ANALYSIS: Museveni’s refugee summit warning

Delegates visit refugee settlements

On June 22, Uganda government officials alongside high ranking UN and international partners visited the Imvepi refugee settlement in Arua.

Here, they saw firsthand, efficient food distribution posts and medical services. They also visited classrooms and talked to refugee pupils.

“I was impressed by the government’s professional coordination and the dedicated work of UN agencies in collaboration with local and international NGOs,” said Christos Stylianides, the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.

The Ugandan government has been praised for not only opening its borders to refugees but also giving them land, education and a chance to work so as to integrate them into Ugandan society and empower the new comers to be economically self-reliant.

But the policy has had a cost.

“The toll for Uganda is very much on the environmental side,” Gabriella Waaijman, the regional director of the Norwegian Refugee Council for East Africa told Radio France International.

“You can imagine that areas that didn’t used to host a lot of people now all of a sudden have a lot of people living there.”

“They are cutting off trees; you have more people acquiring water, so water distribution is being affected,” she said, “That is really the biggest impact for this country.”

Speaking on the last day of the summit, Museveni who co-hosted the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees with Antonio Guterres, under the theme, “Shoulder to Shoulder,” told delegates that the refugees were currently facing challenges of inadequate food, water, clothes, and energy for cooking and good quality education.

Giving the example of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame who came to Uganda, had an education and later became president, Museveni emphasised the need for all refugee children to get quality education because it would help them acquire new skills and regain the lost time during the fleeing.

He also appealed to the international community to reward communities that host refugees in terms of infrastructural development. Museveni said such a reward in Uganda’s case would be construction of two main roads – Moyo – Yumbe – Koboko in the Bidibidi Refugee Camp in West Nile sub-region and Kabingo – Rugaaga – Rakai along the Nakivale Refugee Camp in South-western Uganda. The roads that have become of significance due to the influx of refugees, he said, and the current murram road is not enough for the increasing number of people. He said the government could construct the roads but contributions from the international community could expedite it. Such a gesture, Museveni said, would show the host communities that “their hospitality has not been taken for granted”.

The UNHCR backed Museveni. It said the summit was not necessarily looking for cash, it was also looking for support in terms of building schools, upgrading hospitals, fixing roads and humanitarian assistance is usually given in the form of funds to provide the poor.

Antonio Guterres also urged the international community to recognise the efforts that Uganda has made towards the refugee crisis and come together to show solidarity with Uganda as it has shown to the refugees.

“Solidarity is not a matter of generosity; it is a matter of justice. It is essential to recognise these efforts and support Uganda. If the efforts are not sustainable, then it will be dramatic,” said Guterres.

Guterres noted that it was worrying for 80% of the world’s refugees to be hosted by the developing countries with a dramatic impact on their economy, society and security.

Meanwhile, in a communiqué published  days prior to the summit, a group of refugee leaders and local civil society organizations expressed their concern about the situation of refugees in Uganda as both the government of Uganda and the United Nations embarked on the project of raising funds “in the name of helping refugees in Uganda.”

“We strongly welcome the spirit which led the Government of Uganda and the United Nations to organize such a big summit for refugees in Uganda and especially focusing on refugees here in Uganda,” the communiqué read in part.

However, it said, the refugees were concerned that the initiative had been selective and only limited to refugees in Uganda despite the fact that refugees are being hosted by many countries in the world.

“There is need for a common global approach for all refugees.”

“We have serious concerns for this policy of slicing refugees which is common to the government of Uganda where even here at national and local level, refugees are divided into sections and interventions are based on those divisions which have seriously affected the solidarity and unity among refugees, and the denied them the enjoyment of human rights to all refugees in Uganda,

The refugee leaders said they were also concerned that only a few selected refugees were called just to watch what is happening but had no opportunities either to influence the decisions or the space where their voices can count, “whatever you do for them, without them you do it against them.”

“We are so much concerned that the Uganda – UN Refugee Solidarity Summit may turn up as a mere opportunity for the government of Uganda and the humanitarian agencies to milk funding from the coffers of the international communities in the disguise of helping refugees in Uganda,” noted the communiqué.

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