Refugees attending a Parliamentary session on Wednesday urged the government to recognise their talents and use them to develop the country. ”Give these people a chance to use their skills to help build this country and teach South Africa how to walk,” said Ami Bomoka, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Increasing numbers of exiles are returning to Burundi, as confidence seems to be growing that peace has returned to their homeland, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. Last week alone, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees helped 4 200 Burundians go home from Tanzania and Rwanda.
The effort to combine work and studies is taking its toll on Desiré Rwamagana, a Rwandan refugee who lives in South Africa’s commercial hub, Johannesburg. ”Refugee life is hard. I work in the daytime and go to college in the evening. By the end of the day, I get so exhausted that I can’t even do my homework,” he said.
The number of refugees around the world rose by one million in 2004, to 11,5-million, according to the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. People fleeing Sudan’s troubled Darfur region to Chad and Iraqis crossing into Syria contributed to the increase, the private aid group said in its annual survey.
Nearly 100 refugees from various African countries are being detained in Zimbabwe as part of an ongoing police blitz in illegal housing, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. ”Operation Restore Order”, backed by President Robert Mugabe, is believed to have left an estimated 200 000 people homeless and bread supplies scarce.
The disused school sheltering some 200 refugees who fled across the border from Togo to Ghana has no doors, windows or even latrines, and some people are complaining about snakes and mosquitoes at night. ”What’s the point of playing doctor after a death? Prevention is better than healing. That is my message to the United Nations,” said one of the elders.
Refugees made to feel welcome Educators, learners and parents at Clareville Primary School in Clare Estate, Durban, are still abuzz over the visit to the school by Nene Annan, wife of Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations. Annan, accompanied by former President of the Netherlands Rudd Lubbers and Bemma Donkoh of the United Nation […]
A group of 42 asylum seekers have arrived in this Southern African country from Somalia after a two month trek covering more than 2 200km with little food, water or rest, officials said on Wednesday. The men said they were forced to continue their walk after being refused refugee status in Tanzania and Mozambique.
The risk of epidemics is rising dangerously in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, as more than 70 000 refugees fled to already-crowded camps over the weekend after renewed violence in the Ituri region, United Nations officials said.
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/ 14 February 2005
Every year, thousands of Africans fleeing war and economic hardship journey towards the tip of the continent — their sights set on a better life in South Africa. Along with hope for the future, many also bring with them the Aids virus, and South Africa is already grappling with the challenge of providing anti-retroviral drugs to its own citizens.