get certificates confirming their new status. The situation facing this group is the subject of a paper launched by the International Refugee Rights Initiative today, “I…
What happens when you find you have suddenly become a foreigner in the country of your birth? This is exactly what happened to Darfurians last year who were living in South Sudan at the point at which it became the world’s newest state. As Darfur is geographically in the reduced (north) Sudan, technically they were…
(10 August 2012) On 21 July 2012, Tanzania’s Daily News reported that Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete, had announced that “all refugee camps sheltering Burundian refugees would be closed down”. There was, the paper quoted him as saying, “no strong reason for the Burundians to stay […] when back home peace had been restored and life…
4 October 2011) On 25 May 2011, a Tripartite Commission comprised of the governments of Tanzania and Burundi and the UNHCR met to discuss the future of approximately 38,000 refugees in Mtabila camp in Tanzania. The talks ended with a decision to close the camp on 31 December 2011. The government of Tanzania has announced…
Speculation is rife in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) surrounding the possible return of Congolese refugees currently living in Rwanda following the signing of a tripartite agreement between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the governments of Rwanda and the DRC in February 2010. Yet as…
Reports reaching IRRI and RLP indicate that on the morning of Wednesday 14th July 2010, OPM Directorate of Refugees and Police officers in Nakivale (Isingiro District) and Kyaka II (Kyenjonjo District) began rounding up Rwandans and forcing them against their will to board trucks to return them to Rwanda. Reports indicate that those targeted in…
Today, the International Refugee Rights Initiative and the Refugee Law Project launched a new report, “A Dangerous Impasse: Rwandan Refugees in Uganda”. The paper examines why refugees living in Uganda’s Nakivale settlement are refusing to return to Rwanda despite considerable push factors. Based on 102 interviews with Rwandan refugees, UN and government officials, the findings…
A note issued by the Darfur Consortium in collaboration with IRRI to the African Union It has been just over one month since the expulsion of 13 international humanitarian agencies from Sudan by the Government of Sudan and the suspension of the operations of three leading local organisations which provided protection and humanitarian aid. Along…
This paper is the first of a series of working papers that form part of a collaborative project between IRRI, SSRC, the Civil Society and the Various Academic Partners in the Great Lakes region. The project seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the linkages between conflicts over citizenship and belonging in the Great Lakes…
Contact: Deirdre Clancy + 353 86 408 3797 IRRI Condemns Horrific Attack on Refugee Demonstrators in Cairo (New York and Kampala, January 2, 2006) The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) today called on the Egyptian government to launch an immediate independent inquiry into the events of Friday, December 30 in Cairo in which over 50…
When the meeting between Burundian and Rwandan government officials on Saturday June 11 ended, a decision had been reached. The two sides had decided to rename asylum seekers from both countries as “illegal immigrants” and treat them accordingly. What followed was a quick operation to deport thousands of Rwandan asylum seekers from Burundi. About…
Contacts: Refugee Law Project: Zachary Lomo: + 256 77 659 731 Amnesty International: Richard Haavisto: + 256 (0)31 350215 International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI): Dismas Nkunda: +256 78 310404 Kampala: March 10, 2005 Human rights groups today called upon refugee hosting governments to abide strictly by international and regional standards of refugee rights protection during the…
Please find herein the Joint NGO Statement ahead of the intergovernmental Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean being held on 29 May 2015 hosted by the Royal Thai Government in Bangkok. The signatories below represent more than 600 non-‐governmental and civil society organisations operating across Asia and the Pacific regions. Read more
