Evelyn Lirri
25 June 2008
Ms Annonciate Nyasandineza is sitting outside her makeshift structure in front of Old Kampala Primary school. Holding her one month old twin babies, she looks frail and tired.
She is one of several refugees who in 2005, arrived from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the wake of violent events in the troubled North Kivu province.
First, Ms Nyasandineza sought refuge at Nakivale refugee settlement before moving to Kyangwali resettlement camp but because conditions in the camp were not conducive, together with her husband and children, they made their way to Kampala in the hope for a better life.
At Old Kampala Primary School, this 33-year-old mother of six has found a "home" where she feels less scared and can spend a night without hearing the sound of gun shots. Ms Nyasandineza's biggest worry at the moment is how she will feed her six children.
"I don't work. I don't have money and my children are starving," she said. "We only depend on the goodwill of some people. At times they can give you Shs500 and you decide what to buy," she explains. Ms Nyasandineza's husband, Mr Daniel Biyago Iyakaremye, is a bitter man too.
"My family is dying. We don't have accommodation and there is no milk for my children yet up to now, we do not have refugee status so we cannot be assisted, we have accepted to die," he said.
Like Mr Iyakaremye, Mr Eric Miyumbeko, a Burundian refugee has been struggling to make a living in Kampala. The 23-year-old escaped violence in his country in July 2004 and sought refuge in Uganda.
"When there was a lot of fighting in our village, we ran and unfortunately I got separated from my parents and family members.
Todate I don't know where they are," Mr Miyumbeko said. Here at Old Kampala, he lives with his wife and son. But it's not all rosy for Mr Miyumbeko. He engages in odd jobs like washing cars and doing laundry. "Sometimes they even don't pay me and at times if they know that I am not Ugandan, they pay me less the price we had earlier negotiated," Mr Miyumbeko said.
"Others call me a Somali and others tell me to go back to Rwanda because I want to take over their jobs," he said. Mr Miyumbeko's concerns too have been raised in the latest 2008 World Refugee Survey that was released by the Uganda Refugee Law Project to coincide with the World Refugee Day on June 20.
Giving a global perspective, the report said more than 8.5 million refugees worldwide have been denied a right to work or move freely but said Uganda was more receptive to refugees than many countries.
"While there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the lives of refugees around the world, here in Uganda, refugees have done much of it already and in the process they have contributed a great deal to this country," said Ms Paulina Wyrzykowski, a lawyer and researcher at the Refugee Law Project.
The 2006 Refugee Act guarantees freedom of movement to refugees in Uganda but the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Office of the Prime Minister limits its aid to refugees living in settlements.
While marking the World Refugee Day on Friday, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said providing protection for refugees today is vastly more challenging than before.
"Conflict today may be motivated by politics, but looking deeper it can also be about poverty, bad governance, climate change leading to competition for scarce resources," he said. "Recent food and fuel shortages have had an immediate and dramatic effect on the poor and the dispossessed, including refugees and the internally displaced.
Extreme price increases have generated instability and conflict in many places, with the very real potential of triggering more displacement," Mr Guterres added.
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