Refugee Resettlement: The Capacity Challenge from the East and Horn of Africa Region

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2015 report, 2015 experienced the highest number of refugees in history. The total number of refugees and internally displaced people hit the 50 million mark, which was the highest since the end of World War II. More interesting though, is that the refugees are hosted by developing countries, whose economic and political structures are weak compared to their developed counterparts. In Africa, regional instability in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa, has resulted in forced migrations and displacement of a large number of people. This has made this region one of the refugee hotspots of the world. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Chad however have remained relatively calm over long periods of time. These countries led by Ethiopia have become some of the world‟s biggest refugee host countries. But with limited resources, threats of insecurity and a host of domestic problems of their own to deal with, these countries require the support of their international counterparts to be able adequately deal with the refugee crisis facing the region. To support the host countries, third country resettlement is offered by Western Liberal Democracies (WLDs) as one of the ways of providing protection to refugees as well as sharing the physical refugee burden. Although it is only a small fraction of the refugees who finally qualify to be resettled to a third country, the question is, is the refugee burden equitably shared between the poor and the wealthy countries? The aim of this study is to establish why such low numbers of refugees get resettled annually despite the pressure that the huge refugee numbers is having on host countries in developing countries. The focus of the study shall be refugees resettled from the East and Horn of Africa Region between 2005 and 2014.