Consultancy: Research on the legal protection frameworks for People on the Move across Latin America region

CONSULTANCY ASSIGNMENT BACKGROUND

The Latin American (LA) region is facing several complex emergencies, including the internal and regional impacts of the crisis in Venezuela, the humanitarian consequences of the armed conflict in Colombia and persistently high levels of generalized violence in Central America. These conditions combine to create some of the world’s highest forced displacement numbers.

We are now seeing across the LA region increasing transcontinental mixed migration with an unprecedented number of refugees and migrants on the move in search of safety, international protection, and/or better opportunities. The push and pull factors for refugees and migrants, or ‘people on the move,’ are complex and multi-faceted, as well as frequently misunderstood.

Many may leave initially for perceived purposes of economic imperative, though find their vulnerabilities increase or change over time due to various state migration and policy, practices, and procedures across the region. This includes denial of access to asylum and legal stay regularisation processes, or the provision of a subsidiary form of protection status, which affords limited rights to those refugees granted it.

When NRC interviews or interacts with people on the move, across the LA region, we are often told by respondents that the main driver for their migration was economic, but following further exploration and in-depth discussion, we discover that there are in fact far more complex drivers at play. Oftentimes, we learn that the respondent’s displacement experience was more forced than voluntary and frequently connected to pervasive violence and insecurity faced in places of origin. Or we find that there are those who began their journey as an economic migrant but who may then find themselves falling into the category of refugee while on the move due to factors outside of their control. In all cases, such people are deserving of international protection status, yet frequently are denied this right.

Therefore, NRC has been using the term people who are in “refugee-like situations” to try to describe this group as a subset of people on the move. Within this terminology, we consider individuals who have been forcibly displaced across borders, but who are not recognized as refugees, and therefore not necessarily receive international protection as granted under refugee law. These groups specifically include

1. Individuals and groups who do not have refugee status due to national legislation in the hosting country, but who may meet criteria for refugee status under international law
2. Individuals and groups who have received protection in a host country through temporary schemes, and those who do not manage to access it because of date of entry, expiration of the scheme, lack of documentation, etc.
3. Individuals who do not qualify as refugees but who may require protection under the principle of non-refoulement, and
4. Individuals displaced across borders by climate change, disasters, generalised violence, massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order (such as economic collapse).

People who fall into the above categories may face similar threats to their lives and livelihoods as refugees, but often face a myriad of additional barriers to achieving legal stay outside their home countries. Furthermore, organisations like NRC can face legal and practical obstacles to supporting these populations, including the criminalization of their work, a lack of principled funding sources that be used to provide assistance, as well as internal structural barriers that can prevent us from reaching these populations.

NRC across the LA region is now starting to explore how our advocacy and programme responses can better affect positive protection outcomes for people on the move and address the policies that are restricting the rights of people in “refugee-like situations”. Key protection concerns seen across NRC’s operations in the region are that populations’ vulnerability appears to increase over time and national state border management policies aimed at managing migration and displacement are in fact having the effect of denying access to legal protection for people on the move.

As part of this commitment, we are seeking to better understand the barriers to international protection faced by people on the move in refugee-like situations and identify concrete ways in which NRC programming and policy work can contribute to removing them.

OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE OF WORK

Objective Undertake an assessment of the legal protection frameworks for people in “refugee-like situations” across the areas of NRC operations (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama) to provide a credible evidence-base for NRC to demonstrate the positive and negative impacts of current migration/protection policy arrangements and frameworks in place across the region, as well as inform new entry points for NRC’s legal aid programming across the region.

Specifically, we would ask a consultant to:

• Map the legal pathways to protection/legal stay or to regularisation of status that are available to people in “refugee-like situations” (asylum/refugee status, humanitarian visas, and other forms of alternative protection regimes such as the temporary protection status for Venezuelans, or family links/family reunification etc.) in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama, and the process to obtain it, potentially, identifying gaps in these legal and policy frameworks on legal protection pathways.
• Identify what rights and entitlements (access to health, work, education) each of the available legal protection mechanisms or statuses affords the people that obtain them.
• Unpack the (legal and non-legal) operational and practical barriers (timeliness or lengthy processes, fees, documentation, knowledge etc.) that “people in need of international protection” face when attempting to obtain protection or a legal stay to help us better advance and support the identification of prioritised concerns for specific groups or nationalities among people in “refugee-like situations”.

Scope, the consultant will be asked to consider:

• Current literature and ongoing work (existing/on-going research or studies) around legal pathways to legal stay or protection, with a focus on how such work impacts people on the move in “refugee-like situations”.
• Inputs from both inside and outside NRC. While it is expected that an emphasis will be placed on considering the role that NRC can and should play in supporting pathways to legal stay, the consultant will also be asked to consider ongoing work in this area from other stakeholders.
• The potential areas of focus for the NRC policy and programming in support of people on the move in “refugee-like situations”, and the opportunities and constraints to NRC engagement in these areas.

Methodology The methodology for the assessment should include:

• Desk review of key documents outlining legal stay options and what rights and entitlements (access to health, work, education) each of those affords in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama and Peru countries.
• Key informant interviews with NRC staff and external stakeholders implementing legal aid programming in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru to identify operational and practical barriers that people in “refugee-like situations” face when attempting to obtain protection or a legal stay.

3. DELIVERABLES AND IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

Key Deliverables

1. Detailed work plan and updated technical proposal and/or inception report
2. An extensive (internal) report that presents a comprehensive overview of the legal pathways to protection and legal stay options in the countries mentioned-above (including own and existing research) for people on the move in “refugee-like situations”, listing the related rights and entitlements, provides an analysis of the barriers they are face in the process (highlighting prioritised concerns for specific groups or nationalities) and identifies concrete opportunities and methods through which NRC could proactively address these barriers in its programming and policy work.
3. An external report (no more than 17 pages), including:

• Explanation of the methodology and constraints encountered
• Introduction/setting the scene
• Essential and critical findings in terms of legal pathways to protection and legal stay options, and in terms of access to health, work, and education.
• Documented examples illustrative of the key issues, themes, and dynamics observed, including where possible through visually compelling infographics, etc.
• Clear and actionable policy recommendations to relevant national, regional, and international targets.

Proposed timeline 5 to 6 weeks starting early October 2022

4. INSTITUTIONAL AND ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

NRC will own the intellectual property rights to all materials submitted by the consultant under the contract. The consultant must therefore ensure that he/she has possession of any materials provided to NRC as a part of the deliverables. The rights to reproduce the report will fall to NRC and its contracted agent. NRC will be free to reproduce the materials at will and to grant reproduction rights.

Duties of the consultant:

• Lead and coordinate the assessment including being responsible for:
• Desk review
• Preparation and facilitation of interviews with NRC and other actors as agreed upon with NRC
• Deliverables (including addressing NRC questions/comments)
• Ensure the timely submission of the above-mentioned deliverables

Reports should be submitted in Microsoft Word format, in UK English. All text should be unformatted. Graphs or other graphical devices should be editable (i.e. not pictures). All references must be cited according to convention, and detailed in a bibliography, using the Harvard system as set out in the UNESCO Style Manual. All verbatim quotations must appear in quotation marks and must not be of excessive length. All data collected under the consultancy must be submitted with the deliverables, in a widely recognized format such as Microsoft Excel.

Everything submitted to NRC must be the original work of the consultants. Any plagiarism in any form, or any other breach of intellectual property rights, will automatically disqualify the consultant from receiving any further payments under the contract by NRC, and NRC will seek to recover any payments already made.

Duties of NRC:

• Accompany and support the consultant
• Ensure proper inception meetings with the consultant and identify key RO and CO staff to be interviewed
• NRC will provide the consultant with any existing documents to support the desk review
• Introduce the Consultant to the key identified RO and CO staff
• Participation in interviews and workshops as relevant
• Review and feedback on the draft deliverables
• NRC will bear the Consultancy fees

5. QUALIFICATIONS OF THE CONSULTANT

• Advanced University degree in human rights, social studies, political science, international relations or relevant field of study.
• Minimum 7 years of proven experience in conducting similar assignments.
• Demonstrable experience related to forced migration, legal pathways to residency/legal stay, and legal research with programming experience as an added advantage.
• Strong knowledge of the current migration debates and the socio-economic and political dynamics affecting forced displacement.
• Strong analytical and writing skills with proven experience in producing high-quality research with the ability to present complex information in a simple and accessible manner.
• Excellent written and spoken English and Spanish are mandatory.
• Knowledge of the Latin American context is mandatory.