3. Protection considerations, key principles and eligibility

Systems and procedures need to be put in place by destination and departure States to guarantee protection from refoulement for refugees accessing complementary pathways including by:
a) Providing access to multi-trip machine readable refugee travel documents—and the ability to renew them at the embassies of issuing countries.
b) Ensuring that those travelling under complementary pathways have meaningful access to asylum in receiving countries without time limits. When refugees are unable to return to their first country of asylum and have not managed to secure their stay through legal means in their complementary pathways country, they need to be able to seek asylum and remain in the third country as long as they are in need of international protection.

While solutions-oriented, complementary pathways do not always lead refugees directly to a solution. In some cases, a refugee may choose to relocate for study to one country and then move to a different one for an opportunity through a legal pathway with a temporary legal status (work or study permit) before becoming eligible for permanent residency and eventually citizenship— thus allowing them to cease their refugee status. In others, the pathway opportunity may allow the refugee and their family to continue with their lives in relative peace while awaiting return to their home country and the chance to contribute to the rebuilding effort using the skills and savings gained. Refugees who arrive in third countries on legal pathways with a temporary legal status linked to employment or education often must navigate steps towards permanent residence and naturalization to extend their stay.

The right to seek asylum is a fundamental human right for which complementary pathways cannot substitute. By definition, complementary pathways are accessible on the basis of skills and experience, family and community links and other factors, while resettlement offers a solution to those with acute needs that cannot be met in the countries of first asylum. Complementary pathways should lead to an overall net increase in the number of people accessing third-country solutions without jeopardizing or replacing resettlement quotas that offer solutions based on protection needs and specific vulnerabilities.

Preserving family unity should be at the core of the design of complementary pathways, ideally by ensuring that family members can travel together or reunite without delays through family reunification procedures with refugee-specific concessions. This applies to situations of longer-term relocation or permanent settlement through complementary pathways. For shorter-term opportunities, same rules that apply to work/student migrants should apply to refugees.

Complementary pathways are based on the premise that refugees should have equal access to regular migration opportunities, without discrimination on the basis of their status as refugees. It is equally important that pathways are based on objective criteria and are accessible without distinction such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Ensuring equal access for all refugees should inform the expansion of complementary pathways. This can mean introducing specific quotas for women and others, adjusting eligibility criteria to promote greater parity, and working at community level to challenge gender norms and obstacles relevant to specific individuals and groups.

Destination countries are obliged to provide minimum standards of treatment for refugees. These include access to protection, personal status and legal documentation, education, work rights, social security and public relief, health, housing, freedom of movement, religion and access to courts. Refugees travelling on complementary pathways also need access to justice, including fair hiring and employment practices, occupational health and safety, freedom from discrimination, exploitation and other risks, irrespective of their legal status. It is equally important that they receive targeted support upon arrival and ongoing social and legal support until a longer-term or durable solution is found.

Complementary pathways must be child-sensitive and incorporate appropriate child-focused protection safeguards. They should be grounded on the principle of the best interests of the child and on the protection and fulfilment of the rights of the child.

UNHCR, governments and other actors need to understand their legal obligations vis-à-vis individual data subjects. Apart from obtaining consent and informing individuals, safe storage and transfer, retention and deletion of data are all important considerations. All actors should also implement organizational and technical measures of data and information security (e.g. encryption). Such a “privacy by design and by default” approach enables the safe processing of data and contributes to successful programming. All personal data processing by UNHCR needs to comply with applicable data protection rules, mainly UNHCR’s General Policy on Personal Data Protection and Privacy (GDPP) and implementing instruments. Data-sharing agreements between departure and destination States and, where applicable, UNHCR should be set in place when UNHCR is requested to share individual data, owned by the country of first asylum (in situations of government registration and asylum procedures for status issuance).

The integration of refugees’ perspectives in the design and implementation of complementary pathways is key to ensuring that their specific situation is taken into account. Regular feedback mechanisms and consultations with refugees can ensure that pathways are appropriate, safe, scalable and accessible for them.