WINDHOEK – The Commissioner for Refugees in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, Nkrumah Mushelenga, says the number of Namibian refugees who want to come back home is rising and government is more than happy to welcome them back.
Just last week 16 refugees, who included children who were born in exile in Zambia, were reunited with their relatives last Thursday. He said although many Namibian refugees were repatriated to their motherland during the implementation of Resolution 435, some remained behind and now wish to return to Namibia. Mushelenga said the ministry is now also preparing for the repatriation of over 900 Namibian refugees from the Dukwe refugee settlement in Botswana, of whom the majority are women and children. According to him the majority of them are from the Zambezi Region.
“They are willing to come back home, but there are circumstances that make some not want to come back home,” he said, adding that some were being threatened or discouraged to do so by those having a guilty conscience over what they may have done in Namibia before they left.
Mushelenga said some have also committed crimes in Namibia and are afraid that if others decide to return, they would no longer enjoy legitimate refugee status as is presently the case. He said officials of the ministry are going to meet in Swakopmund with their Botswana counterparts next week to review the strategies they have in place to see whether they have been effective. Later this year, there are also plans to hold a tripartite meeting in Botswana to work on improving those strategies.
“We have twenty (refugees from Dukwe) who have requested to come home this year and we are waiting for clearance from the police,” he added, saying that they would then carry out the repatriation jointly with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Arrangements have also been made for the returnees to settle wherever they wish. “That’s just a temporary arrangement, they have the right to be wherever they want after they have settled in,” he said.
Mushelenga said there are also rumours that about 10 000 Ovaherero of Namibian descent in Botswana who are contemplating a return to Namibia, but said he could not furnish further information. “I don’t have much detail, but I heard about it,” Mushelenga said, adding that he was waiting to receive more details from the Botswana authorities in order to start planning, as well as to carry out an independent verification exercise to see if the individuals concerned are all bona fide Namibians.
Other Namibian refugees are said to be spread all over South Africa with a huge number at Vryburg, but Mushelenga said he had no information about them. However, he said there are bilateral structures in place that are responsible for dealing with refugee issues under commissioners in South Africa, Botswana or any other country for those who express the desire to return to Namibia.
Mushelenga expressed satisfaction with the situation at Gam, where many Namibian returnees from Botswana and their offspring have been resettled. “They have been received and reintegrated. They should be happy with the situation on the ground,” he said. He further said many have received their reintegration packages, such as national documents and some are already working and studying. “Some of them are already contributing to the growth of our economy with a number of economic activities,” he said.
The commissioner for refugees also spoke on the issue of statelessness, saying that Namibia is aware of the 1954 UN Convention on the reduction of statelessness. “In 2011 we pledged at a ministerial meeting in Geneva that we are going to work towards the eradication of statelessness in Namibia to make sure that we register those who were brought here through historical facts,” he said. He further added that a lot of South Africans and Angolans came here during the colonial period and may not have acquired proper status. According to him they might not have been registered as South African nationals in South Africa or Angolan nationals in Angola. “They are people who are defined as stateless people. As a country we have committed ourselves and we are happy that we will start registration as soon as possible, so that anybody falling under that category can be offered the necessary support,” he said.
By Magreth Nunuhe