The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) has said there is a need to expedite the adoption and implementation of the harmonised refugee management policy in the East African Community (EAC), as well as a bill that will help in the policy execution. It made the appeal as it adopted the report of its Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution to assess the progress made in the development of the draft EAC refugee management policy, during a session held this week in Arusha, Tanzania. The assessment was conducted from March 14 to 17. ALSO READ: More Congolese refugees flee to Rwanda as fighting renews According to the report, there was a delay in developing this policy, yet new trends are emerging and may not have been included in the analysis. It exposed that “countries in East Africa are in the midst of an exceptional refugee crisis,” adding “there has been a sharp increase in the number of refugees from within and outside the East Africa region.” As of March 2023, the report indicated, there were 4.9 million refugees across the region due to armed conflict and instability in the Republic of South Sudan, Republic of Burundi, Federal Republic of Somalia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Other factors that have caused refugees were drought, flooding, food shortages and localised violence among others, it revealed. Out of the 4.9 million refugees in East Africa, the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region, 2.8 million were East Africans, while 1.9 million were internally displaced persons, the report indicated. ALSO READ: Urban refugees to get health insurance The report showed Uganda hosted 1.44 million refugees, Rwanda with 163,377, Burundi 73,550, South Sudan 298,854, Kenya with 466,134 and Tanzania with 351,284, the report showed, citing United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees (UNHCR) statistics. “As a Committee we feel that we need to attach a lot of attention to this policy because it should have been passed like yesterday because from 2018 up to today, we think that Council should prioritise putting this question of the refugee policy on their order of business,” said the Chairperson of the Committee on Regional Affairs and Conflict Resolution, MP Siranda Gerald Blacks from Uganda. The Assembly urged the Council of Ministers to direct Partner States to set up effective institutional structures and mechanisms for implementing and monitoring the Refugee Management Policy and allocate adequate financial and human resources for this purpose. By adopting the Committee report, the Assembly also endorsed its recommendation to start modalities of coming up with a bill that will help in the implementation of the policy. MP Jeremiah Odok Woda from South Sudan said “refugee status is not your choice, it is something which forces onto you, it’s not like when you seek to be an emigrant.” “As a Community, we really have to have this law in place so that we help our refugees and give them the treatment which they deserve,” she said. Key areas for refugee management hormonisation The draft policy was developed around 17 key areas for harmonisation defined by the 6th and 7th meetings of the EAC Chiefs of Refugee Management Entities held in Nairobi, from May 15-17, 2018 and December 17-19, 2018. The key areas are access to territory and asylum procedures by asylum seekers; fair and efficient refugee status determination procedures; enhancing border management systems, security and procedures, reception, registration, electronic documentation and national databases. ALSO READ: Refugees in Rwanda gain access to finance They also include the protection of rights to refugees such as freedom of movement, rights to access education, employment, health, among others, and integration of refugee management in the national development plans and local budgets of the host countries. Challenges at hand Among the challenges identified by the Committee in developing the policy, there was the concern that individual EAC Partners States are significantly feeling the strain and stretch -- especially in terms of resources -- associated with hosting refugees. This is due to the fact that most of the EAC Partners States are struggling to improve the social-economic conditions of their respective states, the Committee observed. Also, it exposed the issue of porous borders which might cause challenges in the implementation of the Policy impractical; as well as climate change and its impact on refugees and host communities. EALA Speaker Joseph Ntakirutimana said that it was very sad that there was a high number of refugees in the region, indicating that being a refugee puts a person in an unfavourable position. “East Africa, our region, should be a place where people live in harmony as sisters and brothers, a region where there are no fightings, no war; a region where there is enough food,” he said.
