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News article on resettlement processing

Excerpt from Resettlement Newsletter from the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe- February/March 2006 issue.

ICMC: NGO resettlement processing in Turkey

Contact details:
Petra Hueck
Liaison Officer ICMC Europe

Introduction

ICMC has been involved in resettlement in many countries around the world since its foundation in 1951. Based in Istanbul, ICMC-Turkey has operated since 1993 an ‘Overseas Processing Entity’ (OPE), processing refugees, referred by UNHCR for the United States Refugee Resettlement Program, the world’s largest refugee resettlement program.

The ICMC office’s responsibilities have over the years expanded into a regional center, with mobile teams processing refugees on site in multiple locations throughout the region. Refugees were resettled from Turkey, Pakistan, Lebanon and Yemen and on an ad hoc basis out of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and the UAE.
Beside from resettlement, the ICMC carries out several other programs for refugees.

The ICMC office implements a UNHCR financed social services project in Istanbul that provides social, legal, psychological and psychiatric counseling, material assistance, home visit monitoring and health services.

In addition ICMC carries out a police training project, improving the capacity of the local police personnel in the area of protection and the defense of the rights of refugees.

How many refugees were resettled and where did they come from?

After having been referred to ICMC from UNHCR, it takes between two to three months for refugees to depart for the United States where they can start a new life. During the last year, ICMC resettled 1731 persons to the US, representing 828 cases and covering fifteen different nationalities. This group consisted of UNHCR referrals of Iranian, Iraqi, Somali, Afghan, Uzbek, Ethiopian, Sudanese and Bhutanese refugees. The most significant increase in refugee populations recently have been from Iran, making up about 90% of the cases. Most of these refugees are Bahai, fleeing religious persecution.The remaining cases consist mainly Ethiopians and Iraqis and Somalis, arriving in waves into Turkey, being smuggled into the country via ships.

The Bahai refugees are processed under the status of a‘fast track’ group. Because of geographic limitations that Turkey has applied as signatories to the 1951 Conventions, non-European UNHCR recognized refugees must be granted asylum by the Turkish authorities and must be granted exit clearances by the government. Whereas all standard UNHCR procedures are applied with non Bahai cases, the Iranian Bahai are not required to have a protection or full RSD interview.

What specifically does ICMC do in the Overseas Processing Entity?

Handling the procedures to enter the US Resettlement Programme might appear at times a rather administrative exercise. However, each refugee brings with him his very personal story and specific circumstances and needs. Particular care is therefore given to the situation of each individual or family at every stage of the resettlement process, which follows the following steps:

• ICMC receives referrals of individuals and families that the UNHCR has determined are refugees.
• ICMC interviews the applicants and assists in organizing the application, by explaining and helping them demonstrate to what extent they meet the criteria.
• An intensive pre-US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interview to further prepare the applicant is completed, biographical info is confirmed which is then entered into the US government’s Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS) database to be reviewed for security purposes in Washington;
• After approximately 30 days, applicants normally receive a Security Advisory Opinion clearance to proceed with their DHS interview, which ICMC will coordinate;
• Most applicants are approved that day for acceptance as refugees in the US refugee resettlement program, after which their biographical information is confirmed in the WRAPS system;
• The US-bound refugee is sent to a clinic for a medical exam
• The refugee participates in the 3-day cultural orientation program, provided onsite by ICMC
• Medical reports are received and necessary arrangements made for those in need of special care, such as the obtaining of wheelchairs or hearing aids, etc.;
• Contact are made with the voluntary organizations in the US who will take short-term responsibility for the refugees upon their arrival in the US;
• The IOM prepares flight arrangements, including exit clearance from the airport