Malian Refugees to Benefit from Eased Bureaucratic Procedures
Everybody needs an identity document and – if the person is a foreigner – a residence permit for the country in which he/she is living. Since 2012 each household of Malian refugees holds an “Refugee Attestation” that serves these purposes. While UNHCR and the Niger government were in the process of registering the Malian population, including taking pictures and digital fingerprints, the validity of these attestations was limited to six months. This obliged the refugees to spent a lot of their time in renewing this document.
Following discussions between UNHCR and the Director-General for Civil Registration and Refugees (DGEC-R), the Ministry of Interior has now taken the decision to change the attestation renewal procedures and extend the validity to 12 months. Approximately 50,000 Malian refugees, living in about 11,000 households, will benefit from this decision.
Says Karl Steinacker, UNHCR Representative in Niger: “UNHCR welcomes this decision by the Government as it will not only help refugees to gain time, but it will also free the staff of both UNHCR and the Directorate General to work on other pressing issues relating to the welfare of the Malian refugees”.