Refugee entrepreneurship, business ownership and the right to work in host communities: A legal comparative analysis (with Executive Summary)

TrustLaw and the Tent Partnership for Refugees thank Jones Day, Latham & Watkins LLP, Ozalp Law Firm, and Winston & Strawn LLP for donating their time and expertise to the report Refugee Entrepreneurship, Business Ownership, and the Right to Work in Host Communities: A Legal Comparative Analysis.

The report provides an overview of refugee’s right to work, right to own and right to operate businesses in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, and Uganda. The executive summary also provides a comparative chart outlining the existence (or lack thereof) of national refugee laws, signatory status to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the amending 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, and other relevant areas of comparison in the eight countries discussed in the report.

Save where otherwise indicated, the contents of the report reflect the position as at September 2019. The report does not incorporate the effects, if any, of events and circumstances which may have occurred subsequent to September 2019.
Sattar&Co (Bangladesh), Akhund Forbes Hadi (Pakistan), BYA Law Office (Ethiopia), Anjarwalla & Khanna (Kenya), and MMAKS Advocates (Uganda) also contributed to the country reports included in the report.

We hope that this report will mark an important step toward better economic opportunities for refugees, whose skills and passion add immense value to their host countries.