The group, which included 75 children, arrived at Erfurt airport on a direct flight from the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Wednesday (June 26).

Before boarding the plane, all had been granted permission to travel to Germany and were recognized as refugees within the UNHCR’s Refugee Status Determination, aimed at relocating vulnerable persons in need of international protection.

The 154 people on the Airbus A340 from Kenya were from South Sudan, Somalia, DRC, Burundi and Sudan – countries where human rights are at risk due to war and conflict.

Following their arrival, the refugees were taken by bus to Doberlug-Kirchhain, a small eastern town between Dresden and Berlin, where they were to spend the next fortnight before being sent to other locations throughout the country, a spokesperson from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF ) told the local newspaper Thüringer Allgemeine.

The refugees will receive three-year temporary residence permits – without having to apply for asylum – and have the same status as those granted refugee protection after arriving in Germany as undocumented migrants, including the right to work, to family reunion and the possibility of permanent settlement after three years. In general, resettlement is intended to allow participants to remain permanently in the host country.

Resettlement in Germany

Around 240 refugees from Kenya, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Libya and Lebanon, among other countries, will be resettled in Germany this year under the UNHCR Resettlement Program, according to the Thüringer Allgemeine.

Since 2012, Germany has taken in thousands of people through the UN program as well as federal and state humanitarian admission programs, which are separate from UNHCR Resettlement. The UNHCR office in Germany stresses, however, that there are only a few available places, and that a strict selection process is used to determine who will be given a place. 

In past years, refugees have been admitted from Tunisia, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Lebanon, among other countries.

The majority of refugees resettled through UNHCR are received by the United States of America and Canada.

The EU hosts around 20 percent of the global refugee population, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in December.

With more than 114 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, the UNHCR has repeatedly urged countries to do more to create resettlement opportunities for refugees.

Also read: Refugee resettlement needed for 2 million in 2023, UNHCR