{"id":23703,"date":"2019-09-14T11:56:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T11:56:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=23703"},"modified":"2019-10-04T23:11:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T23:11:56","slug":"concern-over-impact-of-botswanas-appeal-decision-on-refugees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/concern-over-impact-of-botswanas-appeal-decision-on-refugees\/","title":{"rendered":"Concern over impact of Botswana\u2019s appeal decision on \u2018refugees\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>When Botswana\u2019s Court of Appeal delivered its recent decision on 709 people from Caprivi, living in the Dukwi refugee camp, deep in Botswana and close to the border with Zimbabwe, the judgment came as a serious blow to the hopes of the refugees. It has also raised questions by the refugees and their supporters, local and international, about whether the court was correct in its approach. Less theoretically, the refugees are deeply concerned about the dangers that they believe await them once they are returned to Caprivi \u2013 something that now seems inevitable \u2013 as well as\u00a0the impact on their children\u2019s education.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Read\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/africanlii.org\/sites\/default\/files\/COURT%20OF%20APPEAL%20JUDGEMENT%20GABORONE.pdf\">judgment<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">During the late 1990s, the\u00a0Caprivi area in Northern Namibia exploded into violence. Caprivi,\u00a0a narrow tongue of land stretching from Namibia across the northern border of Botswana, also adjoins the borders of Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">The fighting involved Namibian soldiers and the rebel Caprivi Liberation Army, a secessionist group arguing that\u00a0Caprivi does not form part of Namibia. Hundreds of people fled the area, some because they feared trial for treason, others because they were members of the pro-secessionist United Democratic Party, outlawed in Namibia. Yet others left because\u00a0the whole region had become unstable and their families and property were at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\"><strong>Children<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Apart from the politics, the refugees are deeply concerned about their children,\u00a0born during the time they have been living in Dukwi. What is to be done about their nationality? If they were born in Botswana does this give them citizenship? And if so, can Botswana deport its own citizens, or the parents of child citizens of Botswana?<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">And what about their year-end exams that are now very close? Several children have already been taken from\u00a0school, under escort of the Special Support Group (SSG). When questions were asked about who had taken them and why, Botswana\u2019s ministry of defence, justice and security, said they were \u2018withdrawn\u2019 from school to join their parents, due to be deported from Botswana on 12 September (today).<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p class=\"rtejustify\">Read complete article: <a href=\"http:\/\/carmelrickard.co.za\/concern-over-impact-of-botswanas-appeal-decision-on-refugees\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">http:\/\/carmelrickard.co.za\/concern-over-impact-of-botswanas-appeal-decision-on-refugees\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Botswana\u2019s Court of Appeal delivered its recent decision on 709 people from Caprivi, living in the Dukwi refugee camp, deep in Botswana and close to the border with Zimbabwe, the judgment came as a serious blow to the hopes of the refugees. It has also raised questions by the refugees and their supporters, local [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-botswana","region-namibia","type-blog-posts","item-year-660","item-theme-acquisition-by-children","item-theme-nationality-and-refugees","item-theme-statelessness"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23704,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23703\/revisions\/23704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}