UNHCR welcomes six Rohingya refugees who will be taking part in the Philippines’ pilot Complementary Pathways (CPath) programme, which provides select Rohingya youth with a safe and regulated avenue of admission and stay in the country through education. The refugees will be taking up studies at CPath partner academic institutions that have offered full board scholarships for the full duration of their 4-5 year courses of study.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, joins the Government of the Philippines in welcoming six Rohingya refugees to the country as part of the Philippines’ pilot Complementary Pathways (CPath) programme.
A landmark initiative that offers an opportunity for a durable solution for refugees, the Philippines’ CPath programme provides select Rohingya youth with a safe and regulated avenue of admission and stay in the country through education. Aside from ensuring the refugees’ protection and facilitating their access to basic rights, the programme also seeks to strengthen their skills and self-reliance capacities, giving them the tools to build better futures for themselves and their communities.
Six refugees make up the first batch of participants. They will be taking up studies at CPath partner academic institutions which will be providing full board scholarships to the students for the full duration of their education, which will last between four to five years.
Speaking to the CPath participants upon their arrival in Manila on 30 August, Maria Ermina Valdeavilla-Gallardo, head of UNHCR’s office in the Philippines, said, “We fervently wish that this path you will take allows you to realize your dreams. And once your dreams are at hand, may you be a catalyst in shaping the lives of hope for your families and bring forth positive change to your communities in the future.”
The Philippines first pledged to create complementary solutions for refugees during the Global Refugee Forum in 2019. The CPath programme was institutionalized three years later by the Government’s Inter-Agency Committee on the Complementary Pathways Program (IACCP) through the leadership of the Department of Justice Refugees and Stateless Persons Protection Unit (DOJ-RSPPU).
“This day was just a vision back in 2019,” said Chief State Counsel George Ortha II, head of the DOJ-RSPPU, during the arrival ceremony. He added, “The past three years of developing this programme and preparing for its implementation has been a journey of forming and strengthening collaborations among the Government and civil society in the realization of a whole of society approach [to refugee protection].”
While the initial rollout of the CPath programme is limited to a small batch of participants, the Philippine Government, with the support of UNHCR, intends to forge more partnerships with academic and private sector institutions to expand the coverage and scale of assistance that can be provided to Rohingya refugees.
“For now, the CPath programme may be modest in its number of beneficiaries, but they are assured of a programme that will provide them with a deeper and more substantive form of assistance that will help them be self-reliant and self-sustaining,” said Kira Azucena, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
“The Committee continues to work to strengthen the long-term capacity and sustainability of the CPath programme, which we hope will enhance its future iteration and implementation,” Ms Azucena added.
UNHCR hopes the pilot programme of the Philippines will inspire other countries to implement similar initiatives that would provide durable solutions to the displacement faced by the Rohingya and other refugees, in line with States’ international commitments, including the Global Compact on Refugees and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Maria Jorica Pamintuan
Senior Communications Assistant
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