CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Edward Hobbs Gama, Malawi, July, 1999
THEME = REFUGEES
The number of refugees and displaced people in Southern Africa
is posing a major challenge to Africa's institution of asylum and refugee protection.
At the same time, the large influx of refugees decimates
natural resources in host countries
Why are there so many refugees in Africa's southern regions? Quite simply because of the on-going fighting in Congo RDC and the prolonged war in Angola. In countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the inflow has caused serious damage to the environment and to host countries' natural resources. As well as this, host countries are faced with many problems in caring for the asylum seekers.
A symposium held in South Africa earlier this year, entitled: "Challenges to the Institution of Asylum and Refugee Protection in Southern Africa: Reconciling State Interests with International Asylum Obligations", scrutinised the refugee policy in various countries and emphasised the need to re- define and re-evaluate refugee policy and practices.
Currently, Africa hosts over six million refugees which rates it the continent with the largest number of refugees in the world. Originally, the majority of these refugees were centred around Central Africa and the Great Lakes region - areas where war is still raging. But now the repercussions from these conflicts have spread to the relatively stable region of Southern Africa. Most of the countries in the region are already facing economic hardships and unstable economies, and the arrival of refugees from other regions threatens to exacerbate these deteriorating economies.
According to the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), since April 1998, over 600,000 people in Angola have been displaced and the number is likely to increase with the continued fighting between Jonas Savimbi's rebel UNITA movement and the MPLA troops of President Eduardo Dos Santos' government. The World Food Programme (WFP), estimates that there are 70,000 refugees in Malanje, 80,000 in Huambo, and 55,000 in Cuito. Local people are suffering malnutrition in some places due to increasing numbers of refugees.
Malawi, Zambia and Namibia are all hosting refugees. Zambia has 160,000 in camps, in addition to 40,000 refugees in the northwestern regions, mostly from neighbouring Angola. There are also hundreds from Burundi, Congo RDC and Rwanda.
The refugee problem has not only inconvenienced the host countries but also fuelled hostility and distrust among neighbouring countries. Relations between Angola and Zambia, both SADC members, have been somewhat cool in recent months, with Angola accusing Zambia of supporting UNITA.
Over 2,500 refugees have crossed into Namibia from the Caprivi strip following a separatist revolt in that swampy area. Namibia and Botswana have always been at loggerheads over the ownership of the Seddudu/Kasikile islands, and the matter has been referred to the International Court of Justice. South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are hosting refugees mainly from Angola, Congo RDC and the Great Lakes region.
Southern African countries, while abiding by the international human rights charters, are faced with new questions concerning the status of refugees and there is an urgent need to re-define and re-evaluate the whole question of refugee protection.
"The definition of refugee protection and asylum obligations needs to be re-visited; serious policy action must be mobilised to remove or reduce the root causes," said Phyllis Johnson, Executive Director of the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) at the South Africa symposium. It appears that in South Africa, refugees are ill-treated as there is no clear distinction made between refugees and illegal immigrants. Over 10 refugees were killed in 1998.
The UNHCR has embarked on a special project to reduce sexual violence against women and girls in refugee camps. The new project seeks to strengthen legal structures as well as providing counselling to victims. Delegates at the UNHCR symposium agreed that despite socio-economic limitations and national preferences, states need to adhere to human rights obligations: i.e. the UN Convention on Refugees; the OAU Convention on Refugees; the International Humanitarian Law; the African Charter on Human and People's Rights; the UN Convention on Mines.
It is to be hoped, therefore, that while the international community is finding ways and means to resolve conflicts in the war-tone areas of the continent, they should also speed up the formulation of pertinent policies to ensure the safety and protection of asylum seekers.
South Africa has experienced an influx of foreigners from many African countries since the end of the apartheid regime and the holding of the 1994 elections. Since then, local people seem to have turned against these immigrants, accusing them of taking many of the jobs and trade. In the past, a large number of immigrants had been offered cheap labour mostly on farms and down the mines. Now the government has started the compulsory repatriation of illegal immigrants. They are arrested by the police and sent home in such a way that a number don't even have time to collect their belongings. The situation has become so grave that countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are pressing the government to respect the rights of those who are foreigners on South African soil.
South Africa is now facing a poignant question regarding its policy towards immigrants and its post-apartheid human rights record. The country has been reminded that it enjoys its present economic power thanks to the cheap labour which came from other countries. Young men came from Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and other southern African countries. Others from as far away as Nigeria, Angola, Burundi.
Not all "immigrants" have come to seek work and trade prospects. Some want refugee status, having fled a war situation in their own countries. The Department of Home Affairs is hard put to try and differentiate between "genuine refugees" and "economic refugees".
Where are these people to be found? Zimbabweans run most of the marketing. Malawians are good at looking after gardens in the cities. Nigerians frequently arrive in South Africa with more capital that other African arrivals. They control the cocaine trade and run big trading enterprises, forming a network in Cape Town and Johannesburg.
The government of Mozambique has condemned the forced repatriation of many of its young citizens from South Africa, frequently in appalling conditions. The provincial government of Maputo complains that about 1,500 young people are repatriated every week packed in what is called "a train of shame". They come minus the money they earned and without their possessions. They de-train at the border village of Ressano Garcia, far away from Maputo. The Maputo authorities say that last year, more than 60,000 youngsters were compulsorily repatriated to Mozambique. However, the Mozambican authorities are concerned that most of those repatriated are not Mozambicans at all. Many come from Congo RDC, Rwanda, Angola and even Nigeria. When arrested by the South African police as illegal immigrants, they claim Mozambican citizenship so as to be able to attempt to re-enter South Africa at a later date.
Dr Leonardo Simao, Mozambique's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that his government is making efforts to cooperate with the South African authorities to overcome the plight of illegal immigrants. However he described the South African police as "an institution in crisis".
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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