Refugee Protection: Philippines

 

HISTORY
Seventeen years after escaping Vietnam, a small group of refugees remain stranded in the Philippines. Not recognised by Vietnam and given only temporary residency status in the Philippines, they live with an uncertain future. The group originally numbered approximately 2,500, but thanks to the generosity of major resettlement countries – Australia, the UK, America, Norway and Canada - the number of refugees has been greatly reduced.

In May 2007, Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) announced its plan to facilitate the immigration of the remaining stateless Vietnamese in the Philippines under Humanitarian and Compassionate consideration (H&C). It seems that after nearly two decades, they may find a country to call 'home.'

BACKGROUND
Following the fall of Saigon in 1975, over half a million Vietnamese refugees fled persecution from the new communist rulers. In 1989, 74 countries signed the UNHCR-sponsored Comprehensive Plan of Action (CPA) designed to halt the movement of boat people from Vietnam. Under the CPA, asylum seekers were no longer given automatic refugee status. Rather, they became subject to a status determination procedure designed to ascertain whether they qualified for refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

In the Philippines, this status determination procedure was poorly implemented and unsupervised. Demands for bribes and sexual favours were commonplace. The stateless Vietnamese in the Philippines today are those who were not recognised as refugees under this screening process.

Post-CPA and Statelessness in the Philippines
In 1996, the UNHCR closed the refugee camps and withdrew support. Since then, the Vietnamese have been fending for themselves, making a living by buying and selling goods in markets or on the streets.

They are stateless because Vietnam will not recognise them unless they volunteer to return to Vietnam and are ‘accepted’. However, no repatriation program currently exists, and they refuse to return to a regime which they claim persecuted themselves and their families.

In the Philippines, the stateless Vietnamese are impoverished and targets of discrimination, bribery and violent crime. Without residency or any form of identification, they are denied equal protection before the law, unable to turn to the local authorities for help and are often in fear of arbitrary arrest. Countless hardworking men and women are imprisoned for selling goods on the street in order to survive. As stateless persons, they are denied the rights to legal employment, social services, travel, or the ownership of property. Children and young adults, yearning to learn and go to school, are denied access to further education.

Burden Sharing
Australia was the first to recognise the humanitarian needs of this stateless group. It led the world by resettling 230 people under the Special Humanitarian Program (SHP). The UK, America, Norway and Canada have since followed Australia’s lead and resettled almost all of the remaining Vietnamese. As such, from the original group of more than 2000 stateless people, only around 161 remain living in the Philippines. VOICE has submitted all eligible cases to CIC (Citizenship and Immigration Canada). Learn more about the Canadian Program here »

 

Click to view CIC Announcement »
Click to view Application Process »
Click to view Application Flow Chart »