UN, govt appeal for more refugee funds

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) country representative, Mr Joel Boutroue, has asked donor countries to increase funding towards the sustainability of refugee livelihoods in Uganda.
 Speaking at the commemoration of International Refugee Day at Rubondo sub basecamp in Nakivale settlement, Isingiro District, yesterday, Mr Boutroue said there is increasing pressure of refugees in the country, who are coexisting with the locals yet funding has not been increased, which affects their livelihoods.

 “We see refugees continue to stream into Uganda; we have more than 6,000 new arrivals. However, Nakivale and other settlements are getting full, services are getting overstretched; why?, there is nothing like financing today,” he said, adding that this is urgent because they are affecting livelihoods such as reducing food portions given to refugees.
 Mr Boutroue expressed the need to mobilise resources to enable them identify new settlements to accommodate the new arrivals.
 “We need to redouble our efforts and secure resources to ensure sustainable livelihood of the existing refugee population and identify new settlements,” he added.

 The State minister for Refugees, Ms Esther Anyakun, appealed to development partners to help Uganda ably manage the refugees.
 “The huge refugee population in the country continues to pose a lot of challenges in the country; this calls for increased support from traditional donors and agencies to see how best Uganda can ably support continuous influx of refugee in the country,” Ms Anyakun said.

 She said apart from livelihood challenges, they are also faced with environmental degradation.  “The increasing refugee population in the country has heavily impacted on the environment, including through accessing fuel wood for cooking and construction of shelters,” she said.
 The chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum for Refugees, Mr Tom Bright Amooti, also appealed for urgent funding from countries where the refugees come from.

 “As a forum, we are going to meet the President and other stakeholders in refugee management to advise them to appeal and lobby home countries where these refugees come from to contribute to their sustainable livelihood in host countries,” Mr Amooti, who is also the Kyaka Central MP, said.

 The assistant refugee commandant for Rubondo Sub base camp, Ms Justine Gonza, identified some of the challenges in the settlement as lack of enough clean water, lack of enough support in securing livelihoods and environmental degradation. Isingiro District chairperson Aaron Turahi said unless the issues affecting refugees are addressed, they might fuel conflicts between refugees and host communities.

Looming conflict
 “Challenges affecting refugees need to be given urgent attention because this can result in the scramble for resources with host communities and result in conflicts,” he said.
 He noted that some of the services such as schools are already overstretched. “Because of the influx of refugees, our schools are already full, toilets are getting full. We already need funding to address this issue,” Mr Turahi said.