Ethiopia stands #WithRefugees: World Refugee Day 2016

UNHCR, the Ethiopian Government refugee agency (ARRA), partners and refugees commemorated the World Refugee Day 2016 with a donors’ visit to Tsore, the newest refugee camp in the Benishnagul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia, home to some 10,000 South Sudanese and Sudanese refugees. Refugees and members of the hosting communities turned out in great numbers to welcome the guests. 

Led by UNHCR Representative, Ms. Clementine Nkweta-Salami and ARRA Deputy Director, Mr. Zeynu Jemal, guests included the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, the Speaker of the Benishangul-Gumuz Regional Council (BGRC), the Ambassador of France, the UN Resident Coordinator in Ethiopia, Representatives of WFP, UNICEF, as well as the UNHCR Representative to the African Union and ECA. They visited some camp facilities and interacted with refugees in order to understand their living conditions. Selected guests also planted trees in the camp, symbolizing their continued support to the refugees.

In separate remarks, the Speaker of the BGRC and the Deputy Director of ARRA renewed the government’s commitment to the open door asylum policy, while urging the donor community to help Ethiopia cope with the huge number of refugees in its soil. Ato Zeynu, who has just replaced Ato Ayalew Aweke as the Deputy Director of ARRA, took the opportunity to express his readiness to work with UNHCR, partners and the donor community in ensuring protection and delivering humanitarian aid to refugees.

The AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Dr. Aisha L. Abdullahi, paid tribute to the people and government of Ethiopia for opening their borders to refugees. She thanked UNHCR and the donor community for supporting Ethiopia, the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa. 

“The African Union stands with refugees”, she said and announced the donation of US$20,000 of the African Union in support of educational activities in the camp.

Ms. Clementine Nkweta-Salami, the UNHCR Representative in Ethiopia, described 2016 as an unprecedented year for UNHCR. “Not for decades have we seen forced displacement of such complexity and scale, such divisive political rhetoric on asylum and migration issues, and refugee stories so prominent in the media”, she said, adding, “ 1 human in every 113 is affected. 24 people are displaced every minute - faster than an adult breathes. Forced displacement has doubled in less than 20 years”. 

The Representative spoke of negative developments, including disturbing levels of xenophobia in some regions of the world, but applauded host countries such as Ethiopia for their generosity. “On this World Refugee Day, I would like to renew my appreciation and respect to the people and government of Ethiopia for their enduring generosity. More so at this particular time when more than 10 million Ethiopians are themselves in urgent need of emergency assistance and when international support is not at its best”. 

Ms. Nkweta-Salami appealed to the international community to help Ethiopia and support the many people who are victims of the El Niño-induced drought as well as the more than 730,000 refugees under the care of the government of Ethiopia.

She also called on all those present to express their solidarity by signing UNHCR’s #WithRefugees campaign.

The US Embassy collected cloths which were handed over to ARRA for the benefit of vulnerable refugees in Tsore camp. Mr. Peter Vrooman, Chargé D’Affaires of the US Embassy, made a symbolic distribution of the cloths to some of the most vulnerable refugee children in the camp.

The event included a number of performances from refugee children including acrobatic dance and songs. Journalists from Addis Ababa widely covered the event.

The other 23 refugee camps across the country also organized activities which were attended by staff of UNHCR, ARRA, partners as well as refugees. 

In Addis Ababa, where UNHCR supports over 12,600 urban refugees, two activities were organized on 16 and 17 June. On 16 June, UNHCR and the Law School of Addis Ababa University signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and convened a panel discussion on “Ethiopia Stands with Refugees: How Education Institutions Make a Difference in Refugees’ Lives”.

The MoU has formalized UNHCR’s long-standing relationship with the School of Law at AAU. It aims to enhance the mutually beneficial relationship between the two institutions in order to serve refugees more effectively. 

On Friday 17 June, UNHCR and partners joined the urban refugees in commemorating World Refugee Day. The event was attended by ARRA as well as UNHCR’s partners such as JRS and DICAC.

Also as part of the series of World Refugee Day activities, UNHCR and the Government of Ethiopia are organizing a workshop on Statelessness and Internal Displacement between 23 and 26 June 2016. The workshops will bring together government officials from key line ministries, UNHCR, regional counterparts (AU), and experts on statelessness and internal displacement. The workshop will provide a forum to discuss not only on the substance of the legal instruments, but also how government ministries, UN agencies and other partners can work together to address the challenges that stateless and internally displaced persons face in Ethiopia.