POTENTIAL REFUGEES

 

By D.R.Ruhweza

Just before the commencement of my final year at Law School, I was summoned to the Office of the Dean of Law, Prof. Joseph OlokaOnyango (or Joe as he told us to call him). When I got to his office, he told me that he had nominated me to carry out an internship at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Kampala. I felt honoured and grateful for having been so selected. I was even more elated to learn that the three-month internship would be supplemented by a favourable stipend. For an undergraduate law student that was timely. (This was at a time when internship was not part of the curriculum at the Faculty (now School) of Law). I was obviously unaware of how profound the experience would be.

At the Protection section of UNHCR, I was also discovered a library of books which would be useful for my undergraduate thesis. I was also given a hands-on experience of what the work of the UNHCR entails: I got an understanding of the life and challenges of asylum seekers, refugees, and those who are hired (or supported) to assist them settle -as comfortably as is humanely possible- in a foreign land. I still recall interacting with refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Kenya, etc.

I particularly recall observing an interview where an elderly lady, barefooted lady from South Sudan who spoke very good English, and who had a striking resemblance with my own mother. I recall how she told the interviewing officer who had the power to grant or reject her application for asylum, thus - ‘you are now my mother and father, anything you tell me to do, I will do.’ Those words had a profound effect on me.  Here was a well-educated lady who probably had children my age, and who had most likely been separated from the children. This lady probably had a good job and a good life. She probably had been rudely torn away from a comfortable life, she had made the hard journey to Uganda and to the UNHCR, and all manner of dignity she probably had was now finally laid at the feet of the interviewing officer. 

I also recall the conversation I had with a young lad who had run away from the turmoil in DRC and forsaken his pursuit of a prestigious law degree. I further recall the strikingly beautiful and vulnerable Eritrean teenagers who pleaded to stay within the township areas and not be taken to the refugee camps in Western Uganda. I also recall the mother from DRC who carried a newly born baby in her laps and spoke through an interpreter to seek immediate assistance for her baby. These and many more cases at the interviewing centre -including the one with an overwhelmingly impatient Reverend from South Sudan- showed me that anyone of us can easily become a refugee or asylum seeker.

At the end of my internship with UNHCR, I recall writing in my report that we are all potential refugees. This Great Lakes region is particularly prone to produce many refugees or asylum seekers because it is not only a bedrock for conflict, but diseases such as Ebola can cause mass movements of people. Further still, human rights abuses, or economic hardships, among other reasons make movement through our porous borders very easy. Some sources indicate that Uganda currently hosts the highest number of refugees in Africa and has the fourth largest population of refugees in the world. The majority of the refugees come into Uganda from South Sudan. 

We therefore ALL need to work together to ensure that anything that triggers this conflict is addressed at the national and regional level. We should also try to ensure that the living conditions of our fellow human beings are continually improved. (We expound on these and related issues in the constitutional law classes we hold with Joe and BK (Kabumba Busingye).

To all those who are working with refugees or asylum seekers - either by providing material support, or documenting their issues or providing medical treatment, or fighting their causes in the courts of Law, or lobbying for their welfare, this blog is dedicated to you. Thank you for the amazing work you are doing in helping humanity’s most vulnerable people. To those who wish to do something, let us start a conversation on the way forward. I thank you and God Bless

12.08.2019

00.31 a.m.