Memo on the criteria for local integration of Rwandan former refugees in Zambia
Published: 1/Dec/2015
Source: Rights in Exile (IRRI)
The following piece discusses the new criteria for local integration of Rwandan former refugees in Zambia, and was submitted to the Rights in Exile Refugee Legal Aid Newsletter by Reverend John Osmers, Assistant Bishop of Lusaka, Zambia. For reasons of clarity, the piece has been lightly edited.
The long awaited Criteria published by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 4 November 2015 are singularly unhelpful for Rwandan former refugees. They give them anxiety about the local integration process which is supposed to be a positive one, enabling them to flourish as former refugees, and for which donor countries are giving generously.
The insistence on Rwandan Government passports for immigration permits which most former Rwandan refugees resist, will exclude them from the Government of Zambia /UNHCR local integration programme.
Read further at Rights in Exile.