Govt wants to entice refugees back Submitted by NamibianSun101 on Tue, 2013-11-19 02:00 INCENTIVES NEEDED: Namibian Commissioner of Refugees Nkrumah Mushelenga. PHOTO: NAMPA Namibian Commissioner for Refugees Nkrumah Mushelenga has appealed to the United Nations to help make it attractive for Namibians living in a Botswana refugee camp to return home. There are 979 Namibians in the Dukwe refugee camp in Botswana and they have been reluctant to return to Namibia. Most of them fled to Botswana from the former Caprivi Region after the failed secession attempt by the Caprivi Liberation Army in 1999. Only 18 of these refugees have agreed to return to Namibia and they are expected back in the country before the end of the year. Mushelenga is proposing that the UN provide incentives, such as building materials and increasing the refugees’ monthly cash payments from N$200 to N$900 to entice them to return. He says such incentives helped to convince Angolan refugees to return home from the Osire refugee camp in Namibia last year. About 3 000 Angolans were repatriated after they were provided with financial assistance and were allowed to take along everything they had accumulated in Namibia, from corrugated sheets to livestock. “This was to alleviate the burden of Angolan refugees having to start a new life all over again when back in their respective towns and villages they had fled from. “And this is what the UN must to do, so our brothers and sisters at Dukwe can come back in large numbers, while those wishing to stay behind can be recognised by the Botswana government,” Mushelenga said. He added that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is advocating for Botswana to lift its restrictions on the refugees freedom of movement and to reform its asylum law. “Namibian refugees are living in hardship at a strictly controlled camp in Botswana. “They do not enjoy the same basic services Namibia offers to refugees, who have access to education, health and shelter and can start profitable businesses,” he said. According to Mushelenga, the Namibians at the Dukwe camp are afraid to return home but there is no reason to be scared. “Namibia is their home and they need to know that,” he said. WINDHOEK FAITH SANKWASA
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 17:39:56 +0000
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