Africa-Press – Uganda. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) recently began a verification exercise to ascertain the number of asylum seekers and refugees in the country.
According to State minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Esther Anyakun, the ‘verification is meant to get the exact facts and figures regarding the refugee population in the county.’
Thereafter, the refugees will then be provided with new identification documents, in addition to gathering information for socio-economic data.
The last verification exercise carried out in October 2018 put the number of refugees in different camps across the country at 1,092,213; a decline from the 1.4 million that had been reported in March 2018.
The nationwide biometric recount on which the OPM and UNHCR allegedly spent $11 million between March and October, was enforced following allegations of mismanagement of funds meant to support refugees.
Four officials from OPM were suspended following an investigation into their alleged collusion with staff from UNHCR and the World Food Programme (WFP) to inflate and exaggerate refugee figures as well as traffic women and girls for marriage.
The United Kingdom, the European Union and United States, some of the biggest funders of the UNHCR (contributing about 80 percent of 2017 funding) threatened to withdraw aid and stop programmes.
Uganda is the top refugee-hosting country in Africa and has been placed among the top five refugee – hosting countries in the world alongside Turkey, Colombia, Pakistan and Germany.
Since the launch of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework in 2017, the government has included refugees in its national development plans.
The latest census, which started at Oruchinga, a settlement in Isingiro District that is home to about 1,200 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi, is welcome.
However, it must be carried out in a way that the ghosts of 2018 are not awakened.
Calls have been made before to investigate and prosecute the officials who misused funds. Those findings are yet to be released which might prompt a new breed of fraudsters to swing into action at the expense of refugees and donor funders.
As a country that has been praised for her polices on refugees from across the world, we should treat this census, and any other refugee-related situations with the care they require.
Like Andie Lambe, the executive director at International Refugee Rights Initiative said, ‘anyone profiting from the suffering of others should be held accountable.’
We pray this clarion call is as clean as a whistle.
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