Population figures
Total country population
756,674
Forcibly displaced population
Refugees (under UNHCR's mandate):
0
Asylum-seekers:
0
IDPs (of concern to UNHCR):
1,000
Other people in need of international protection:
0
Other
Statelessness persons
0
Host community
0
Others of concern to UNHCR
0
Country context
The Solomon Islands is an archipelagic state in the central Pacific Ocean, located northeast of Australia and east of Papua New Guinea, comprising six major islands and over 900 smaller islets.
Refugees and asylum-seekers have originated sporadically from neighbouring Pacific states and further afield; they reside within host communities in urban centres such as Honiara rather than in camps or settlements, accessing housing and public services under prevailing civil-residency provisions. Stateless individuals, while rare, are likewise dispersed among foreign-national communities in townships, holding temporary identity documents under general immigration law.
...The State acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol in 1994, and to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness in 2004. Despite these treaty commitments, no domestic legislation has been enacted to establish national refugee-status determination procedures or appeals mechanisms. A Refugee Status Determination Bill was drafted in 2010 but has not been introduced before Parliament, leaving individuals expressing a fear of return to be referred to UNHCR’s regional office for eligibility assessment and status recognition under UNHCR mandate rather than through national law.
Statelessness remains unaddressed by domestic statute. Although the State has ratified the core statelessness conventions, no legal procedure exists to identify or determine stateless status; persons without nationality are managed under general immigration regulations and may receive temporary residence documentation without formal guarantees or avenues for appeal.
At the regional level, the Solomon Islands has participated in Pacific Immigration Directors’ Conferences and hosted capacity-building workshops on refugee protection and mixed migration response. Engagements with Pacific Protection Learning Programmes and natural-disaster protection clusters have contributed to enhanced awareness of international standards, though these remain externally facilitated and have not yet translated into domestic law.
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