West Africa

Response in 2016

UNHCR’s response in West Africa remained driven by two major displacement crises triggered by conflict and violence in Mali and Nigeria. The deterioration of the security environment in northern and central Mali and the slow implementation of the peace agreement continued to displace people within Mali and to neighbouring countries, prompting UNHCR to scale-up development-oriented programmes to promote refugee self-reliance. As the depth and complexity of protection issues affecting civilians in North-East Nigeria became more apparent, UNHCR declared an internal Level-3 emergency. While violence continued to escalate with insurgents attacking civilians, close to 200,000 Nigerian refugees fled across borders, while nearly one million people in the four affected countries were forcibly displaced within their own country.

The protection landscape in the sub-region continued to be largely favourable, despite growing concerns over shrinking asylum space, mainly due to measures taken by some governments to address national security threats. Of particular concern in the sub-region were the protection challenges associated with the forced return of Nigerian refugees.  In June 2016, a ministerial protection dialogue organised by UNHCR and hosted by the Government of Nigeria to tackle the worrying increase in protection incidents, including cases of refoulement. Governments of the four Lake Chad Basin countries (Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria) agreed upon actions aimed at enhancing protection and outlined a roadmap for potential solutions to displacement in the region.

In addition to regional efforts led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), including through its Protocol on Free Movement of People, Residence and Establishment, several States took concrete steps towards addressing the risk of statelessness. In Côte d’Ivoire, an estimated 3,500 stateless people acquired nationality in 2016, and the processing of applications continued. Under the auspices of the 2015 Abidjan Declaration on the eradication of statelessness, new national action plans on statelessness were under development in a number of West African countries, including Nigeria and Togo. The Government of Burkina Faso worked with UNHCR to implement a project for undocumented nationals living in Côte d’Ivoire who were at risk of becoming stateless. Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Sierra Leone acceded to both the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless People and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

The mixed movement of refugees and migrants remained a challenging phenomenon to monitor in Sub-Saharan Africa, with one of the main routes in the continent extending from West Africa towards Europe. In particular, Niger has become a major hub for migratory movements northwards towards Algeria, Libya and then Europe. Due to its geographical position and the deteriorating security environment in neighbouring countries (Libya, Mali and Nigeria), Niger is a key country in the management of migration flows in West Africa whilst striving to address the challenges related to it. 
Mobilising and securing funding for UNHCR operations in West Africa appeared to be challenging in light of high profile emergencies and shifting donor priorities. Throughout 2016, the sub-region included several of the most underfunded operations, all of which were funded at less than 45 per cent of their funding requirements, adversely affecting UNHCR’s people of concern in the sub-region.

Operations

The majority of UNHCR’s beneficiaries in West Africa were internally displaced people and refugees. In many countries, legal solutions were sometimes hampered by the unavailability of updated and reliable profiling data, limited capacity of national status determination institutions and lengthy procedures to access naturalization or alternative status. Moreover, the difficult socio-economic context faced by many countries in the sub-region also limited employment and livelihood opportunities in favor of displaced populations.

At the end of 2016, Benin hosted 617 Central African and 165 Ivorian refugees, representing a 50 per cent increase compared to figures from 2015. During the year, 331 new asylum applications were registered in ProGres, a database UNHCR shared with the Commission nationale d’assistance aux réfugiés (CNAR) and which includes information of all refugees. UNHCR organized 44 eligibility sessions with 379 people recognized as refugees and 33 people whose asylum applications were rejected. Asylum seekers and refugees were able to benefit from the legal and judicial support of the clinicians. However, because of limited funding, UNHCR was neither able to pay health insurance contributions for some vulnerable refugees nor able to provide appropriate housing support to single women with large families.

The Gambia hosted almost 8,000 refugees, of which 95 per cent were from Senegal. UNHCR assisted people of concern through refugee status determination and ensuring their right to freedom of movement and access to documentation and basic social services. Through sustained advocacy efforts, UNHCR successfully negotiated, on behalf of refugees, the waiving of the expatriate tax levied on employers, thus opening up additional employment opportunities for refugees. In addition, the signing of a memorandum of understanding between UNHCR and Gambian health authorities enabled refugees to access health care services with the same ease as nationals. Furthermore, during the year, 80 per cent of the refugees benefited from livelihoods support and are gradually moving towards self-reliance. Some of the challenges that UNHCR faced included limited donor presence in the country to support refugee projects as well as weak national social structures and services to support successful refugee integration.

At the end of 2016, Guinea-Bissau hosted 8,700 refugees, 99 per cent of whom were from Senegal. UNHCR’s strategy focused on the development of a local integration solution that includes the naturalization of refugees willing to acquire Guinean nationality through the naturalization process as well as the formalization of land ownership for refugees. Whilst the Council of Ministers approved 15 cases of Senegalese refugees to be naturalised, there are still 545 files pending analysis and approval for the same purpose. A significant challenge in this process, however, is the large amount of money requested for the naturalization of eligible refugees. Because of funding constraints, UNHCR had to prioritize some areas of interventions, leaving water, hygiene and sanitation activities, and education with gaps.

Senegal was home to some 14,600 refugees, the vast majority of whom were from Mauritania. Out of 313 registered refugee applications, a total of 129 cases were examined by the Commission nationale d’éligibilité (CNE), therefore fully meeting UNHCR’s target for 2016. Senegal was selected as one of the nine pilot countries to implement a multi-partner, multi-year protection and solutions strategy starting in 2017. The focus of the strategy is on local integration through naturalization or permanent residence for all protracted refugees by 2019. UNHCR’s country office in Senegal faced some challenges related to protection and durable solutions, including:

• a lack of commitmentin granting options for durable solutions which delayed the completion of the last phase of the verification/profiling exercise;
• the delay in processing asylum applications within the Commission nationale d’éligibilité;
• the lack of machine-readable 1954 Convention travel documents hindering refugees’ movements within the country.

In addition, UNHCR was unable to finalize the verification/profiling exercise because of a lack of clear commitment from the authorities. Therefore, many refugees have not yet benefitted for this exercise, leaving some 5,500 refugees at risk of becoming stateless.
In Sierra Leone, UNHCR supported 783 refugees, including 654 from Liberia, 21 from Côte d’Ivoire, and 8 from Sudan. Following the significant reduction of the refugee population in Sierra Leone since June 2012, UNHCR’s operational scope has focused mainly on advocacy and capacity-building of relevant Government counterparts, civil society organizations and the academia. UNHCR also provided livelihoods support to exempted Liberian refugees and other nationals. In 2016, some key achievements include Sierra Leone’s accession to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless People and the 1961 Convention relating to the Reduction of Stateless People; as well as the revision of the draft bill for the reform of the 2007 Refugee Protection Act. In this regard, a two-day workshop was conducted with a focus on three objectives: reinforce awareness on gaps, highlight the need for reform, and validate proposed provisions for amendment to the 2007 Refugees’ Protection Act. Other key achievements include the provision of livelihoods support to the 90 vulnerable households through agriculture and cash-based transfers and; the issuance of identity documents by the National Registration Secretariat with UNHCR’ support to 432 refugees out of a total of 632 targeted. Limited funding did not allow the Office to provide assistance   to children and people with specific needs.

In December 2016, there were some 12,500 refugees and just under 800 asylum seekers in Togo, mainly from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, representing a significant decrease compared to the 21,900 refugees registered in 2015. In March, the National Assembly adopted a new law on the status of refugees, which significantly improves asylum procedures. In addition, the verification/profiling exercise conducted by UNHCR between April and August indicated that there are some 9,600 Ghanaian in Togo. During the year, 46 refugees were repatriated, including 36 Ivorians, 5 Malians and 5 Congolese, while 95 refugees were resettled to the United States and Canada. As Ghanaians are not formally recognized by the Government, UNHCR continued to advocate for the naturalization of the 98 per cent of this population who chose this option. In the meantime, UNHCR continued to carry out self-reliance and livelihoods activities, focusing on facilitating access to employment and training opportunities. In addition, the two-year project to support the economic empowerment of 250 refugees and 350 members of host communities through agro-pastoral activities was launched by UNHCR. The issuance of refugees’ ID cards faced some challenges due technical problems with the printers of responsible authorities.