Cover image: Chef José Andrés, Founder of World Central Kitchen, speaks on the importance of family reunification at the launch of the Family Reunification Initiative, which took place at Chef Andrés’ Manhattan restaurant, Nubeluz. Photo: Chris Jensen, RefugePoint
Last year, at a star-studded event in New York City, RefugePoint leadership announced a groundbreaking new program for refugees called the Family Reunification Initiative. The promise: over the next five years, RefugePoint will serve as a partner and a thought leader to advance refugee family reunification, contributing to one million refugees accessing family reunification pathways in that time.
One year later, what progress has been made?
- We have hired three positions focused on family reunification, increasing our capacity in Kenya and worldwide. The positions include our Nairobi-based Family Reunification Manager, our Geneva-based Global Family Reunification Coordinator, and a new Nairobi-based Family Reunification Officer who will join the team later this month.
- We launched our Family Reunification Navigation Assistance Program in Kenya. Since then, we have begun screening and counseling refugees in Kenya seeking family reunification and have provided casework support to help them with the next steps of their cases.
- We coordinate the Global Family Reunification Network (FRUN) in our role as Secretariat, where we are prioritizing the inclusion of new members from refugee-led organizations. The FRUN recently hosted a virtual meeting featuring the collaborative efforts of IRAP, RefugePoint, Youth Voices Community, Refugee-Led Organization Network (RELON) Kenya, UNHCR, and IOM to advance access to family reunification for refugees in Kenya through an emerging coordination model.
- Together with UNHCR, States, legal service providers, and other NGOs, we provided leadership in the lead-up to the 2023 Global Refugee Forum, which resulted in 47 pledges toward the Multistakeholder Pledge to Support Refugee Family Reunification—compared to just 8 pledges on family reunification made at the 2019 GRF.
Nearly 120 million people have been forced from their homes as a result of conflict and are often separated from family and loved ones along the way. In far too many cases, refugee families are never reunited. Those fortunate enough to trace the whereabouts of lost family members often remain separated by international borders and restrictive immigration laws. Through the Family Reunification Initiative, RefugePoint seeks to make reunification a reality for more families than ever in RefugePoint’s history.
