Osire refugees plan demo

REFUGEES at Osire plan to hold a peaceful demonstration today during commemoration of World Refugee Day.

The Chairman of the Association of Refugee Rights (ADR) MacGoddins Lushimba said on Friday that asylum seekers were still unhappy about their treatment in Namibia. World Refugee Day is commemorated on June 20 to reflect on the plight of thousands of asylum seekers the world over.This year’s theme is “A place to call home: Rebuilding lives in safety and dignity”.Last year the association’s members also staged a protest during the celebrations against alleged ill treatment by local authorities.”We are not violent.We don’t want to destroy.We just want to convey our message,” Lushimba told The Namibian on Friday.The group maintained that the Government did not respect its own Refugee Act nor international conventions on the treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees.Lushimba said many refugees living in Namibia have been waiting for years to receive official refugee status.This situation, he said, had restricted their rights to leave the confines of the camp or for their children to study beyond school level.”We don’t know what we are in Namibia.They need to tell us,” said the ADR, “a lot of our rights are violated because we don’t have a status”.The ADR has also accused authorities in charge of asylum seekers in Namibia of being xenophobic.By Friday, the group had not yet received permission from the Police to demonstrate.There are 13 000 refugees registered at the Osire Refugee Camp near Otjiwarongo, most of them Angolan nationals who received automatic refugee status upon their arrival in Namibia on a prima facie basis.However, the law dictates that asylum-seekers from countries beyond Namibia’s immediate neighbours have to apply for refugee status.They are then permitted travel within the country.Osire is also home to asylum-seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and Cameroon.World Refugee Day is commemorated on June 20 to reflect on the plight of thousands of asylum seekers the world over.This year’s theme is “A place to call home: Rebuilding lives in safety and dignity”.Last year the association’s members also staged a protest during the celebrations against alleged ill treatment by local authorities.”We are not violent.We don’t want to destroy.We just want to convey our message,” Lushimba told The Namibian on Friday.The group maintained that the Government did not respect its own Refugee Act nor international conventions on the treatment of asylum-seekers and refugees.Lushimba said many refugees living in Namibia have been waiting for years to receive official refugee status.This situation, he said, had restricted their rights to leave the confines of the camp or for their children to study beyond school level.”We don’t know what we are in Namibia.They need to tell us,” said the ADR, “a lot of our rights are violated because we don’t have a status”.The ADR has also accused authorities in charge of asylum seekers in Namibia of being xenophobic.By Friday, the group had not yet received permission from the Police to demonstrate.There are 13 000 refugees registered at the Osire Refugee Camp near Otjiwarongo, most of them Angolan nationals who received automatic refugee status upon their arrival in Namibia on a prima facie basis.However, the law dictates that asylum-seekers from countries beyond Namibia’s immediate neighbours have to apply for refugee status.They are then permitted travel within the country.Osire is also home to asylum-seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone, Somalia, Rwanda and Cameroon.