Zambia seeks financial support for refugees
Zambia, like many of the countries hosting asylum seekers, needs unwavering material and financial support from the international community to contend with the demands induced by the excessive population boom, the United Nations refugee agency has noted.
Zambia, hosting a staggering 84,553 refugees and other persons of concern mainly in Meheba Settlement in North-Western Province, Mayukwayukwa in Western province and Mantapala, in Luapula province, among other settlements, has provided humanitarian assistance based on the United Nations Convention of 1970 on which member states are obliged to look into the welfare of asylum seekers.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) commissioner Filippo Grandi said it was gratifying to learn of Zambia’s gesture of goodwill towards the welfare of refugees through an open door policy which should be reciprocated with humanitarian assistance.
Speaking when he paid a courtesy call on President Edgar Lungu on his maiden visit to Zambia, Grandi affirmed the UN agency’s commitment to continue supporting Zambia through advocacy for resources to sustain the welfare of both refugees and host communities who are impacted heavily by the population overload.
The commissioner welcomed Zambia’s embracing the Global Compact on Refugees as a progressive and landmark document, which will contribute towards ensuring sustainable solutions for refugees, former refugees and host communities in a holistic manner. This is despite the Southern African country facing various national needs, including debt servicing in excess of US$19 billion.
Grandi commended Zambia and its people for the hospitality and the strides made towards local integration of former Angolan and Rwandan refugees, with an emphasis on the need to accelerate the process. He assured President Lungu of his personal commitment to lobby for resources from the international community to ease the burden of overseeing the welfare of asylum seekers.
President Lungu thanked UNHCR and other co-operating partners for the support they continue to render to Zambia in admitting and providing protection to refugee and using a comprehensive approach to their refugee response striving towards legal, social and economic inclusion.
He underscored Zambia’s relentless effort to maintaining an open-door policy towards refugees and stressed that the provision of assistance and services to refugees had to be a joint responsibility.
“There has to be burden and responsibility-sharing with the international community. We appreciate the support we have received from co-operating partners, until now but we still need more support,” said President Lungu.
President Lungu commended Grandi’s visit to Zambia noting that it would serve as a fact finding errand and appraise him on the challenges faced in undertaking the refugee programme in Zambia, particularly now that the government was entering into a phase of stabilising the Congolese refugee response.
He also expressed optimism about the prospects for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Speaking to The Southern Times in Lusaka on the sidelines of the continental and Fifth Conference on Civil Registration Civil Registration, Grandi noted the challenges faced by African countries in hosting refugees amid debt and other obligations, adding this had impacted heavily in resource sharing.
Zambia, like many of the refugee host countries, had embraced a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) in which it sought to raise home grown material and financial resources to carry out refugee programmes and reduce dependence on donor help. Zambia is currently seeking US$72 million.
Zambia joined the CRRF, thus adopting the whole of society approach to increase the self-reliance of refugees. The concept was adopted by all 193 member states of the United Nations in September 2016.
It contains historic and wide-ranging commitments that reaffirm the commitment by member states to respect the human rights of refugees and migrants and to support the countries that welcome them.
