How trade concessions can improve refugee self-reliance.

• Date: 01 April 2020
• Author: Korisci, Kemal

The COVID-19 pandemic has further revealed the deep vulnerability of refugee populations around the world. The pandemic has exacerbated the precarity of refugees' lives in terms of access to hygiene and health facilities, decent housing and livelihoods, creating a 'double emergency' situation. This compels UN agencies and their partners to double down on mobilizing efforts to support emergency responses. However, as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi noted, securing the self-reliance of refugees and the resilience of their host communities remains important. Granting trade concessions to countries hosting large number of refugees would be a novel way to do this.

Overcoming a broken refugee protection system

The 2015-16 European migration crisis revealed the extent to which the traditional refugee-response system--finding durable solutions to forced displacement through local integration, resettlement and repatriation--is broken. This leads to an evergrowing number of refugees finding themselves in protracted situations with limited hope. With the total refugee population now at an all-time high of 25.9 million, nearly 85% hosted in developing countries, it is imperative for refugees to be productive members of society rather than a burden dependent on humanitarian largesse.

The Global Compact on Refugees, adopted in...