Legal Aid
Urban refugees often face serious legal and protection issues leaving them vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and detention. Our team helps refugee girls, their children, and asylum-seekers understand and abide by Kenyan law so that they can live peaceful lives. We ensure that they have the information and accompaniment they need to navigate complex legal processes, obtain identification documents and permits, unify their families, or eventually resettle.
Identification & Documentation
Without proper legal documentation, refugees face restricted access to services and activities that require an official identity document, such as banking, healthcare, education, and employment. A lack of legal identity in Kenya also leaves refugees vulnerable to harassment and detention by the police. However, the processes by which refugees in Kenya obtain legal recognition can often be confusing, leaving applicants feeling frustrated, stressed, and uncertain about their futures. This largely stems from conflicting, unclear, or incomplete information shared by different sources in Nairobi.
We work to ensure that refugees have the information, knowledge, and accompaniment needed to navigate registration and refugee status determination (RSD) processes successfully. We partner with a variety of community-based organizations and government agencies to support vulnerable and unaccompanied refugee girls, young women, and their children attempting to obtain urban refugee documentation in Nairobi. We also provide this service to urban refugee women in our Community Outreach program.
85
REFUGEE GIRLS CONNECTED TO KENYA'S DEPARTMENT OF REFUGEE SERVICES EACH YEAR
Legal Advice & Counseling
We have an onsite legal team that provides case-by-case support for the girls in our programs, many of whom arrive at RefuSHE with an array of protection issues. We provide them with information on their legal rights in Kenya, including those outlined in the Refugee Act. If a refugee girl or young woman needs to navigate the criminal justice system, we provide her with counsel and refer her to partner agencies for legal representation. We also train refugee women in the communities where we serve on county by-laws so that they know how to conduct their entrepreneurial activities in compliance with Kenyan law.
Resettlement Support
Resettlement is often the ultimate goal for the girls and young women who pass through RefuSHE’s programs. While we do not process resettlement applications ourselves, we do walk a girl’s journey with her from the day she arrives on our campus to her eventual departure and possible resettlement. We work with UNHCR and a suite of partners who specialize in resettlement to best support the girls in our care. These partners help them prepare them for resettlement interviews, background, medical, and security checks, and arrival country procedures.
300+
REFUGEE GIRLS, YOUNG WOMEN, AND CHILDREN RESETTLED WITH REFUSHE'S SUPPORT SINCE 2008
Local & Global Advocacy
Our legal team’s main goal is enhanced protection for refugees. We attend high-level government meetings in order to advocate for Nairobi’s urban refugee population and their needs. RefuSHE was a member of the Refugee Bill Task Force that created the 2021 Refugee Act which requires county governments to include refugees in their planning and budgeting processes. We are also members of multiple UNHCR, national, and county working groups where we provide insight, research, and support for the global and local legal protection of refugees.