ADDIS ABABA- UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, together with UNICEF, Vital Events Registration Agency (VERA) and the Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA) launched a centre where refugees in Bambasi Camp, in the western Ethiopian Region of Benishangul-Gumuz, can access services such as the registration of births, marriages, divorces, and deaths and receive protection referrals and civil documentation.
These services will also be available to people from the local communities surrounding the camp.
The launch of the UNHCR centre, also known as a One-Stop-Shop, marks the beginning of a process that will lead to a government-owned digitalized and harmonized model for refugees assistance that will also serve local communities. The initiative is in line with the Global Compact on Refugees which promotes the provision of common services and infrastructure for both refugees and local communities.
Financed by the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), which is administered by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the one-stop-shop is the first of 27 such facilities to be established throughout Ethiopia to support the integration of services for refugees with national systems as enshrined in Ethiopia’s revised new refugee law that was adopted in January of this year.
Amdework Yehualawork, the Head of the ARRA Zonal Office in Assosa, said “By providing services to refugees and their host communities in one centre, the One-Stop-Shops represents a good start in the ongoing drive to integrate services used by refugees and their hosts, leading to eventual inclusion of the two communities in line with the new refugee law.”
The One-Stop-Shop is equipped with the latest digital registration technology together with internet connectivity to facilitate a two-way communication between persons of concern and service providers. The system is able to issue Proof of Registration documents, ID cards, and civil registration certificates immediately as soon as request is received. It also provides refugees and local communities access to the internet to be able to seek and secure essential services.
The Ethiopian Herald June 9, 2019
BY GENET FEKADE
