Abide by the law, refugees told

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Thursday June 10, 2010 00:00

He was speaking at the official opening of the tripartite meeting between the government of Namibia, government of Botswana and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) held in Francistown this week.

Makgonatsotlhe said that they have experienced problems  with refugees who just will not abide by the laws of their host. 'It is our firm belief that all the refugees enjoying international protection in Botswana should without exception abide by the laws governing their stay in this country,' he said.

'We have had problems in the past where certain categories of refugees having accepted our offer of protection were also refusing to abide by the laws governing their stay as refugees,' he said.

He further said that sometimes their efforts in finding durable solutions were frustrated.

'In this regard we have experienced incidences where some refugees were even frustrating our efforts of finding durable solutions, especially the repatriation of refugees to countries of origin,' he added.

Makgonatsotlhe went on to say that he believed that through dialogue the current problem relating to the low levels of repatriation could be overcome.

High Commissioner of Namibia to Botswana, Senator Hadino Hishongwa, commented that refugees are supposed to abide by the laws of their hosts.

'I have been a refugee for 27 years and where we were we were expected to respect  that the laws of our host countries are very important,' he said.