Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the refugees?What is the United Nations High Commission on Refugees?Why do refugees flee?What is life like before transitioning to a third country?Isn't there a better solution?How do refugees get to the US?What happens after approval?What happens in the United States? How many refugees will be admitted to the US during a year?What are the main solutions for the world's refugees? What do you mean, Refugee Warehousing?Whose responsibility are the uprooted? What sorts of United Methodist churches participate? How is the Annual Conference involved in outreach to refugees and immigrants?What is the role of the conference refugee and immigration coordinator or committee?Training is provided through
Refugees are people who have fled their home country in order to seek protection outside its borders and who fear persecution if returned home. A refugee must demonstrate a "well-founded fear of persecution" on the basis of one of the following grounds: race, religion, membership of a particular social group, political opinion or national origin. (1951 Geneva Convention and 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees.) Refugees are found in all continents and almost all countries.
What is the United Nations High Commission on Refugees?
UNHCR is the United Nations agency with responsibility for refugees in camps in countries providing asylum or a safe stay. Most refugees live in camps, although many others survive hidden away as illegal refugees in urban centers. Millions more internally displaced persons (IDPs) have also fled to safety, but elsewhere in their own homelands. At the present time, no international organization has responsibility for IDPs. Even if a home government failed to provide the protection needed by the displaced, it still has jurisdiction in its own country.
Refugees flee from persecution. Unstable, often corrupt, governments may favor one group above another or exploit tribal antipathies for their own ends. These conditions result in persecution, violence, and refugee flight. Hatreds stemming from a colonial power's tribal favoritism remain to fester in bitter, long-held memories. The actions of a demagogue may spark further rivalries. Until solid democratic institutions are in place or until the international community can provide for preventive action at the first sign of trouble, human rights in many developing countries remain precarious and refugee flight all too possible.
Environmental degradation is another cause. By reducing available farmland environmental degradation heightens conflict.
What is life like before transitioning to a third country?
In camp, safety often cannot be assured. Women and children are especially vulnerable, and enemies from home either from outside or inside the camps may threaten. Refugees receive some rations, which often inadequate and continuing instability at home will cause them to remain in the camp for years. Some few are able to find work in or near the camp; most cannot.
Isn't there a better solution?
The preferred solution for refugees is a safe return home, and failing that integration into the asylum country which is only rarely an option. When a return home is not possible, and the refugee claims to be in danger and at risk in the asylum country, then UNHCR may refer that person for interview for the US Refugee Program-or other resettlement program. Resettlement in a third country is available for less than one percent of the world's refugees.
How do refugees get to the US?
Usually the process begins with an application for asylum. Individuals who with or without family members have been forced to flee their country as a result of persecution or conflict seek safety in a country of asylum. They must first apply to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the international organization responsible for the protection of refugees, for recognition as a refugee. A document from UNHCR permits residency in the camp. (Other "urban refugees" seek refuge in cities where they remain outside the law, subsisting usually with extreme difficulty.
Preparation for resettling in the US entails answering questions, preparing a case, and undergoing a final interview. During case preparation other interviews will verify the family's composition and experience. Then the refugee makes an appearance before a US immigration officer. The immigration officer will approve or deny the request according to the credibility of the written and verbal information supplied. If denied, the refugee may appeal the decision, but only if new or previously unavailable evidence is submitted. Refugees who are not approved return to the camp and may at some time return home.
Approved refugees will have a medical exam and go through a detailed security screening process. Many will also attend English as a Second Language (ESL) and cultural orientation classes. Refugees receive a travel loan for the flight to the US, to be repaid according to ability, once established in the US. A short biography of the family, a "bio-data," is drawn up, and sent to the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) of the Department of State, in Washington. Once an offer of sponsorship-an "assurance"-is received from the US, and when all other requirements are met, the refugees can travel to the US. If the security process exceeds 6 months, a further pre-departure medical exam may be needed and then the refugees are scheduled for departure to the United States.
What happens in the United States?
Brief biographical information sheets on each refugee are shared among nine resettlement agencies in the US. UMCOR works with the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program (CWS IRP) which shares its allocation of cases among its local affiliate offices in the area where the refugees will be resettled and also among its participating denominations. The denominations work with the local affiliate offices to encourage their churches to co-sponsor or otherwise assist the refugees.
How many refugees will be admitted to the US during a year?
For Fiscal Year 2006 the US Government set the ceiling at 70,000. Regional allocations are:
Africa 20,000
East Asia 15,000
Europe, Central Asia 15,000
Latin America/Caribbean 5,000
Near East/South Asia 5,000
Unallocated Reserve 10,000
Others eligible for consideration include persons in Vietnam, Cuba, and former Soviet states. In exceptional circumstances, persons identified by a US embassy anywhere may be eligible for consideration. Visas from the unallocated reserve can be applied to any of the regions as needed.
Current laws bar refugees from Burma, Colombia, Cuba and Laos because they are deemed to offer "material support" to groups described as terrorist. Some groups so defined are fighting oppressive governments that force people to provide "material support." Admissions will be far lower than 70,000 if this issue is not soon resolved.
What are the main solutions for the world's refugees?
Most refugees want to return home in safety, and UNHCR considers this the preferred solution, and when possible will provide assistance for returnees to go home. Second, it may be possible for the government of the asylum country to integrate the refugees permanently-particularly where tribal affiliations across the border are the same. But most asylum countries are developing countries that need to provide first for their own citizens. Local populations may resent the fact that refugees receive even limited food allowances, for instance. Third, resettlement in a third country-such as the USA, Australia, Canada, France and Norway-is the option for refugees who are in most urgent need of a permanent solution and for whom the first two solutions are not available. Finally there is a "de facto" solution called "warehousing."
What do you mean, Refugee Warehousing?
"Warehoused" refugees are persons who have been in camps for seven years or more and for whom no permanent solution has been offered. Most of these refugees are unable to move outside the camp, find work or provide an adequate education for their children. These refugees face serious losses of human rights.
Whose responsibility are the uprooted?
While UNHCR has responsibility for refugees, and individual states have an obligation to provide asylum, the plight of refugees must also be a concern of citizens across the world, including the US, to see that their government provides the UNHCR adequate funding with which to do its work, and to ensure that the refugees and asylum seekers are provided the protection they need.
What sorts of United Methodist churches participate?
Usually medium-size congregations with modest resources co-sponsor refugees-but churches of all sizes can be involved.
How is the Annual Conference involved in outreach to refugees and immigrants?
Annual conferences can get involved in four ways.
- Appoint a volunteer refugee/immigration coordinator to serve on the missions committee and encourage local congregations to reach out to refugees and immigrants. Or appoint a committee if there is potential for extensive ministries to refugees and immigrants
- Initiate and provide ongoing support for JFON immigration counseling sites
- Encourage conference giving for the Refugee Resettlement Program, "New Hope for Newcomers" Advance # 901779 and for JFON Advance # 901285
- Ensure the continuation of outreach to refugees and immigrants by holding the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering which sustains all UMCOR's programs
What is the role of the conference refugee and immigration coordinator or committee?
- Reports to the conference mission board activities and needs in service and advocacy for refugees and immigrants.
- Interprets UMCOR's Justice for Our Neighbors and resettlement programs to local congregations, conference or district meetings, mission fairs or other gatherings-through presentations, story gathering, and workshops.
- Helps affiliate staff identify congregations ready to respond to the needs of refugees
- Promotes attention to urgent legislation and policy changes, or local situations such as detention centers, affecting refugees and immigrants.
- Celebrates church achievements in refugee sponsorship and hosting of JFON clinics
- Promotes the One Great Hour of Sharing offering and giving to Advance Specials in the annual conference.
- UMCOR training events
- Periodic mailings and advocacy alerts
- Conversation with local refugee/JFON service providers
- Web resources
