Africa-Press – Uganda. Over 30 refugees of Congolese nationality are currently stranded in Tororo district.
The group of refugees, primarily consisting of children, returned to the country through the Malaba border point from Kenya, where they had sought asylum after fleeing various refugee settlement camps in Western Uganda.
The Resident District Commissioner, Mr Nickson Owole told Monitor on July 20 that his office sought assistance from the Office of the Prime Minister, but they were informed that no help is available.
“We are stranded with these refugees because the Office of the Prime Minister has assured us that they don’t have any support and have advised us to allow them to make their way back to their former camps,” Mr Owole said.
He further explains that he conveyed the information to the refugees, but they claim they do not have the means to reach their former camps.
Mr Owole suspects that the group is part of the refugees who were supposed to be repatriated by the Office of the Prime Minister and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees but chose not to join others.
Mr Jean Baptiste Bagenze, one of the refugees, states that the proposal to find their way back to their former camps may not be possible because they cannot afford to travel on foot to Nakivale and Kyangwali refugee camps.
He said that they would have been part of the repatriated refugees, but they received the information late and when they attempted to reach the assembling centers, it was already too late.
Bagenze added that they sold some of their belongings to reach the assembling centers, and now have very little left.
“We were forced to leave Kenya because the situation was becoming unbearable, and we couldn’t afford food, water, and other necessities. We cannot lie that we can reach Nakivale or Kyangwali because we are already exhausted,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Protection Officer in the Office of the Prime Minister, Mr John Paul Magezi, said there is no provision to facilitate the return of the refugees to the camps.
“I want to emphasise that we don’t have any resources, and we are saying the camps are open to them, meaning that they should return to their respective camps in the same way they left,” he said.
Last month, the Office of the Prime Minister and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees repatriated over 1,607 refugees of Congolese origin from Kenya and resettled them back at their former refugee camps.
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