UNHCR concerned about detention of refugees

UNHCR has said it is concerned about the large numbers of refugees who have been detained by the Zambian authorities in recent weeks, the refugee agency said in a statement on Wednesday.

Oluseyi Bajulaiye, UNHCR Representative in Lusaka, said that the ongoing verification exercise conducted by immigration authorities had led to a “state of anxiety amongst refugees in Lusaka”.

UNHCR said that it “acknowledged that the Zambian government had expressed reservation on the freedom of movement of refugees when acceding to the Convention on Refugees and therefore could not be challenged when advocating for refugees to reside in designated settlements”.

“However, we are concerned about the manner in which this exercise has been conducted which regrettably resulted in the death of two refugees while in detention,” Bajulaiye said. “Refugees have fled from persecution in their countries of origin and they deserve our understanding and sympathy.”

News reports said on Wednesday that refugees arrested were mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Reports also said that the two refugees who died while in detention were from the DRC.

UNHCR said that a committee would be established at the ministry of home affairs with the participation of UNHCR to “review current procedures”. “Our main objective is to ensure the protection of bona fide refugees and to safeguard their treatment in line with international conventions,” UNHCR said.

Citing the latest refugee figures in Zambia, UNHCR said that there had been a “continuous” number of new arrivals into Zambia’s Northwestern Province from Angola’s Cazombo District.

“Over the past month, an average of 100 new arrivals were recorded per week in Mwinilunga. Once screened those refugees are transferred to the Meheba settlement,” UNHCR said. UNHCR described the situation as “stable” in Zambia’s Western Province. UNHCR said that there were 36,295 refugees at Meheba, the majority of whom were Angolan.

It added that the transfer of 3,000 refugees from Kalabo to the Mayukwayukwa settlement had started. “This movement was delayed on the account of the difficult access into Kalabo, following the flooding of the Zambezi plains,” UNHCR said. There are 10,468 refugees at Mayukwayukwa and 2,948 at Kalabo.

UNHCR said that it was “cautiously optimistic” about prospects for the repatriation of Congolese refugees from Mwange. “However any organised repatriation will have to be based on formal agreements between the government’s of Zambia and the DRC as well as UNHCR.”

Mwange currently houses 20,600 refugees, UNHCR said. It added that in total there were 219,030 refugees in Zambia, the majority of them Angolans.