In 2021, ICMC’s advocacy encouraged governments to place uprooted people at the center of the policies they enact. We advocated for the protection of migrants, refugees, and internally displaced people throughout the world, with a particular focus on people on the move in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and at the borders of the European Union.
Calling for International Action
On 14-15 December, ICMC participated in the first High-Level Officials Meeting convened by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. The meeting reviewed progress on implementing the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) during the previous two years. Adopted in 2018, this landmark international framework aims to improve the lives of refugees and host communities and ensure fairer sharing of responsibility among governments for sustainable solutions to distressful refugee situations.
The High-Level meeting was attended by senior government representatives and other key stakeholders, including non-governmental organizations such as ICMC. The meeting led to the proposal of 20 concrete recommendations for future action to realize the GCR’s objectives. Echoing core ICMC advocacy priorities, the recommendations included expanding resettlement programs and complementary admissions pathways, increasing inclusion and access to services, and ensuring more meaningful refugee participation.
In 2021, ICMC served as civil society rapporteur for the UN working group on refugee participation within the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR). The ATCR brings together UNHCR, governments, and civil society to strengthen resettlement and complementary pathways as forms of refugee protection and durable solutions. The working group met in March and again in June, directly before the ATCR plenary sessions. A particular focus was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on resettlement programs. The working group helped to ensure that refugees play an active role in the process and that their experiences figure in recommendations for collaborative action.
During the 47th session of the Human Rights Council in June, ICMC and 50 other NGOs spoke out against the use of “pushback” practices — that is, when governments force asylum-seekers back over international borders without any opportunity to seek protection. Together we stressed that this practice violates migrants’ and asylum-seekers’ human rights and puts their lives and well-being at risk. Our letter called on States to respect the principle of non-refoulement, a protection under international law that prohibits forcing people to return to countries where their safety or lives may be in danger.
In October, ICMC joined more than 25 international NGOs to highlight the perilous situation of internally displaced people (IDPs). Our open letter called for the recommendations of a September report by the UN High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement to be translated into a strategic global response, and stressed the urgent need for international collaboration to protect the human rights of IDPs and prevent internal displacement.
Villagers from the Karen minority ethnic group take refuge in the jungle following Myanmar military airstrikes in March.
We, faith-based communities around the world, will not be silent while today in Myanmar tens of thousands are displaced from their homes and forced to flee in search of protection.
As the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan intensified after the fall of major cities to the Taliban, ICMC and more than 20 resettlement organizations made an urgent appeal to the U.S. Administration to give swift assistance to Afghans in need of protection. Our joint letter to the White House on 20 August urged the U.S. government to immediately evacuate Afghan people under threat of violence or political, religious, ethnic, or other persecution and to expedite processes for refugee admission to the U.S.
Towards the end of August, ICMC played an active role in the development of a joint statement from the UN global Family Reunification Network (FRUN) urging all involved to prioritize the protection of family unity in the response to the refugee crisis in Afghanistan. Together with UNHCR, three other global agencies, and some 10 NGOs, we called on States to adapt their evacuation and admissions processes to allow family members of refugees and others with protection status to find safety together as rapidly as possible.
ICMC reported on resettlement and protection efforts for Afghan refugees during preparatory meetings for a knowledge-sharing event about the situation in Afghanistan organized by FRUN. ICMC interventions outlined our work to submit applications for former ICMC Afghanistan employees to resettle to a third country, and our collaboration with the UN Children’s Agency, UNICEF, to deploy child protection experts to interview unaccompanied or separated Afghan refugee children in Germany and Qatar.
Promoting Protection and Access to Asylum in Europe
In late November, ICMC Europe joined more than 100 organizations to demand that the European Union take swift action to protect uprooted people caught in the humanitarian crisis at its borders with Belarus. We urged Member States to ensure that their response respected people’s right to seek asylum and guaranteed humanitarian access. Our statement also stressed the need to have States’ laws align with established EU asylum and international law, and to counter trends that criminalize assistance to migrants and asylum-seekers.
Just before the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council met in December, ICMC Europe released a joint statement urging the EU to protect vulnerable migrant children at its borders. Signed by more than 20 human rights and civil society organizations, the statement called on Member States to prioritize the sharing of responsibility for new arrivals by using existing mechanisms to reunite families and to allow the voluntary relocation from border areas of unaccompanied children. The statement also called for the development of transparent guidelines for procedures within the region and the appointment of an EU relocation coordinator.
As part of a coalition of nine European Christian NGOs, in May ICMC Europe co-published a series of papers analyzing the New EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, launched by the European Commission in September 2020. Together we noted our concern about the Pact’s strong focus on border procedures and returning migrants to their country of origin. We also noted the missed opportunities for increased cooperation on migration and asylum among Member States that could improve conditions for receiving and protecting new arrivals.
As the situation in Afghanistan developed into a large-scale refugee crisis in late August, ICMC Europe and over 50 NGOs called on European States to put vulnerable people at the center of their humanitarian response. Our joint statement outlined five urgent priorities for action to protect Afghan refugees, including evacuation, resettlement and other safe routes to protection, and access to asylum in Europe. Further, we called on the EU and its Member States to scale up humanitarian assistance, act to stabilize the situation in Afghanistan, and halt removals and deportations of Afghan nationals.
In September, ahead of the European High-Level Resettlement Forum on Afghanistan scheduled to take place several weeks later, ICMC Europe joined more than 20 organizations in appealing to EU leaders not to shirk their responsibility toward Afghans in need of international protection. We urged Member States to expand resettlement commitments in the form of concrete pledges. We stressed that in addition to government resettlement programs, all regular migration pathways must be used to protect refugees – including family reunification, humanitarian visas, and community sponsorship. Our statement also highlighted that asylum processes must be fair and accessible for Afghans as well as for citizens of other countries who are seeking protection.
We urge the EU to protect Afghan refugees and urgently expand pathways to safety.
In 2021, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and ICMC national member organizations throughout the world advocated for the protection of Afghan refugees, calling for a swift, united international response in the wake of the Taliban takeover and the withdrawal of international troops in August.
In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council on 24 August, Msgr. John Putzer, Chargé d’Affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, urged States to respect human rights and dignity and “to move from declaration to action by welcoming refugees in a spirit of human fraternity.”
On 17 August, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) highlighted the plight of those needing evacuation from Afghanistan and expressed particular concern for Afghan women and girls. In their statement, the Bishops stressed the commitment of the Church in the U.S. to welcome Afghan refugees.
The front of the international airport in Kabul, crowded with people trying to board a flight to leave the country, on 17 August 2021.
In an interview on 24 August, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), called for a principled response by European States that focused on helping forcibly displaced people. He pointed to humanitarian corridors as “the sole effective response.”
A week later, COMECE and the Conference of European Churches jointly urged EU Member States to protect the vulnerable by bringing Afghan refugees to safety through humanitarian corridors and other safe pathways, granting residence to Afghans already in the EU, and halting deportations to Afghanistan.
ICMC members in the British Isles and the Asia-Pacific region called on national governments to do more to ensure resettlement for vulnerable Afghans.
In an 18 August interview, Bishop Alan McGuckian of the justice and peace council of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference welcomed the Irish government’s resettlement commitments but stressed the need to expand them. “Refugees should be welcomed and integrated into our communities,” he stated.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference ofEngland and Wales, similarly stressed the need for the UK government to expand its resettlement plans for Afghan refugees. In a 24 August interview, he highlighted the moral obligation of Christians to welcome the stranger.
Archbishop Mark Benedict Coleridge, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, also advocated expanding government commitments to resettle vulnerable Afghans. His letter to the Australian Prime Minister called for additional resettlement places and pledged the support of Catholic-inspired organizations in welcoming refugees.
Bishop Ruperto Santos of the migrant commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, and member of ICMC’s Governing Committee, encouraged the resettlement of Afghan refugees, calling such welcome “a very humane and compassionate act.”
