Concern over rising number of refugees

Overcrowding in Mozambique's national refugee centre has forced the authorities to consider opening a second site to cope with the influx of asylum seekers. A senior official from the government's refugee commission (NARE) said on Tuesday that the centre at Maratane, in the northern province of Nampula, was near capacity. "The centre can only hold up to 5,000 people, and within a month we will reach that number. We are afraid that, even though we try to maintain good conditions for the refugees, we don't have the resources to care for any more," NARE's protection officer, Alberto Deus, told IRIN. He added that there were concerns over the possible outbreak of disease in the centre, despite a recent vaccination drive. "On average we have about more than 100 new refugees coming to the centre per month. It is difficult to ensure that these people are routinely vaccinated. We are also worried that if the number of people increases we will have no place for them to sleep," Deus said. Most asylum seekers were from the Great Lakes region, although in recent months there had been an influx of refugees from Somalia. Deus confirmed that a recent visit to the centre by Nampula's provincial governor had led the authorities to consider stricter criteria in the selection of applicants for asylum, as a means of minimising the risk of accepting illegal immigrants. "We do not want to say that we do not want refugees here, but we must make sure that there are procedures which separate those seeking asylum from those who enter the country for other reasons," Deus said. "We will speak to the UN [refugee agency] in the country and discuss what needs to be done to help us work out this problem. But if it means opening a new centre [to assist with the influx of refugees], we will have to." According to the daily Noticias newspaper, a number of refugees were using Mozambique as a gateway to South Africa, although NARE could not confirm this.