• 11th October: Rana Refahi, our Vulnerable Populations Consultant, gave a speech on Afghanistan at the Council of Europe to the Committee on Displacement, Refugee and Migration. Rana called for monitoring of member states’ budgets that are spent on supporting refugees and IDPs in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran: “Member states should explore ways to liaise so high-risk individuals can see their visa application processed from within Afghanistan”. The Committee is preparing a report on Afghanistan for late 2023 and is interested in talking to APRRN members about the needs and challenges within Afghanistan and neighbouring countries. Feel free to contact us on matters related to Afghanistan at afgc@aprrn.org. 
• 24th October: APRRN published an urgent statement in support of the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar, UNHCR, and others who have been raising the alarm about the recent deportations of hundreds of Myanmar nationals from Malaysia to Myanmar. APRRN strongly urged the Government of Malaysia to immediately halt any deportation of those who may be at risk of harm and to facilitate UNHCR access to all detainees scheduled for deportation to allow a proper assessment of risks on returning to Myanmar. Hafsar Tameesuddin, Chair of APRRN, and a former Rohingya refugee previously resident in Malaysia stated: “It is utterly disappointing to see that the Malaysian government has failed again to uphold the human rights of asylum seekers and refugees from Myanmar; forcing them to return to a country they had escaped with the fear of persecution is unacceptable and unjust. We urge the Government of Malaysia to uphold the human rights of all asylum seekers and refugees.”
• 24 October: APRRN Rohingya Working Group (RWG) Chair, Lilianne Fan and APRRN Secretary General, Chris Eades, attended the Quarterly Information Sharing & Advocacy Roundtable on Regional Rohingya Displacement organised by ADSP in Bangkok. The roundtable focused on promoting regional advocacy efforts of UN agencies, donors and NGOs, streamlining communication and coordination, and sharing current information and messaging affecting displaced Rohingya.
• 26th October: Hayat Akbari, Chair of the APRRN Youth Working Group was one of the panellists during an event on Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention in Asia Pacific  Region organised by APRRN member International Detention Coalition, OHCHR and the United Nations Network on Migration. Speaking based on his own experience of detention in Indonesia, Hayat called on states to urgently implement more humane migration management practices and encouraged states and other stakeholders to proactively involve refugees and those who have experienced immigration detention in designing and shaping humane alternative practices and policies. The report, first published in May 2022, covers the use of immigration detention and alternatives in 19 countries in the Asia-Pacific and is intended as a resource for efforts in promoting and promoting adopting and implementing ATDs in the region.
• 27th October: Rohingya Working Group Chair, Lilianne Fan, supported the Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs with preparation for the Special ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Jakarta on 27 October. The meeting was called ahead of the 40th and 41st ASEAN Summit, following a turbulent few weeks across the region with the multiple deportations of Myanmar Nationals from Malaysia and the continued escalation of violence and abuses by the Myanmar junta against civilians in Myanmar. The official Statement of the Chair called for full and effective implementation of the Five-Point Consensus and the submission of recommendations for consideration by ASEAN Leaders at the Summit in November. Ahead of the meeting, 457 civil society organisations issued an open letter urging ASEAN to cease inviting all political and non-political representatives of the Myanmar military junta to all summits and meetings and to revise the mandate of the Special Envoy to Myanmar to be a full-time position grounded in human rights principles with a three-year term. 
• 30th - 31st October: APRRN's Rohingya Working Group, in partnership with Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), held a two-day workshop with 27 male and female Rohingya representatives and community leaders from refugee-led organisations from various camps in the Ukhiya and Kutupalong areas in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The workshop was designed to equip leaders with knowledge and skills to support their communities in preparedness, prevention and protection from disasters such as fire, cyclone, flash flooding and heavy rain. In addition, the participants, who are first responders when disasters occur in the camps, learned about humanitarian principles, how to conduct needs and vulnerability assessments, and how to coordinate amongst their communities and with other stakeholders such as humanitarian workers. Emergency kits for use in their communities in the event of a disaster were distributed to the participants at the conclusion of the workshop.
• The APNOR-APRRN Skills Enhancement Training Course for refugee community leaders and their organisations is off the ground! There are twenty participants from seven countries, who are providing services to refugee communities in the Asia Pacific region including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. The first six weeks of the course are focused on financial management essentials including budgeting, understanding accounts and financial reporting, resource mobilisation and management strategies. Alongside weekly training sessions, participants are working to develop financial procedures and plan to further organisational sustainability. For further information please contact Zerrin Holle, Project Coordinator at skillsenhancementproject@gmail.com.
• On 21 October, APRRN concluded the four-week ‘Refugee Rights and Advocacy Course’, hosted in collaboration with Mahidol University (Thailand) and the University of York (United Kingdom). A total of 27 participants from 11 different countries in the Asia Pacific, comprising refugee advocates, civil society actors, academics and legal advocates, participated in this year’s course. The majority of participants were women and eleven participants were people with lived refugee experience of displacement. The course content is designed to reflect the emerging needs and recent developments in the region. Participants developed their own advocacy projects on the themes of access to education; right to work; perception of refugee youth; access to justice for sexual and gender-based violence; and lobbying international organisations. 
• This month saw the launch of the APRRN Information on Afghanistan microsite for Afghans in transit. Available in English and Dari, the microsite shares current and verified news and information on legal pathways, education and employment, psychosocial support and migration news. APRRN also continues to maintain the APRRN Information on the Afghanistan Facebook page. We wish to thank Settlement Services International for seed funding three reports this month from three organisations working with Afghan refugees in our region. These reports consider the particular challenges for Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries and IDPs in Afghanistan in terms of legal and protection needs, psychosocial support, and humanitarian needs of victims of SGBV or family violence displaced since the Taliban takeover in August.  We will soon share key points from these reports with our members and supporters.
• We would like to highlight the excellent advocacy work of many of our members this month on Afghanistan in the wake of the bombing at a learning centre in Kabul on 30th September where 54 students were killed and many more injured. An attack which targeted the Hazara ethnic community and where the victims were predominantly girls and women.

NATIONAL

 

Afghanistan 

• Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan made a 12-day visit to the country in mid-October in the wake of his first report on his priorities and the situation in Afghanistan since August 2021. 
• 19th October: Maryam Durani a former Afghan refugee shared her story of resilience with Milwaukee students as a women’s rights activist. Due to her passion for education, she has worked tirelessly to bring education opportunities to women in Afghanistan, creating a women’s association and advocacy network in Kandahar, that included a library, school, fitness centre and radio station. Her two decades of work have been internationally recognized, earning an International Women of Courage award at a ceremony hosted by Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2012 and named ‘100 most influential people in Time Magazine the same year. Read more here.
• Asia Displacement Populations Solutions Platform (ADSP) published a briefing note on IDP returns in Afghanistan. In the brief, ADSP emphasised the importance of the principle of voluntariness in all efforts to facilitate the return of IDPs to areas of origin, in a safe, informed and dignified manner. Return initiatives need to be sufficiently resourced and must extend well beyond ‘cash for return’ modalities.  

 

Australia 

 

• 7th October: Australia’s Commonwealth Ombudsman (CO) and Human Rights Commissioner (HRC) published a joint statement expressing concern regarding the country’s use of hotels for detaining refugees and migrants and recommended urgent changes. 

 

Bangladesh 

 

• 10th October: The European Union has renewed its financial support of 6.2 million EUR to the UNHCR for the Rohingya and host communities in Bangladesh. The donation will come through DG ECHO, the Civil Protection and Humanatiratn Aid Operations department of the European Commission, one of the UNHCR’s key donors for the Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh. The funds will be allocated towards supporting and monitoring the refugees’ safety and well-being, ensuring refugees’ access to legal assistance, strengthening prevention and response to gender-based violence and access to protection and assistance services for children. Read more here.
• What We Miss When We See The Plight of Refugees an essay by Mausumi Mahapatro provides an insight into the overlooked or often undiscussed elements of refugees with a case study on resettlement camps in Bangladesh. Mausumi argues that we are often quick to paint a particular light on refugees as a result of contrasting narratives we face and fail to deeply examine who these people are, their motivations for moving across borders and the state of their lives prior to fleeing their homes. Refugees carry a wide variety of social and political identities that subject them to grave memories of distinct and violent history as they move across borders. Uncovering these nuances is a useful endeavour, in order to wrestle with mass displacement accredited to human transgression.

 

India

• In Mizoram, Northeast India, 6,195 Myanmarese children are now enrolled in school. 5,221 were enrolled in government schools, 184 in government-aided institutes and 790 in private schools. Read more here.
• 3rd October: The Indian government has granted their first citizenship to a Sri Lankan Tamil-born refugee, Nalini. In pursuit of a better future for her children, she was one of the first people from the camps to seek Indian citizenship. Although she was born in the Trichy refugee camp in 1986, making her an Indian citizen per the Citizenship Act, her status was materialised in August this year when a court authorised her Indian citizenship and passport. Read more here.
• 12th October: Rohingya refugees have shared their brutal experiences living in a Delhi Detention Center, citing forced labour, abusive officials, a lack of proper clothing, and a lack of access to restrooms. An article published by Article 14, provides rare insights into the experiences of refugees in detention in India. Read more here. 

 

Indonesia

• 12th October: Indonesia’s Constitutional Court commenced its deliberations on an unprecedented initiative to obtain justice against the Myanmar military. Petitioners are requesting a review of the domestic human rights law which, if approved, would allow for a case on Myanmar’s atrocious actions to be investigated in Indonesia. Read more here.

 

Japan 

• Japan’s treatment of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants within its immigration detention estate are again under intense scrutiny after a court ruled that authorities had failed to protect the health of a 43-year-old Cameroonian asylum seeker who died in detention in 2014. On 16 September 2022, a Japanese District Court found that the Immigration Services Agency had failed to carry out its duty of care by not immediately moving him to a medical facility. The court awarded 1.65 million Yen (11,500 USD) in damages to his bereaved family.

 

Malaysia 

• 5-6th October: The Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)  convened its 8th International Seminar on Islamic Perspectives on the Protection of Refugees' Rights and Access to Education in Kuala Lumpur on 5-6 October 2022. The seminar provided a forum for various stakeholders to exchange perspectives, challenges, and practices in promoting and protecting refugee rights, from an Islamic and human rights perspective. Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah, proposed the establishment of an Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Refugee Education Foundation to design and facilitate interventions for refugee education. The event comes at a time when Malaysia is restricting UNHCR access to immigration detention centres and just after the recent deportations of Myanmar nationals. 
• 7th October: UNHCR has restated its commitment to supporting the meaningful and gradual transition of responsibility for refugees to the Malaysian government, following the comment by Malaysia’s Security Council Director-General, Rodzi Md Saad, on closing the UNHCR office. Read more here.
• 13th October: The Migration and Mobility in the Asia Pacific (MMAP) research cluster at Monash University Malaysia conducted the second of three Interdisciplinary Dialogues on Forced Migration, focused on lifestyle migration and labour migration. The dialogue is a chance for scholars in the Asia Pacific to reflect on their experiences in conducting interdisciplinary research and in navigating their roles in producing knowledge about the region for local and global audiences. They aim to explore the development of innovative conceptual and methodological frameworks that stimulate research that accounts for the complex, multidimensional, and multilevel nature of migration and mobility. These dialogues also explore issues and challenges in the decolonisation of knowledge and power in migration research.
• 10th October: The Higher Education Labyrinth for Refugee Learners in Pennisula Malaysia is an explainer that highlights five obstacles preventing refugees from learning how to access higher education in Malaysia. It examines the value of building access to education for refugees, different access-building initiatives launched by civil society organisations, what an ideal higher education policy could look like and the immediate ways the general public can help.
• 11th October: The Mixed Migration Centre published a snapshot of protection risks of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, as part of a series that focuses on Rohingya journeys and experiences in Southeast Asia. The series aims to contribute to building evidence to inform advocacy efforts in the region. 
• 26th October: Following Malaysia's deportation of Myanmar nations, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk called for a moratorium on any forced returns of refugees and migrants to Myanmar, given its dire human rights crisis. “With rising levels of violence and instability, and the collapse of the Myanmar economy and social protection systems, this is simply not the time to be returning anyone to Myanmar,” Türk said.“This is especially the case for anyone with specific protection concerns, such as political activists or military defectors, who are at grave risk upon return.” Read more here.
• Former Miss Universe Malaysia and humanitarian Deborah Henry established the jewellery brand Fugeelah in support of her non-profit organisation Fugee, which aims to provide education for refugee children in Malaysia. Profits are piped towards upskilling opportunities for refugee youths and providing access to education for more than 200 refugee children at Fugee School.  Read more here.

 

Myanmar  

 

• 12th October: The Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, delivered a report to the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly on the situation of human rights in Myanmar. The report outlines the human rights and humanitarian catastrophe in the country and describes the essential and awe-inspiring work being done by local civil society in the most challenging of circumstances. The Special Rapporteur calls on the international community to view Myanmar civil society as a vital partner in addressing the crisis and delivering aid The report also calls for an increase in financial and technical support to local civil society organisations.
• 21st October: Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, Chairman of the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar, said the group condemns Malaysia’s deportation of 150 Myanmar citizens on October 6, including those who were seeking asylum. In a statement, Syed Hamid said, “Six of those deported were defectors from the Myanmar military. They were all arrested upon arrival in Myanmar and are now imprisoned and may face capital punishment,”. The recent deportation is recognized as a breach of the international principle of non-refoulment. Several APRRN  members in Malaysia engaged actively in efforts to prevent the deportations including raising concerns with the Advisory Group on Myanmar. Read more here. 

 

Pakistan   

• 14th October: A balancing act: Challenges to Pakistan's Refugee Management argues that the lack of domestic refugees law and clearly communicated governance frameworks had contributed to its management of Afghan refugees. The Afghanistan-Pakistan border is a transit point for trade and the frequent commute of irregular migrants and is still vulnerable to transnational terrorism despite recent fencing. The absence of legislative reform can result in an increase in refugees with irregular migrations, creating security and humanitarian challenges. Pakistan is out to entertain developing a cohesive refugee policy for Afghans that abide by international obligations and local governance frameworks. 
• 20th October: Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah stated that people only require a Pakistan birth certificate to be identified as Pakistani and have a right to citizenship. The statement was made during the hearing of the case pertaining to the issue of granting citizenship to a child born to an Afghan refugee family in Pakistan. Read more here.
• The Youth Association for Development (YAD) - formerly known as Refugee Trauma Initiative (RTI) - is establishing two safe and trauma-informed collective healing spaces centres for Afghan refugee children in Hazara Town and Bashir Check. As part of this project, YAD also produced a documentary on the lives of Afghan refugees in Quetta, raising awareness of the mental health and psychological issues experienced by Afghan refugees. Interviews with local representatives from UNHCR, IOM, UNDP and Action Against Hunger are accessible here.  
• The Sindh Human Rights Defenders Network (SHRDN) organized a consultative event to discuss the vulnerabilities of the victims of unprecedented climate conditions in Pakistan and the obligations of the State, HRDs, UN and other stakeholders at a local hotel. The event was attended by legal practitioners, journalists, HRDs, WHRDs and others. Detailed obligations for states included establishing temporary learning centres, delivery of basic materials and the protection of children’s psychological well-being during the crisis. Read the full report here

 

Sri Lanka

 

• 5th October: The economic crisis in Srilanka with harsh inflation, soaring living costs and shortages have left refugee families living precarious lives. A Pakistan couple Riffat Fareedum and Fareedun Saeed have been living in a cramped room for almost a decade awaiting resettlement. According to UNHCR, Sri Lanka currently hosts 800 people mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan, 600 of which are refugees awaiting resettlement. Proceeding the country’s economic crash, the UN agency doubled the nominal monthly allowance for asylum seekers to LKR 40,000 but is barely sufficient to withstand the escalating food inflation of nearly 95% this September. Read more here.

 

Thailand 

• After years of persecution have forced dozens of Chinese Christians to flee China in pursuit of refuge abroad, some say that threats from Beijing continue even after leaving the country. The 57 Members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church (SHRC) hope to receive refugee status through UNHCR Thailand after being unable to secure asylum in South Korea. The church has experienced continuous harassment from local authorities since its founding in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Read more here.
• 4th October: Fortify Rights hosted the official launch of a new book titled A Chance to Breathe; a 278-page collection of exclusive photography and poetry by Omal Khair, Dil Kayas, and Azimul Hasson, three Rohingya refugees from Myanmar currently confined to refugee camps in Bangladesh. Several speakers reflected on art and human rights in Myanmar including Thai, Myanmar, and Singaporean human rights defenders, and UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews. 
• 5th October: Deputy Thai Government spokesperson, Traisuree Taisoranakul, said the cabinet approved (in principle) a draft announcement proposed by the Royal Thai Police on the screening of foreigners who apply for the “protected person status”. Under the announcement, applicants must be “aliens” or stateless people who have entered or stayed in the country. They must provide credible reasons and evidence to demonstrate the danger of returning to their home country. Read more here.
• 10th October: UNHCR has launched a new programme where trained refugee volunteers are promoting and protecting camp residents’ mental health and psychosocial well-being in response to the widespread misconceptions and a lack of knowledge on mental health. As Thailand hosts more than 90,000 refugees across the Thai-Myanmar border, many of whom have been there since the mid-1980s, many are faced with daily stress-inducing factors that ultimately compound and impact their mental health. The newly trained MHPSS refugee staff conduct home visits and organise regular workshops to increase awareness of mental health issues and physical activities to explain how mental health illnesses arise. Read more here.
• 25th October: The Thai government published the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act B.E.2565 (2022) (the Anti-Torture Act) in the Royal Gazette, officially making it law. This new law contains a requirement codifying the principle of non-refoulment, which forbids the forced return of a person to a country where they may face torture or other forms of ill-treatment. Section 13 the new Anti-Torture Act states: “No government organizations or public officials shall expel, deport, or extradite a person to another country where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, or enforced disappearance.” The new law will come into force 120 days after publication in the Royal Gazette.
• 26th October: SEA Junction in collaboration with IPSR In-House Seminar and Mahidol Migration Centre (MMC) has been running a series of bi-monthly events entitled ‘Wednesday SEA Mobilities’, since February 2022. They jointly hold seminars or panels on the last Wednesday of every two months, discussing vast arrays of current Southeast Asia’s mobility issues by experts, academics, practitioners, NGO workers, migrants, and relevant actors in the field. The 26th October event was a presentation by Dr Bhanubhatra Jittiang on “Policy Entrepreneurship and the Drafting of Refugee Law in a Non-Signatory Country: The Case of Thailand”. The study explores the construction of the National Screening Mechanism (NSM) to classify forcibly displaced persons in Thailand, a non-signatory state to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. 
• 28th October:  Almost a decade after fleeing China, more than 50 Uyghurs remain in Thai detention facilities, living in constant fear of being sent back. Arrested in 2013 and 2014, their exact location and number are unclear. The arbitrary long-term detention, exclusion and criminalization are seen by observers as acts of Transnational Repression by China, given past incidents of refoulement. Read more here.

 

 

REGIONAL

 

• 26th October: Southeast Asian foreign ministers held a meeting in Jakarta to discuss the crisis in Myanmar. The discussion took place ahead of the ASEAN summit in November, to address how the renovation of its approach to supporting international efforts to restrict the Junta’s access to foreign revenues and arms. Read more here.
• 26th October: United Nations Network on Migration, International Detention Coalition and Sweden Sverige conducted a hybrid event for the public launch of the Immigration Detention and Alternatives to Detention in Asia Pacific  Region. The report, published on May 2022, demonstrates the use of immigration detention and ATDs in 19 countries across the five-sub regions in the Asia-Pacific. It was authored by the International Detention Coalition (IDC) with the support of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as a publication of the Alternatives to Detention Thematic Workstream of the Regional UN Network on Migration for Asia and the Pacific and the Alternatives to Detention Working Group of the UN Network on Migration. The report is intended to serve as a useful resource for post-IMRF efforts in adopting and implementing ATDs in the region.
• 27th October: Fortify Rights is urging ASEAN to discard the failed “five-point consensus” on Myanmar and enact emergency measures to protect the country’s civil population. The emergency measures recommended by Fortify Rights include an agreement on protecting Myanmar refugees, authorising cross-border humanitarian aid and coordination with other U.N. member states to strip the Myanmar military junta of weapons, dual-use technology, aviation fuel, revenue and political recognition. Read more here.
• Chair of APRRN’s Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Working Group, Elizabeth Young, was featured in an article in The Guardian, discussing the mental health toll experienced by refugees in Australian detention camps. The UN and NZ Greens argue many refugees are traumatised by the years in prison camps that they do not have the capacity to apply or have lost trust in the system. The argument emerges after only 36 people adopted New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees held in Australian Detention camps. Elizabeth said while she anticipated the resettlement process could be lengthy, it was “remarkable” that such a small number had been signed up to begin the process. Read more here.

 

 

GLOBAL

• Mixed Migration Center has published its latest 4Mi data collection on Safety Risks in the Darien Gap and Assistance Needed Among Refugees and Migrants. The infographic presents data on the dangers and abuses that refugees and migrants interviewed by 4Mi witnessed and experienced in the Darien Gap and the assistance needed by the response. It aims to contribute towards a concrete evidence base to inform targeted responses on the ground and advocacy efforts related to the situation.
• 28th October: The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) launched a report on the Spotlight on Local and Refugee-led Efforts to Address Key Protection Needs. The report is a rapid assessment of the protection gaps of displaced people in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South and Southeast Asia. Globally, local organisations receive less than 2% of international humanitarian funds annually. The equivalent percentage for refugee-led groups is unknown, but likely much lower. The report spotlights refugee-led and other local initiatives synthesise insights and recommendations from over 100 interviews and highlights opportunities for philanthropic engagement and international cooperation.

   

Development opportunities and tools 

 

• ​Survey: What is Aid to You? NEAR, a growing collective of local and national organisations working to improve the daily lives of their communities through humanitarian response, peacebuilding, and development has launched a survey that will be able to anchor its views and understanding of what Aid in the Global South should look like in the future. NEAR will use these survey responses to inform a discussion paper that will be published early in 2023. The survey should take approximately 5-10 minutes. Click here to complete the survey.
• ​Request for Public Comments on the Draft USAID Policy for Localization of Humanitarian Assistance. The draft USAID Policy for Localization of Humanitarian Assistance is now open for public review to inform its finalization. The USAID Policy for Localization of Humanitarian Assistance outlines USAID’s phased trajectory for advancing the localization of humanitarian assistance over the next five years, from 2023-2028. ICVA members can either send comments via the webform or share inputs to the policy through ICVA. The link is here: In agreement with USAID/BHA, ICVA is submitting its responses to the draft policy as a collective, and we are offering our members the opportunity to provide feedback and additional input to the draft policy. Therefore, USAID is encouraging participants to share any additional inputs by sending an email to the ICVA focal point on Localisation at eman.ismail@icvanetwork.org by November 8, 2022. 
• The Center for Asia Pacific Refugee Studies (CAPRS) has partnered with the Asia Displacement Solutions Platform (ADSP), the Mixed Migration Centre - Asia, and the Danish Refugee Council Diaspora Unit for their second Professional Development Course on Evidence-Based Advocacy for Afghan Diaspora (3-7th November, Copenhagen). The interdisciplinary course builds on modules and tools from APRRN’s annual Refugee Rights and Advocacy course. It aims to strengthen participants’ capacity, expertise and knowledge in advocating for the rights of Afghans in need of protection and expand linkages between the diaspora and civil society in Afghanistan.
• Tool: The Migration & Asylum Project  (M.A.P) has successfully launched a first-of-its-kind app for forcibly displaced women/girls in India. 'Talika' is designed for communities with low literacy levels, poor digital capacities, heightened privacy concerns, and language barriers. Through this app, M.A.P aims to facilitate linkages to hyperlocal support structures, mainly, NGOs, paralegal volunteers, government clinics, police stations, legal aid centres etc., and government helplines. The app is available for Android users to download here.
• Settlement Services International is currently calling for applicants with a refugee background to join their Refugee Employment Support Programme (RESP). RESP is available to people in western Sydney and the Illawarra who are underemployed or unemployed and require extra support. Anyone who arrived in Australia on a refugee visa from December 1, 2011, aged 16 to 66, is eligible for the programme. For the full description, please go here.
• Talent Beyond Borders (TBB) offers an employment connection platform for refugees, in English and Arabic. TBB is a nonprofit organisation committed to opening labour mobility pathways for refugees and other displaced people. TBB does not work on refugee resettlement but rather connects refugees with international employment opportunities so that they may work in countries where they can access full rights and stability. By registering on the platform, refugees are connected to companies in need of their skills. Employers gain valuable talent and displaced people have a chance to rebuild their careers and lives. More information is here.

 

 

Funding opportunities 

• Social Shifters Global Innovation Challenge is open to next-gen leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs (must be aged 18 - 30 years) with fresh solutions to today’s most pressing social and environmental challenges. The winners will receive cash awards to implement their idea. Cash Awards of $1000- $10,000. All countries are eligible. Deadline: 9 November 2022. Read more here.
• Sharjah International Award for Refugee Advocacy and Support aims to highlight outstanding initiatives to improve the lives of people who are displaced due to natural disasters or war in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia regions. Restrictions: Must be a registered non-profit in the country you are working in. Amount: US$136,000.  Deadline: 15 November 2022. Read more here.  
• The Western Union Foundation Fellowship is for next-generation entrepreneurs and community leaders from and working with highly marginalized, refugee, and forcibly displaced communities around the globe (including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines). Fellows must be able to commit to the 16-week program. Fellows will be given a stipend and spend an additional 80-100 hours implementing a 3-day intensive program called Basecamp. Deadline: 15 November 2022. Read more here
• 2023 Ockenden International Prize. A fixed prize awarded to an organisation's past work on self-reliance that has demonstrated real improvement in the lives of refugees or displaced people, anywhere. Restrictions: New projects are not eligible. Amount: $25,000. Deadline: 30 November 2022. The donor has informed APRRN that organisations that are not registered may still apply with "a valid fiscal sponsor or entry nominator". Read more here.
• The Systems Innovation Learning Partnership (SILP) is launching a call for ideas for its Experimentation Fund to support experiments advancing knowledge and understanding of systems innovation practices, methodologies, and approaches. Priority areas: the needs of those living in poverty and tackling issues related to environment and climate change, human rights, conflict, gender equality and disadvantaged communities. Amount: 100,000 Euros. Deadline: 7 December 2022. Read more here. 
• The Taiwan Foundation for Democracy will soon open a second round of its grants program to strengthen democracy and human rights in Taiwan and Northeast/Southeast Asia. Project categories include: advocacy, research, conferences, publications and education. The majority of grants are between US$3,000 and US$20,000. Deadline: 15 December 2022 (2^nd Call, 2022). Read more here.
• The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) is accepting applications from Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) living in exile to participate in a dynamic capacity development and mentoring fellowship called (Incubator for Defenders Remaining in Exile to Advance Movements) “IDREAM.” Selected HRDs receive up to $31,000 in financial assistance to support their work in the project. Read more here.
• The International Labour Organization (ILO) is launching the eighth edition of its annual Global Media Competition for professional and student journalists. Its aim is to recognize fair and balanced reports that contribute to the elimination of xenophobia and discrimination against migrant workers. Prize options include a partially-paid fellowship or a cash prize of $1,200 USD. Read more here.

 

If you would like to apply to one of these funds in partnership with APRRN, please reach out to Victoria at fds@aprrn.org. APRRN would be happy to provide support and/or partnership where needed. 

Want to see more funding opportunities? Please see here for APRRN’s funding database, which in particular sets out funding opportunities for refugee-led organisations and initiatives, alongside a sign-up sheet to provide support on applications as needed.