Refugees now a threat to host communities, says minister

The Minister of Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Mr Hilary Onek, has said life is getting harder for refugees in settlements and they have become a threat to host communities.

Mr Onek explained that the recent food aid cuts to Uganda by the World Food Programme (WFP) have greatly affected the quality of life of refugees in the country, which has forced them to start engaging in criminality within the host communities.

He noted that food aid was cut to at least 30 percent, meaning that the refugees now have one meal a day.

“We now have challenges of keeping law and order. Managing refugees is becoming difficult because they don’t have food, so they are forced into criminality,” Mr Onek said.

He added: “You find that they start stealing people’s property, food and uprooting cassava and harvesting food in people’s gardens, they are provoking the communities into disliking having refugees around them.”

Appeal board

The minister was speaking during the inauguration of the five members of the Refugees Appeal Board at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kampala on Friday.

He attributed the aid cuts to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, saying the Western world has diverted their funds to the war and taking care of Ukrainians running away from their country.

Mr Onek noted that United Nations agencies have left the refugee burden to Uganda, and that the government is constrained to cater for refugees.

He added that while they have communicated the concern to the global community, nothing has changed so far.

“When there are challenges like that, Africa is at the bottom of the priorities, the Europeans would rather address their own challenges, and then if there is something left over, Africans can come on board,” Mr Onek said.

President’s guidance

However, he noted that President Museveni guided that the refugees be settled in a collective small space so that they use the rest of the land they are occupying for farming.

Mr Onek also noted that because the government is overwhelmed by financing needs, refugees now have to share education and health services with host communities.

“We have brought this concern to the UN and we have also communicated this concern to the global community but so far, nothing has changed and we are forced to look for other solutions, which are difficult to come by,” he said.

He appealed to the African governments where the refugees are coming from to re-examine their methods of work, politics and choice to co-exist with those opposing them.

Mr Jallah Faciann, the registration and identity management officer at UNHCR, appreciated Uganda for its open door policy to host the refugees.

Mr Faciann said UNHCR will continue to support Uganda to cater and improve the livelihood of refugees.

Minister Onek said Uganda now hosts more than 1.6m refugees from different countries.