The refugee question (reloaded)
Mmegi Editor | Thursday July 6, 2017 13:50
We noted that while government was indeed tightening its acceptance protocols for new refugees, part of the motivation was the high cost of caring for those already within the country’s facilities.
National revenues are declining due to poorer mineral performance while competing needs such as health and education as well as employment creation, require increasing amounts of investment.
With the UNHCR cutting back both its presence and funding in and to Botswana, the country has been forced to make tough decisions, especially as ordinary citizens cry louder for government assistance in the upliftment of their lives.
On Tuesday, the High Court ruled in favour of 164 prospective refugees who sued government to end their continued stay at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants and demanded a transfer to the Dukwi Refugee Camp. Indeed, the initial reluctance to immediately transfer the prospective refugees to Dukwi is linked in some way to the strains on the system alluded to above.
It must be accepted that the support Botswana has been providing to the continent’s refugees is finite. Besides the reasons articulated above, the continuing political, military and economic crises all over Africa, coupled with weak supranational oversight from bodies such as SADC and the African Union, mean the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees knocking at Botswana’s doors will keep rising.
The situation is clearly unsustainable.
An audit of the refugees currently housed at Dukwi would likely reveal that for a good number, the reasons they left their home countries have disappeared or reasonably lessened in threat.
Under existing UN covenants and local law, Botswana cannot simply kick these refugees out even if this could provide room to accommodate those now knocking at the door with more valid reasons.
It is an indictment on SADC in particular that the bulk of refugees at Dukwi are from member states, even though no country in the 15-member bloc is at war or facing an undemocratically elected government.
There are, however, political and economic crises that need SADC’s resolve to correct for the benefit of regional citizens, over and above leaders’ egos.
As they gather in tourist resorts and are ushered into yet another talk-shop summit, SADC heads of state must hang their heads in shame as they sit next to one another unwilling to talk about why their citizens are in Botswana, afraid to return home.
Botswana, as a responsible world citizen who espouses the spirit of Botho will keep its doors open to those who need refuge, but there will always be a limit to the extent to which Botswana can right the wrongs of its peers on the continent.
Today’s thought
“People have been born in refugee camps and they are getting tired of that.”
- Javier Bardem