Mozambique: Police mistreat undocumented fleeing terror attacks – study

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Mozambique: Police mistreat undocumented fleeing terror attacks – study

8:21 CAT | 24 Jun 2021

People who have been displaced by fighting in northern Mozambique have been mistreated by police in Pemba, the capital of Cabo Delgado, for not presenting documents, which they lose during their flight, according to a study on the situation.

“Some [displaced people] were subjected to abuse as they had no documents. That was one of the problems that arose and that we found,” Fanito Salatiel, coordinator of the legal office of the Catholic University of Mozambique (UCM) in Pemba, told Lusa.

Humiliation, extortion or detention were some of the cases reported during fieldwork carried out among the fleeing populations.

Salatiel is one of the supervisors of the Legal Caravan, an initiative providing free legal assistance to those who lose everything during the conflict, including documents.

The action is organised by the UCM’s Faculty of Tourism Management and Informatics, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), civil identification, registration and notary services and other humanitarian organisations.

“We found that the displaced people had no documents and were worried about the local police officers,” he said – in addition to the need for documents for various other acts of daily life and to re-establish life in the new areas considered safe.

Lusa contacted the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) in Cabo Delgado but did not get any comment.

The team promoting the Legal Caravan organised a first phase of the initiative in November and December 2020 in the Josina Machel neighbourhood in Pemba and attended to 7,600 displaced people.

Mobile teams of two volunteer lawyers and law students received and directed mainly women and children whose main concerns were the lack of birth certificates and identity cards, as well as the need to register deaths and marriages,

A second phase has been underway since April and runs until August in the Mahate neighbourhood in Pemba and resettlement centres in Metuge district and is expected to cover about 20,000 displaced persons.

“In this second phase, as well as processing identity cards, we will regulate birth certificates in partnership with the registries and notaries,” Salatiel said.

Armed groups have terrorised the province since 2017, with some attacks claimed by the ‘jihadist’ group Islamic State, in a wave of violence that has led to more than 2,800 deaths according to the ACLED conflict registration project 732,000 displaced people according to the UN.

Source: Lusa