Resettlement Programme

Resettlement is one of three "durable solutions" for protracted refugee situations (the others being repatriation and local integration in the country of refuge). It involves the selection and transfer of refugees from a state in which they have sought protection to a third state which has agreed to admit them.

Ireland joined the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) led Resettlement Programme following a Government Decision in November 1998 when it was decided to admit 10 applicants plus their immediate families for resettlement each year (usually about 40 persons per year). The quota was increased to 200 persons per year in June 2005.

The legal framework for the Resettlement programme is set down in Section 24 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended). According to the Refugee Act, “a programme refugee” means a person to whom leave to enter and remain in the State for temporary protection or resettlement as part of a group of persons has been given by the Government.

The rights and entitlements of a programme refugee are specified in Section 3 of the Refugee Act 1996 (as amended).

Details of all persons admitted as a programme refugee are held on a register of programme refugees which is maintained by the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration, in the Department of Justice and Equality.

Ireland is one of 19 countries worldwide and one of 10 European countries (8 from the EU -France, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the United Kingdom plus Norway and Iceland) that participate in organised resettlement programmes. Other countries e.g. Spain and Italy, though not part of the UN Resettlement Programme, have resettled groups following specific requests from the UNHCR.

Further information about Resettlement in general is available on the UNHCR website. In particular, there is information on this page regarding a visit in June 2009 by UNHCR representative, Manuel Jordao, to resettled refugee families in Kilkenny.

The Burmese Karen resettled in Ireland in 2007 have developed a website which is available at: http://karenireland.com/


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