Work, the Right to Work, and Durable Solutions: A Study on Sierra Leonean Refugees in The Gambia

It is rare indeed that the forced movement of people will nothave an economic dimension. Economic issues related to the movementof people have generally been viewed as beyond the scope ofthe debate on the international status and protection of refugees.Instead, ‘economics’ and ‘refugees’when heard together, or even in loose association, have evokedthe pejorative images of those who move to seek a ‘betterlife’. While recognising on the one hand the inevitabilityof economic dimensions to refugee movements, many advocatesfor refugees have traditionally taken great care in their policyand advocacy work to downplay the economic element of the complexmatrix of motivations that lead refugees and other forced migrantsto move. This paper takes a different approach. It promotesthe right to work, a social and economic right, as integralto protection and to all durable solutions. It explores itsrelevance, and indeed its significance, as a matter of law,policy and practice to the lives of refugees and those responsiblefor their protection, including their hosts. After all, ‘[d]espitethe statistical existence of unemployment in every country inthe world, work continues to be "an essential part of the humancondition"’. In addition, the paper examines the importanceof a rights-based analysis of work in understanding its relevancein the field both of international and national protection.In doing so, it explores the connections between work and theright to work and the three durable solutions. It acknowledgesthat social and economic conditions and inequities are oftenamongst the root causes of conflict which then lead to the failureof national protection and precipitate flight.