The second meeting of the Refugee Council within NIEM/V4NIEM

On Tuesday, 9th March the members of Migration Policy Programme from the Institute of Public Affairs held the second online meeting with the Refugee Council formed within the framework of NIEM/V4NIEM project. 

The Refugee Council consists of nine members who are distinguished activists and refugee community leaders in Poland, sharing their knowledge and experience of forced migration during the regular thematic meetings. All members have a long professional and personal experience as activists and community leaders, and are involved in various actions and initiatives for intercultural dialogue and integration, within the national and international networks. 

The purpose of establishing the Council was to strengthen the impact of people with refugee experience on the ongoing discussions about the shape of the integration policies in Poland, their outcomes and improvements, as well as to strengthen their impact on integration research.

During the second meeting of the Refugee Council we have raised the wide scope of issues related to the housing situation of people with international protection and especially those benefiting from the assistance outside the reception centres. The goal of the meeting was to share experiences and practices related to the housing situation, as well as to search for effective initiatives related to housing for people with refugee experience in Poland. The Council members highlighted the challenges that people with granted protection and asylum seekers face while confronted with Polish housing system due to gaps in legal framework or insufficiently developed current solutions.

As a result of the meeting and particularly of the insightful discussion that has taken place, the Council has developed the recommendations on possible changes and improvements to public administration activity, at local and national level, regarding housing policy for people with refugee experience. The list of recommendations is planned to be presented at the upcoming meeting of the NIEM National Coalition that will also be focused on the issues related to housing situation of people with international protection in Poland.

During the upcoming meetings, the Council will be discussing further selected areas of integration as well as it will continue designing the bottom-up proposals for changes, in order to improve the situation of people with refugee experience in Poland.