U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Eskinder Negash
| USCRI is committed to the Global Alliance to End Statelessness’s (the “Alliance”) mission of eradicating statelessness. We have sought to raise awareness on statelessness and the right to nationality, and we work with displaced populations at risk of or affected by statelessness.
USCRI serves refugees and displaced people who experience or are at risk of statelessness in various contexts. In the United States, USCRI provides resettlement assistance for refugees from across the world. We also provide services to unaccompanied migrating children and noncitizen survivors of human trafficking through a U.S.-wide network of service providers. In Mexico, USCRI provides legal orientation to displaced people and migrants. USCRI also facilitates refugees’ access to higher education through its scholarship program, the Habesha Project, in Mexico. In Honduras and El Salvador, USCRI works with youth returnees by providing skills development and job placement initiatives to encourage economic reintegration. USCRI also provides services to displaced children, including unaccompanied and separated children outside of the United States. In Kenya, USCRI recently launched the Keep Girls Dreaming initiative, which aims to provide menstrual hygiene kits to young women and girls in Kakuma and Dadaab refugee camps and Kalobeyei settlement. USCRI aims to expand this initiative to include child protection programming and develop a more holistic approach to serve refugee girls, including advocacy that would address the salient issue of statelessness among refugees in Kenya. Because the populations we serve are at risk of experiencing statelessness, USCRI advocates for policy changes towards the eradication of statelessness. USCRI has raised awareness on the human rights impacts of statelessness (https://refugees.org/what-is-statelessness/), as well as statelessness in the former Soviet Union (https://refugees.org/when-you-cease-to-exist-the-state-of-statelessness-in-the-former-soviet-union/). We also advocate for the human rights of children in displacement contexts, refugees, and displaced people, so that they may enjoy fundamental human rights and freedoms. USCRI seeks to join the Alliance to help coordinate advocacy and policy efforts. Due to its international reach and experience with providing direct services, USCRI is well positioned to collaborate with the Alliance on solutions and initiatives to eradicate statelessness worldwide. We can commit to raising awareness on statelessness, advocating for solutions before lawmakers, and assisting people who do not enjoy the right to nationality. |