Africa-Press – Angola. The Angolan Executive, in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), has been carrying out a Census at the level of the Migration and Foreigners Service since the beginning of the year to assess the real number of refugees in the country.
The information was released on Wednesday (26), in the municipality of Belas, in Luanda, by the national director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), Luamonazo Mário Lopes Panda, on the sidelines of a seminar on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protection of Refugees and Migrants for National Police personnel.
Luamonazo Mário Lopes Panda informed that around 30,000 refugees and 16,000 asylum seekers are currently under control in Angola. According to the official, there are more than 18 nationalities among the refugees, especially citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guinea, Mali and Eritrea.
The official pointed out the main difficulties in obtaining documents, since, since 2020, all refugees have not been able to access certain services, such as bank accounts and the job market, says Angop.
Regarding the treatment offered by the Angolan Government to refugees, Luamonazo Lopes Panda stressed that there is a joint effort to implement important mechanisms that grant more rights to these people.
The director of the Office of Patriotic Education of the General Command of the National Police, chief commissioner António Vicente Gimbe, who opened the meeting, said that this body has established a program of action through training plans that enable staff at various levels to be trained. , to strengthen the protection of human life, including refugees.
“With a view to doing better, the staff have improved their knowledge and mastery of the conventions to which Angola is a signatory, with emphasis on those related to human rights”, he clarified.
In the seminar, taking place at the Higher Institute of Police and Criminal Sciences, under the supervision of the UNHCR, through the JRS, subjects related to “Rights and Duties”, “Strategy to combat trafficking in human beings”, “Responsibility of National Police in the fight against trafficking in human beings” and “Ensuring the rights of migrants and refugees in Angola”.
Participating in the meeting, members of the Superior Council of the General Command of the National Police, officers and agents. The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) is an international organization of the Catholic Church, founded in 1980, under the responsibility of the Society of Jesus.
JRS’s mission is to “Accompany, Serve and Defend” refugees and forcibly displaced persons and all migrants in situations of particular vulnerability.
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