Refugee-Led Organizations Rally Against USRAP Suspension

Nairobi, 

Wednesday, 12 February, 2025 

McCreadie Andias 

The recent suspension of US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) has stimulated a frenetic response from the refugee led organizations (RLOs) worldwide. 

Long the bedrock of support for displaced individuals, these grassroots entities, usually run on meager funding, have withered in the face of government indifference. Now, they wrestle with the ramifications of this policy change on a very basic level.

Issued January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the executive order titled "Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program." It requires refugee admissions to be suspended as of January 27, 2025, citing national security and those states and localities’ ability to ‘integrate’ incoming populations. 

The suspension for Youth Voices Community (YVC) a Nairobi based RLO, will not just be a policy change but a direct blow to the communities it serves. Last year, YVC supported nearly thousand refugee families, providing business and digital skills trainings, adult literacy programs, community outreach and legal referrals. USRAP was a beacon of hope and a pathway to safety and stability for these families.

YVC said that this executive order has left thousands in limbo, and to separate families and disrupt livelihoods. "We feel this deeply as a refugee led organization. USRAP was more than just a program, it was a lifeline." YVC. 

Global Refuge is echoed in the sentiment by one of the nation's oldest and largest refugee resettlement nonprofits. 'I want to explain that this process — in which these people underwent such rigorous vetting — is a humanitarian lifeline for countless refugees from around the world,' Vignarajah said in a press release. 'It is also a symbol of U.S. global leadership.' 

Legal challenges have also sprung from the suspension. The coalition of U.S. refugee advocates, which included the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), Church World Service, HIAS and Lutheran Community Services Northwest, sued the administration saying that the suspension goes beyond executive authority and harms refugees severely. 

They are worrying globally. Approximately 15,000 Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban rule are now in precarious situations in Pakistan due to suspension. Yet many had risked their lives helping in the U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, some now fearful they will be putting their lives at risk if they return. 

The suspension has been criticised by the advocacy group Afghan USRAP Refugees who has appealed to President Trump to take action based on humanitarian grounds. 

The suspension compounds already existing challenges for RLOs. Though these organizations are on the vanguard of humanitarian support for refugees, they receive just 5 per cent of global humanitarian spending. For USRAP, the halt also means limits their impact but denies them the critical support that health equity communities need.

"Refugee-led solutions work," asserts YVC. "Fund us directly."

The unfolding of the situation, as per the collective voice of Refugee led organizations and advocates, vindicated a very pressing appeal, to stand by the humanitarian normal and uphold the principles of compassion and support then associated with humanitarian efforts. 

They argue not only that the suspension of USRAP threatens these principles and by extension the lives and promising futures of many refugees they seek to assist, but unjustly so.