By ZAMBIA NEWS FEATURES CORRESPONDENT
ZAMBIA’S Home Affairs Minister Mkhondo Lungu has said that refugees should be viewed as a human resource of development and not only as passive recipients of humanitarian aid.
Lungu, an opposition Member of Parliament recently appointed to the portfolio, said this Sunday at the launch of the 10th World Refugee Day Awareness Week. World Refugee Day falls on June 20th of every year.
“I do agree that we should begin to view refugees also as a human resource of development and not only as passive recipients of humanitarian aid.
“Based on their inherent skills or those attained while here in Zambia, together we should all be able to contribute to the development of this nation. This approach should indeed secure their future not only in the country of asylum but also in the country of origin should the refugees opt to return at the relevant time,” Lungu said.
This year’s theme is ‘Home, they have taken my home but they cannot take my future.’
Lungu said that over the years, wars, conflicts, human rights violations, and persecution continue to be cited as root causes of instability and thereby refugee displacement, vices that have caused immense fear among people and separated families.
These, he said have been reasons for the deprivation of people’s homes, food, shelter, education, employment opportunities, and access to medical facilities in addition to displacing them beyond territorial borders.
“Zambia on its part recognizes these challenges and therefore maintains a liberal asylum policy to victims of these vices in accordance with the refugee conventions to which the state is party, in an endeavour to ensure that asylum seekers and refugees find sanctuary and protection pending the securing of a durable solution through repatriation, local integration or resettlement to third countries,” Lungu said.
He said Zambia was a developing nation with limited resources, a situation which was reflected in the state’s continued maintenance of reservations to the enjoyment of certain derogable rights contained in the refugees conventions, particularly the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, yet the state recognized its international obligations towards refugees.
“Though over the years, the task has proved to be a daunting one, the government has risen to the challenge to respond to influxes that have at different times been a usual phenomenon but which are now a thing of the past.
“Given the typically large-scale refugee displacement that Zambia experienced, voluntary repatriation will continue to be the most preferred durable solution,” he said.
Lungu said Zambia welcomed the peace in most of the countries that were at different times embroiled in conflict and was now at a stage where it was considering invoking the ceased circumstances cessation clauses so that slowly the refugee chapter in Africa should begin to end. (Read more about refugees in Zambia here)
(Edited by Gershom Ndhlovu)
