OPE/Accra interviewer collecting biographical
data from refugees.
Photo: OPE/Accra |
About OPE
When the U.S. Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, Africans were admitted to the U.S. Refugee Program (USRP) for the first time. Unlike the highly developed government programs for processing refugees in Southeast Asia and Europe, few structures were in place in Africa.
In FY 1980, the U.S. admissions ceiling for African refugees was 2,000. For a few years, the International Rescue Committee operated a Liberian resettlement program under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM).
In April 1990, Church World Service (CWS) signed a Cooperative Agreement with PRM and opened a small processing operation in Nairobi, Kenya. The staff at JVA/Nairobi interviewed refugees by sending interviewing teams to countries in West Africa from 1996 until CWS opened a West Africa sub-office in Dakar, Senegal, in 1998.
In early 2001, Church World Service signed a Cooperative Agreement with PRM to operate an Overseas Processing Entity in West Africa. OPE/Accra spent several months in FY 2001 setting up its office in order to become fully operational in FY 2002. The 629 departures in FY 2002 increased sharply to more than 8,000 refugees departed in FY 2004.
Today, OPE/Accra is the center for processing refugees for the USRP from across West and Central Africa. The ceiling for admissions in the Africa Area Program for FY 2008 is 16,000 refugees, of whom 2,500 fall under the processing responsibility of OPE/Accra.
OPE/Accra works in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to assist in the preparation of documents for refugees who are of “compelling humanitarian concern,” and for refugees who qualify for family reunification, in West and Central Africa.
OPE assists in preparing refugee applications both before and after adjudication by USCIS Officers. OPE also acts as the point of contact between referral agencies, U.S. voluntary agencies, and the USRP throughout the application process. Finally OPE Accra provides Cultural Orientation classes to approved refugees resettling to the United States.