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Ireland to resettle more refugees, says Minister
News Stories, 9 June 2005
DUBLIN, Ireland, June 9 (UNHCR) – Ireland is significantly increasing its annual refugee resettlement quota from 10 cases (approximately 40 individuals) to 200 individuals per year, the Irish Minister of Justice, Equality & Law Reform, Michael McDowell, announced on Wednesday.
"Resettlement is an important part of our overall policy for refugees, many of whom are living in very difficult conditions in refugee camps abroad, and cannot return in safety to their countries of origin," Minister McDowell said in a press statement. "In announcing this increased resettlement programme today in the run up to World Refugee Day on June 20, I am happy to be able to put in place arrangements which will allow the State to better target those most vulnerable and in need of protection and to make more effective use of resources in the protection area."
Ireland is one of only 17 countries worldwide with a resettlement programme. UNHCR has commended Ireland's increased quota as "a model for other European countries" to share the global responsibility to protect vulnerable refugees.
"Refugees who flee their countries may not find safety in the first country they reach, and resettlement is often the only solution to their plight," said UNHCR's Representative in Ireland, Pia Prütz Phiri. "Ireland's increased quota is a fine example of its commitment to refugee protection."
She added, "I thank the Minister and Ireland for taking the lead in demonstrating a firm commitment to refugees and offering concrete solutions to their problems. I hope more countries will follow Ireland's courageous lead."
UNHCR makes special requests to governments to accept groups or quotas of refugees for resettlement, as part of its overall effort to find lasting and durable solutions to their plight.
In 2005 alone, UNHCR estimates that approximately 36,000 refugees, out of the worldwide refugee population of 9.7 million, are in immediate need of resettlement through programmes offered by countries such as Ireland.
Ireland has a long history of providing protection to refugees through resettlement programmes. It resettled 530 Hungarian refugees in 1956; 120 Chilean refugees in 1973; 803 Vietnamese refugees (1979-2000); 26 Iranian refugees (1985); 1,341 Bosnian refugees (1992-2000); and 225 refugees from various nationalities under the annual Irish resettlement quota over the past five years (not including people joining resettled refugees under family reunification). In addition, 1,063 Kosovar refugees were admitted to Ireland in 1999-2000 under a Humanitarian Evacuation Programme.
Ireland's agreement to participate in a resettlement programme does not alter existing obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to provide protection to refugees who spontaneously arrive on its territory.
By Steven O'Brien
UNHCR Ireland
- 1 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees
- 2 UNHCR Lebanon Update: Situation in North Lebanon, 4 February-10 February 2012
- 3 UNHCR seeks US$145 million to help tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees
- 4 UNHCR aid to countries receiving people fleeing clashes in northern Mali
- 5 The 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol
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UNHCR country pages
Integration Handbook: Refugee Resettlement
A relevant handbook on the reception and integration of resettled refugees.
UNHCR-NGO Toolkit for Practical Cooperation on Resettlement
A repository for exchanging ideas on resettlement partnerships, June 2011.
Resettlement
An alternative for those who cannot go home, made possible by UNHCR and governments.
UNHCR Resettlement Handbook and Country Chapters
July 2011 edition of the UNHCR Resettlement Handbook.
A Place to Call Home(Part 2): 1996 - 2003
This gallery highlights the history of UNHCR's efforts to help some of the world's most disenfranchised people to find a place called home, whether through repatriation, resettlement or local integration.
After decades of hospitality after World War II, as the global political climate changed and the number of people cared for by UNHCR swelled from around one million in 1951, to more than 27 million people in the mid-1990s, the welcome mat for refugees was largely withdrawn.
Voluntary repatriation has become both the preferred and only practical solution for today's refugees. In fact, the great majority of them choose to return to their former homes, though for those who cannot do so for various reasons, resettlement in countries like the United States and Australia, and local integration within regions where they first sought asylum, remain important options.
This gallery sees Rwandans returning home after the 1994 genocide; returnees to Kosovo receiving reintegration assistance; Guatemalans obtaining land titles in Mexico; and Afghans flocking home in 2003 after decades in exile.
A Place to Call Home(Part 2): 1996 - 2003
Out of Harm's Way in Romania
Peaceful days and a safe environment is probably more than these Palestinian and Sudanese refugees expected when they were stuck in a desert camp in Iraq. Now they are recovering at a special transit centre in the Romanian city of Timisoara while their applications for resettlement in a third country are processed.
Most people forced to flee their homes are escaping from violence or persecution, but some find themselves still in danger after arriving at their destination. UNHCR uses the centre in Romania to bring such people out of harm's way until they can be resettled.
The Emergency Transit Centre (ETC) in Timisoara was opened in 2008. Another one will be formally opened in Humenné, Slovakia, within the coming weeks. The ETC provides shelter and respite for up to six months, during which time the evacuees can prepare for a new life overseas. They can attend language courses and cultural orientation classes.
Out of Harm's Way in Romania
A Place to Call Home (Part 1): 1953 - 1995
Based on the 2004 World Refugee Day theme, "A place to call home: Rebuilding lives in safety and dignity", this two-part gallery highlights the history of UNHCR's efforts to help some of the world's most disenfranchised people to find a place called home, whether through repatriation, resettlement or local integration.
In more than a half century of humanitarian work, the UN refugee agency has helped more than 50 million uprooted people across the globe to successfully restart their lives.
Following the end of World War II and in the prevailing climate of the Cold War, many refugees, including those fleeing Soviet-dominated countries or the aftermath of the conflict in Indo China, were welcomed by the countries to which they initially fled or resettled in states even further afield.
In Part 1 of the gallery, a family restarts its life in New Zealand in the 1950s after years in a German camp; Vietnamese children make their first snowman in Sweden; while two sisters rebuild their home after returning to post-war Mozambique in the early 1990s.
A Place to Call Home (Part 1): 1953 - 1995
A new life for refugees from Bhutan
They fled to Nepal from Bhutan amid ethnic tensions in the early 1990s. Now, many of the slightly more than 100,000 refugees have been offered the possibility of resettlement to another country.