PH Gov’t Agencies Sign Agreement to Protect Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Stateless Persons
18 October 2017 - Several government agencies, including the Department of Foreign Affairs, signed the Inter-Agency Agreement on the Protection of Asylum Seekers, Refugees and Stateless Persons in the Philippines on October 12. Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs Jose Luis G. Montales signed the agreement on behalf of the Department.
According to Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras, the agreement will be the basis of streamlining the provision of services to asylum seekers, refugees and stateless persons in the country.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees representative Michel Huyghe, Head of Field Office of UNHCR in Cotabato, congratulated the Philippine Government on the signing of the agreement and expressed the hope that it will be a catalyst for broader support for the development of national legislation for the protection of refugees, stateless persons and persons of concern. He also thanked the Philippine Government for its close cooperation with the UNHCR and its unrelenting support for UNHCR operations in the country.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) led the government agencies that developed and signed the agreement. Other agencies included the Supreme Court, Department of Education, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Health, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Bureau of Immigration, Public Attorney’s Office, Commission on Higher Education, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes, Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and Professional Regulation Commission.
The DFA continues to issue International Civil Aviation Organization-compliant Convention Travel Documents to recognized refugees and stateless persons in the country.
The Philippines also continues to implement the Emergency Transit Mechanism, a cooperation agreement with the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration that allows for the immediate evacuation of refugees who are at risk of refoulement and persecution. The Philippines is the first in Asia to have established a statelessness determination procedure.
The DOJ leads the Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Unit.
The Philippines is a State Party to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of refugees and its 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, and the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. END
