Securing Documentation Campaign for Refugees in Kenya and Uganda, 2025
Join Our Securing Documentation Campaign for Refugees in Kenya and Uganda, 2025!
Access to official documents is more than just paperwork, it's a lifeline. It unlocks the door to healthcare, education, employment, and stability for refugees in East Africa.
While East Africa has made significant strides in creating policies to support refugees, with regional bodies like Intergovernmental Authority on Development(IGAD), the East African Community (EAC) and International Conference on Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) member states have been championing reforms, and countries like Kenya and Uganda advancing their systems. However, a crucial gap remains.
Our Approach to Tackling Documentation Challenges
- The Problem: While policies and digital registration systems for refugees are improving in Kenya and Uganda, many still face significant practical roadblocks. These challenges stop them from getting vital documents, such as the refugee ID cards, work and travel permits et al., which in turn limit their ability to access basic rights and services.
- The Solution We Are Working On: This campaign is a focused effort to understand and address these documentation barriers. We will delve into the specific obstacles refugees face in Kenya and Uganda, explore innovative solutions to enhance documentation accessibility, and identify how international and national partners can effectively support governments et al. By gathering insights, and importantly, by listening to refugees' own stories, we aim to highlight pathways to better documentation access for refugees in Kenya and Uganda.
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Who Will Participate? This campaign brings together everyone dedicated to making a difference:
- Refugees, Asylum Seekers & Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs): Sharing their crucial first-hand experiences and providing community-level insights.
- Governments: Particularly in Kenya and Uganda, as key partners in implementing solutions.
- Human Rights Defenders, Legal Practitioners and International Non-Governmental Organizations: Provide technical expertise to reform the documentation systems and amplify the voices of refugees, advocating for systemic change.
- Media: Spotlight the impact of possessing or lacking refugee documentation.
If you are an organization, donor, or part of the private sector and you’d like to be involved in creating lasting solutions, please contact via our email info.rebuild@rescue.org
- How Can You Get Involved? Your engagement is vital!
- Refugees and asylum seekers: We invite you to share your personal stories about documentation. Your experiences are powerful and can help shape solutions. If you would like to share your testimonial, please complete the brief form linked here
- Organizations & Individuals: Follow our campaign, share our message, and engage with our findings. Your support helps us build momentum for change.
- Campaign Schedule: The specific schedule for campaign activities and events can be found here.
Together, we can make documentation a gateway to opportunity, not a barrier. Join us in this campaign!
Latest Reports
Advancing Freedom of Movement for Forcibly Displaced Persons
As part of our ongoing advocacy, we’re pleased to share our latest report, Advancing Freedom of Movement for Forcibly Displaced Persons in the East and Horn of Africa at the ACHPR. The report captures discussions and outcomes from the 85th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), held in October 2025 in Banjul, The Gambia. It highlights key challenges refugees face in securing documentation and exercising freedom of movement, and the collective call for regional and national action to uphold these rights.
Re:BUiLD Securing Documentation Campaign (2025) Report
The landscape of refugee documentation in the East Africa region has seen significant improvements in recent years, with member states, including Kenya and Uganda, harmonizing refugee laws and championing reforms. Yet despite this progress, refugees and asylum seekers continue to face several challenges in obtaining necessary documents, including Identification Documentation (ID) cards and travel permits.
These difficulties are further compounded by political, logistical, and bureaucratic barriers that refugees and asylum seekers encounter when trying to access various forms of documentation, impacting their socio-economic stability and violating regional human rights commitments. It is against this backdrop that, in March 2025, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) Refugees in East Africa Boosting Urban Innovation for Livelihood Development (Re:BUiLD) program launched the Securing Documentation Campaign for Refugees in Kenya and Uganda. This campaign's objectives are to increase access to documentation for refugees in East Africa, and specifically in Kenya and Uganda, and to strengthen regional and national policy implementation mechanisms.