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

2. 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
s – 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
– 1 million + Syrians flee

3. 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.

4. “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 …”

5. 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

6. Durable solutions
Repatriation
Local Integration
Resettlement

7. 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

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

9. Nationalities of refugees resettled to the US in 2012

10. Nationalities of persons granted asylum in the US in 2012

11. More information on refugees
Data.UNHCR.org
UNHCR Refworld
Refugee Processing Center –
Office of Refugee Resettlement -
Center for Applied Linguistics -

12. Thank you!