Refugee policies in South Sudan are open and progressive. The 2012 South Sudan Refugee Act provides for refugees’ socio-economic rights, including the right to work and access public services. Refugees do not require a work permit to seek employment; with only the refugee identity card, they have the same right to apply for jobs as South Sudanese nationals. The process of obtaining a refugee ID is straightforward. However, the labour market is mainly characterised by informal work in subsistence agriculture and a lack of technical, vocational and tertiary education, which limits formal employment opportunities for both nationals and refugees. There is no publicly available data on refugees in formal employment. The report suggests that government, NGOs and refugee-led organisations raise awareness of refugees’ employment rights among private sector actors.
