Zambia : refugees denounce a prolonged suspension of the granting of exit permits from camps

It has been more than two months since the issuance of exit permits from camps has been temporarily suspended in almost all refugee camps in Zambia. The reason is that these permits are allegedly granted in disorder. A commissioner for refugees at the Zambian Ministry of the Interior was reportedly jailed for this purpose.

INFO SOS Médias Burundi

At the beginning, leaders of refugee camps explained to those concerned that this is a “restructuring and improvement” in the granting of this most requested service.

The measure mainly concerns three large refugee camps designated Mantapala, Meheba and Mayukwayukwa. Refugees settled in urban centers are not worried.

Then, the wait was long and a new element was added to the case that seemed to get more complicated as time went by.

In mid-September, the Commissioner for Refugees at the Ministry of Internal Affairs was arrested and detained for facts relating to the “uncontrolled movement of refugees in the country”.

Prof Prosper Ng’andu was arrested after a large-scale raid in Zambia that targeted illegal migrants. Among them, refugees who had either false documents, expired documents or who did not have any at all.

During this raid, several people were suspected by the police of being in contact with “terrorists and criminals” and were brought before the prosecutor. Among them were holders of exit permits and refugee status.

“Zambia Daily Mail”, a Zambian daily newspaper reported that the police fear “a registration of suspected terrorists disguised as refugees”, which compromises the security of the country.
This is what the Zambian police announced.

Since then, the granting of exit permits from refugee camps has been suspended and those concerned are strongly advised not to violate this rule, for fear of exposing themselves to severe sanctions.

For the moment, refugees denounce a violation of their rights.

“Let them do their investigations but let them preserve the rights of the innocent too”, believe refugees from the Meheba camp, considering the measure as “a constraint to live in an open-air prison”.

And they explain : “with exit permits we manage to trade outside the camps, we do daily work, we take care of our fields, young people go to university in the cities and therefore we have the right to move freely in the country”.

In Zambia, refugees receive no food assistance other than humanitarian health or education aid.

“We are encouraged by the UNHCR and the government to respond to community integration. This is therefore not possible if we are forced to stay only in the camps!”, deplore refugees who confided in SOS Médias Burundi.

Zambia hosts more than 105,000 refugees, asylum seekers and other persons of concern to the UNHCR.
The majority of these people are from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Angola, in addition to former Rwandan refugees.

——

Illegal immigrants including Burundian nationals being turned away by Zambian services, DR