By Tom Gardner<\/p>\n
LAKE NAKIVALE, Uganda – Nyirahubinka Maria, a Congolese refugee and mother of two, lives in \u00ab\u00a0New Congo\u00a0\u00bb, the oldest and largest of 86 small villages scattered over the plains and low rising hills that surround Lake Nakivale in southwest Uganda.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, she and her family were offered the opportunity to resettle in the United States, the dream of many of Uganda’s roughly 800,000 refugees – but they turned it down.<\/p>\n
Uganda, they say, has been both generous and welcoming: Maria runs a small shop that sells fabrics and drinks, while her husband has a bar in the town of Kisoro, nearly 200 km (125 miles) to the west of Nakivale, Uganda’s third largest refugee settlement.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the 2006 Refugees Act, refugees cannot own the land they cultivate, or the homes they live in \u2013 even if they have lived in the country for years.<\/p>\n
And under Uganda\u2019s constitution, citizenship is out of reach for all those with a parent or even grandparent who was a refugee.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo date, there have been no cases of refugees who have been naturalised,\u201d said Chris Dolan of the Refugee Law Project, a legal aid charity based in Kampala.<\/p>\n
This leaves those with homes, businesses and deep roots in the country\u2019s settlements vulnerable to eviction if their refugee status should lapse, he said.<\/p>\n