It was World Refugee Day on 20 June 2004. It was marked with various degrees of enthusiasm in different countries around the world. I have been scurrying the net to no avail to find out how many African countries actually celebrated the day. Perhaps not surprisingly the regions that have produced the largest number of refugees on this continent have been those most up front about the day.

The Great Lakes and Horn of Africa countries are very much aware of the day and have both official and unofficial activities organized around the day. Southern Africa is also another region where, for historical reasons, awareness about refugee day does exist.

However as former refugees become ruling elite in various countries the triumphalism of liberation is waning general enthusiasm around this day. It does not mean that there are no refugees in other regions of Africa. For instance, West Africa has continued to rival the Great Lakes region in recent years in terms of producing refugees due to the unjust wars in Liberia, Sierra-Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast and other conflicts across the region. In the north of Africa too there are refugees especially from the decades old civil war in Sudan, conflicts in Chad and other neighbouring states.

There is a general tendency to regard refugees as 'the problem' of international humanitarian agencies and the UNHCR. Many governments also see refugees only in terms of security concerns. In spite of these negative attitudes a number of African countries and communities need to be acknowledged for the enormous support, solidarity and protection they have continued to provide to refugees.

The truth is that most of the refugees produced by a combination of dictatorial regimes, bad governance, genocidaire or xenophobic governments and many unjust wars across this continent remain on this continent.
Only very few make it to places outside Africa especially Europe and North America. Yet these rich countries complain about the impact of refugees on their socio-economic and political lives. Different right wing and neo fascist parties exploit issues of refugees and migrants to gain leverage in politics by fanning anti immigrant and anti-asylum seekers sentiments in their countries. In Europe most asylum seekers are no longer from Africa or other third world countries but from Eastern Europe, yet the racism of right wing groups are directed at Africans and Asians.

A poor country like Tanzania has been host to millions of African refugees for more than four decades without seeking compensation from anyone. Until the arrival of genuine refugees under the control of criminal fugitives from the genocide of 1994 in Rwanda the people and government of Tanzania were generally very welcoming to refugees.

My good friend and a leading authority on refugees and forced migration, Dr Khoti Kamanga of University of Dar, has done extensive research in this area. I had the benefit of hearing him again this week in Nairobi at a Meeting on the Great Lakes Region organized jointly by the International Peace Academy (New York) and the Africa Peace Forum (Nairobi).

Kamanga's argument is that the legal framework for refugees in Tanzania in relation to rights and citizenship is as backward as that of other African countries but Nyerere's progressive political leadership was what made the difference in terms of attitude towards refugees. And one can see how the same Tanzania has regressed since the passing of the Mwalimu. A country so welcoming to refugees before has, under the present regime, become so narrow-minded and politically vindictive as to deny citizenship to people because their parents may have come to Tanzania as refugees.

Uganda is another country that prides itself (especially under the current NRM regime) of having a positive and progressive attitude towards refugees. It was not always so because if the Rwandese refugees in the country and across the region had been fully accepted maybe the need to return home by force of arms might not have arisen, as they would have made homes wherever they found themselves.

Africa must redouble her efforts to remove the conditions that continue to manufacture refugees and internally-displaced persons across the continent while all of us must do our best to receive, work with, show solidarity and traditional African hospitality to all those fellow Africans and non Africans who may have sought refuge amongst us. As they say : 'No condition is permanent' especially in Africa where bad governance continues to undermine civil life in many countries. Just look at how many of the current leaders in Kampala, Kigali, Asmara, Addis, Pretoria, Monrovia, Freetown, Kinshasha, etc have been refugees at one point or the other in their lives. This sad truth should impose both moral and political responsibility on us to treat refugees with respect and respect their rights as human beings.

At the Nairobi meeting Zachary Lomo, of the Legal resource centre at Makerere, spoke passionately in defence of refugees. He expressed a great shame which I share as an African at the existence of refugee camps for Africans on the African continent. The most decent thing to do is to work towards the destruction of these humiliating camps by a process of resettlement, voluntary repatriation when condition permits, full citizenship rights for refugees who wish to naturalise, and automatic citizenship rights to children born to refugees.

It is not just narrow-minded xenophobic African politicians and governments who may be alarmed at this suggestion. The multi billion dollar industry of global humanitarianism will be opposed to it because their careers, bank balances, consultancies, budgets, etc depend on our misery.

As we make progress both at expanded sub regional levels and at the AU it may not be necessary to have these camps anymore because the full freedom of movement and settlement of Africans across Africa will become a reality. A refugee is that human being denied a place to call 'home'. If we accept every African as being at home wherever we may be then the need for refugee camps in Africa will be removed permanently.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul Raheem is General Secretary of the Global Pan African Movement, Kampala, Uganda and Co-Director, Justice Africa (London) ([email protected] or [email][email protected])

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