Asylum Seekers
CARE Rapid Gender Analysis Um Rakuba Camp and Tunaydbah Settlement, Eastern Sudan April 2021
Since 9 November 2020, Ethiopian and Eritrean asylum seekers have been arriving in Eastern Sudan, fleeing a military escalation in the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia. Eastern Sudan is facing multiple challenges including high levels of food insecurity, flood recovery, increased militarisation on the Sudan and Ethiopia border, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts of mitigation and containment measures. As of 17th April (latest situation report), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Government’s Commissioner for Refugees (COR) registered 62,850 individuals who have crossed the border into Eastern Sudan. It is estimated that 36% of the arrivals are female and 64% are male. Further estimations show that 27% of the arrivals are children (0-17years); out of which 8% are below 5 years. Elderly (+60years) comprise 4% and Adults (18-59 years) 69% of the arrivals. Of those who arrived, data as of January 2021, showed 15,056 are women and girls of reproductive age and 1,365 currently pregnant women. Primary data collection, through FGDs, KIIs and Individual Stories, took place between 16-18th February 2021, in Um Rakuba camp and Tunaydbah settlement.
RGA objectives were to:
• Better understand, the main needs, priorities and coping strategies of women, men, girls and boys,
as well as at-risk groups in Um Rakuba camp and Tunaydbah settlement
• Identify how CARE and the wider humanitarian community can adapt and design targeted services
and assistance to meet these needs, ensuring we do no harm. Read More...
RGA objectives were to:
• Better understand, the main needs, priorities and coping strategies of women, men, girls and boys,
as well as at-risk groups in Um Rakuba camp and Tunaydbah settlement
• Identify how CARE and the wider humanitarian community can adapt and design targeted services
and assistance to meet these needs, ensuring we do no harm. Read More...
Latin America & the Caribbean Rapid Gender Analysis April 2020
Asylum seekers and migrants traveling through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border face a range of risks, but women, girls, and other vulnerable groups—such as members of the LGBTQIA community—are confronted with additional threats to their health, safety, and well-being in their countries of origin, countries of transit, and in the U.S. As a result, asylum seekers and migrants who arrive at the U.S.–Mexico border often carry a heavy burden of trauma from experiences with violence. The lack of a system to appropriately support people on the move deepens pre-existing inequalities and exposes already vulnerable groups to additional, unnecessary, risks.
The U.S. Government’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, returns asylum seekers and migrants from U.S. custody to Mexican territory, compelling them to face months of risk and uncertainty as they wait to complete their asylum processes. The asylum process itself is challenging and unclear, liable to change without warning, and largely opaque to affected populations. The asylum seekers and migrants waiting in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez city, along the Mexico–U.S. border, face ever-present threats of extortion, gender-based violence (GBV), and kidnappings, which compound their trauma and restrict their freedom of movement and access to critical resources and services. Trauma and fear were the norm of the population that CARE surveyed, not the exception.
Lack of access to complete and reliable information made it difficult for asylum seekers and migrants— including pregnant women and GBV survivors—to make knowledgeable decisions about navigating the asylum process or finding basic services, including health care. Moreover, CARE did not find any mechanisms that allowed asylum seekers and migrants to report concerns or complaints of exploitation and abuse operating at the time of research.
At no point has there been a deliberate effort—by government authorities, policy makers, or those providing the scant services that exist—to systematically assess vulnerabilities and mitigate the risk of harm to at-risk groups. On the contrary, the lack of risk mitigation efforts has allowed several actors to emplace policies that put migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk of harm. For example, asylum seekers and migrants returned from U.S. detention to Mexico are often easily identified by visible markers of their detention, including a lack of shoelaces and the bags that they are issued to carry personal items. This visibility renders asylum seekers and migrants more vulnerable to detention or forced recruitment by armed groups, as well as kidnappings, which at times have taken place on the street directly outside the release area in plain sight of authorities. Read More...
The U.S. Government’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, returns asylum seekers and migrants from U.S. custody to Mexican territory, compelling them to face months of risk and uncertainty as they wait to complete their asylum processes. The asylum process itself is challenging and unclear, liable to change without warning, and largely opaque to affected populations. The asylum seekers and migrants waiting in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez city, along the Mexico–U.S. border, face ever-present threats of extortion, gender-based violence (GBV), and kidnappings, which compound their trauma and restrict their freedom of movement and access to critical resources and services. Trauma and fear were the norm of the population that CARE surveyed, not the exception.
Lack of access to complete and reliable information made it difficult for asylum seekers and migrants— including pregnant women and GBV survivors—to make knowledgeable decisions about navigating the asylum process or finding basic services, including health care. Moreover, CARE did not find any mechanisms that allowed asylum seekers and migrants to report concerns or complaints of exploitation and abuse operating at the time of research.
At no point has there been a deliberate effort—by government authorities, policy makers, or those providing the scant services that exist—to systematically assess vulnerabilities and mitigate the risk of harm to at-risk groups. On the contrary, the lack of risk mitigation efforts has allowed several actors to emplace policies that put migrants and asylum seekers at increased risk of harm. For example, asylum seekers and migrants returned from U.S. detention to Mexico are often easily identified by visible markers of their detention, including a lack of shoelaces and the bags that they are issued to carry personal items. This visibility renders asylum seekers and migrants more vulnerable to detention or forced recruitment by armed groups, as well as kidnappings, which at times have taken place on the street directly outside the release area in plain sight of authorities. Read More...