Ethiopia's Refugee Policy Overhaul: Implications on the Out of Camp Regime and Rights to Residence, Movement and Engagement in Gainful Employment

Abstract

Ethiopia became the second largest refugee hosting country in Africa – with the count of registered refugees and asylum seekers reaching 905,831 as of 31 August 2018. Displaced from twenty-six countries worldwide, most refugees fled from protracted crisis, famine, instability, forced military conscription and repression in South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea. Although Ethiopia acceded to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (hereafter called the Refugee Convention) and has furthermore ratified the Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa (hereinafter called the African Refugee Convention), it has, for the most part, pursued a strict encampment policy and adopted restricted service provision approaches in the administration of refugees’ affairs. Compared to a range of international legal obligations it has assumed, some limitations continued to feature nationally – hampering the effective implementation of the rights of refugees in various scales. Since 2016, Ethiopia’s policy drive in relation to refugees started to gravitate from the current ‘camp-based basic services provision’ approach to a more ‘progressive and rights-centered’ model that also considers alternatives to the encampment of refugees. A landmark expression of nine intertwined pledges – proposed on the occasion of the 71st UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants held in New York, kindled a new glimmer of hope for the refugee community and furthermore provided a solid political basis and direction for enhanced protection and provision of civil, political and socio-economic services to refugees. At the Summit, Ethiopia rolled a comprehensive approach – committing, in global solidarity, to provide refugees shelter, rights and improved livelihood opportunities. To carry out the commitments, Ethiopia embarked on the design of a holistic policy frame, legislative actions and strategic response mechanisms fostering peaceful coexistence, greater inclusion and entitlement of refugees. As such, one interwoven policy regime that assists refugees to receive enhanced protection and attain quality livelihood is related to interventions focusing on the regulation of practice relating to the Out of Camp Policy (OCP), legal residency, freedom of movement and engagement in gainful employment. Over the years, positive headways have been recorded in Ethiopia’s policy orientation on refugees. Yet, in many areas including residency, freedom of movement and engagement in gainful employment, refugees’ legal entitlements and experience remained challenged by regulatory gaps and uncertainties. This set of circumstances entailed that the evolving legal frameworks, institutional response mechanisms, challenges and opportunities need to be analyzed in the contemporary context in order to understand the full spectrum of their contents and implications on the rights of refugees and recommend informed interventions. The central objective of this empirical study is to review normative developments, institutional arrangements and experiences in Ethiopia – particularly focusing on rights of refugees to legal residency, freedom of movement and engagement in gainful employment – both within and outside of the OCP setting. More specifically, the study scrutinizes key features of international and national legal frameworks that are pertinent in the context of the rights of refugees in Ethiopia, new changes in policy and regulatory approaches, and the projected effect of the application of such approaches. Furthermore, contours of Ethiopia’s OCP regime – including the processes, eligibility requirements, and rights and obligations of refugees granted such status will be examined in context.