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From the President’s Desk Family Reunification— On June 20 and 21 I had the privilege of representing LIRS and the Refugee Council USA in Geneva at the annual U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees meeting on resettlement. High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers personally underlined the vital importance of resettlement as a durable solution for refugees and as an instrument of refugee protection. One of the key issues addressed at the meeting, for which I made the presentation on behalf of the nongovernmental organizations, was family reunification. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1948, proclaims, "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State" (article 16.3). The refugee resettlement program has a long and highly commendable tradition of responding to this mandate through family reunification. Yet all too often governmental resettlement programs are prone to being administered in ways that either restrict or unduly delay reunification opportunities. The benefits of family reunification are obvious. Indeed, they are at the core of protection. Refugees have lost everything as persecution has driven them from their homelands. Resettlement restores their safety. Being rejoined with their loved ones begins to restore their lives. As was emphasized in April at the International Conference on the Resettlement and Integration of Resettled Refugees in Sweden, family reunion is a core element of successful refugee integration. This is no surprise for those of us who work with resettlement every day! For many refugees already in the country of resettlement, especially those who have recently arrived, reunification with their families removes a major source of anxiety and emptiness. Reunited families can turn their faces forward and fully devote their energies to starting over and forging new lives in a new land. Local communities also benefit from family reunification because rejoined families are stronger, more likely to achieve lasting self-sufficiency and less likely to require long-term social assistance. Here in the United States, we are facing a twofold crisis in family reunification resettlement. The first problem is that the door for families to reunite has become very narrow. This federal fiscal year the only family reunion priority being applied is P3, which covers spouses, parents and unmarried children. Other relatives don't qualify. To make things worse, the P3 priority is being applied only for refugees from six countries, all in Africa. We in the Refugee Council USA urge that there be a blanket P3 that applies to refugees of all nationalities. The other problem is the susceptibility of family-based resettlement to "relationship fraud," whereby nonrelatives seek to access resettlement procedures in exchange for money or by threats. In any resettlement program, fraud and corruption need to be aggressively addressed in order to preserve the integrity of the process. However, eliminating family reunion altogether would be an overreaction that would undermine our obligations under numerous international human rights instruments that promote family unity. Family reunification procedures should be simple and speedy. They should be especially urgent when minor children are involved. We in the Refugee Council USA are committed to working together with the State Department and Immigration and Naturalization Service to combat reunification fraud while at the same time opening the door wider so that more refugee families may become whole again.
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