Uganda pledges to ensure integrity of the asylum system; In the past two years, Uganda has taken concrete steps to promote transparency and accountability related to financial and protection related risks and to ensure accountability to the refugee community and their engagement in the response. Building on lessons learned on meeting the humanitarian imperative in the context of concurrent large-scale emergencies, several accountability mechanisms are now firmly in place.
Uganda pledges to ensure accountability, especially to refugees and hosting communities through key mechanisms which include effective management of resources, enhanced screenings at reception points, reduction of the Refugee Status Determination backlog, two-way communication mechanisms, a national platform for refugee engagement and a biometric refugee registration database.
Uganda pledges to maintain the integrity of its asylum system. Fulfilling its Global Compact commitments, Uganda introduced a national platform to ensure that refugees participate in high-level policy making through the national arrangements. Each quarter, the Refugee Engagement Forum convenes refugee leaders from all settlements and Kampala to support their elected leaders who enjoy two seats on Uganda’s CRRF Steering Group, which oversees the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees. Hosting districts form part of the Steering Group, representing the host communities in decision-making.
In addition, Uganda recently launched the Feedback Referral and Resolution Mechanism (FRRM), a two-way communication system for refugees and asylum seekers, and a new refugee registration database was rolled out following a nationwide verification exercise where the entire refugee population was biometrically enrolled in BIMS (a robust biometric system that prevents multiple registration) and their data verified in proGres v4. The Government is requesting all partners in the response to use the same database for case management and collection of protection information to ensure up-to-date and accurate data on the population and avoid duplication of services. A framework of collaboration with the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) has been established to ensure the integrity of the refugee database and ensure no nationals have been registered and vice versa. These are all global examples where Uganda ensures the accountability to the refugee community and their engagement in the response.
Uganda pledges to continue to support and protect these mechanisms by anchoring them into its new refugee policy and commits to building its asylum capacity through appropriate recruitment of officers, targeted training to adjudicators and security officers.
The Government of Uganda seeks asylum capacity support from the international community (Para. 61-63 Global Compact on Refugees).