Mozambique: Free Internet on Inhaca island
Many refugees from Cabo Delgado seek shelter in Nampula. [File photo: DW]
The United Nations High Commission in Mozambique says a total of 211,000 people have been displaced by violence in the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. Shelter is the main need of the refugees.
“The biggest challenge is shelter. They travel long distances and most of them end up staying in the homes of friends or family,” acting representative of the United Nations High Commissioner (UNHCR) for Refugees in Mozambique, Samuel Chakwera, told Lusa in an interview.
The provincial capital, Pemba, has been the main refuge for people seeking shelter and safety in Cabo Delgado, but there are those who prefer to flee elsewhere, such as the neighbouring province of Nampula.
“There are situations where more than 20 people are staying in a house with only two beds,” the interim UNHCR representative explained, adding that there are also food and hygiene care challenges.
The UNHCR says a total of 211,000 people have been displaced due by violence in the province of Cabo Delgado, where, since 2017, attacks by armed jihadist groups have killed at least 600 people.
Schools transformed into accommodation centres
With schools closed because of Covid-19, Mozambican authorities have transformed some educational institutions into accommodation centres, but, in a province with one of the highest numbers of cases in the country, the pandemic poses new challenges.
“In Metuge district, for example, we have at least 10,000 people housed in schools. It hasn’t been easy, because the province has cases of Covid-19,” Samuel Chakwera says.
Of the more than 600 Covid-19 cases diagnosed in Mozambique, Cabo Delgado had registered 101 by Saturday (June 20) and, with the gradual increase in the number of infections in the province, a new challenge faces people seeking shelter: stigmatisation as disease carriers.
“Being an severely affected province, when people move, they suffer stigmatisation. At the moment, at least 3,000 people have moved to Nampula and people in Nampula tend to ask who these people are,” Chakwera reports.
Among the displaced, children are among the groups of greatest concern to the UNHCR, especially at a time when the organisation is forced by the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic to work from Pemba.
The UNHCR adds that, although there is still no record of cases of Mozambicans seeking refuge in neighbouring Tanzania, contacts are being made by UN agencies for a joint response.
“What we do know is that the Tanzanian authorities have not allowed some who are trying to cross the border to settle there, for fear that they would be hosting insurgents,” Chakwera says, adding that, if people cross the border in search of shelter, they will be considered refugees, posing a major challenge for UNHCR.
“Favourable protective environment” for refugees in Mozambique
Chakwera says that Mozambique has a “favourable protection environment” for refugees. “There are refugees and asylum seekers who have jobs. Others go to school and some even to university. All this is part of what the government provides in support of refugees,” he tells Lusa.
In total, the country has 26,000 refugees and asylum seekers, of whom 9,500 are in the country’s only refugee camp Maratane, in Nampula province, northern Mozambique.
Mozambique, a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, has not applied rules limiting the lives of refugees strictly, creating a “freer and more protective environment”.
“The hospitality practiced in Mozambique is admirable. In some countries, refugees are detained, and not allowed to move about at all,” Chakwera notes.
Most people who seek refuge and security in Mozambique come from countries that do not border Mozambique, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Chakwera sees adapting the legislation to the reality of refugees in Mozambique as the main challenge today, but the process should not affect the country’s “traditional generosity”. “The process of reviewing asylum policies is underway across the country, and we are working with the government,” he adds
In Mozambique, the UNHCR works in collaboration with the National Refugee Assistance Institute (INAR), but due to armed violence in the north of the country, the United Nations agency is supporting other government entities in assisting those displaced by insecurity in Cabo Delgado.
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