2024 World Refugee Day Statement

There are still many areas of needs for the refugee communities. These include:

Advocacy. The laws and legislations that have been passed need to be supported and sustained. The rights of refugees should be upheld. Other actors therefore need to stand with refugees by seeing to it that their rights are known, protected and upheld at all times.

Supporting local integration. Refugees within Uganda enjoy freedom of movement within Uganda. In essence, they are not limited to staying within the various settlements across the country. This therefore means that the refugees will find their way to the different parts of the country and will settle in there. In a bid to stand with refugees, communities should be able to welcome them and accord them the necessary help and support they need. There should not be any form of discrimination against refugees when it comes to essential services in the community like health, education, water and sanitation, and access to justice, for instance. Where conflicts arise between the refugees and host communities, dialogues between the two communities need to be held in order to foster peaceful resolution of conflict for peaceful co-existence. In this as well, refugees should not be denied employment opportunities for jobs that they do qualify for. This local integration efforts and posture rebuild the hope and lives of the refugees.

Livelihood’s support. Its well-known that refugees have limited livelihoods opportunities. While in Uganda, their way of life has changed as the jobs they might have previously had while in their country of origin are no more and yet they still need to fend for themselves and families. There is need therefore to have more livelihood interventions extended to the refugee communities including urban livelihoods in urban centers. Individuals or partners therefore working with refugee communities need to incorporate livelihood as a major component in their interventions. This will help strengthen their self-reliance and improve the standard of living of the refugees while in Uganda.

Donor support. Globally there has been a reduction of donor support and aid for refugee response. This has increased vulnerabilities of refugees due to reduced provision and access to essential services as a result of reduced resource envelop within a context where the hosting countries are not able to offer enough financial and material resources to meet the needs of refugees. We can all stand with and work together with refugees to build their trust in life and rebuild their lives and wellbeing.

As we celebrate the WRD, RLP’s calls all stakeholders to reflect on these challenges as we find collective solutions to the challenges that refugees face while in Uganda and also during flight.

Prepared by:

Ochieng Gabriel Emorut Caleb
Date: 24th May, 2024