The four-day workshop, entitled “Protecting Refugee Rights in East Africa: the need for a progressive legislative and policy framework,” will focus on the refugee bills slated to come before the Kenyan and Ugandan Parliaments before the end of this year. The workshop will provide an opportunity for Kenyan and Ugandan legislators to gain a more comprehensive understanding of refugee issues and provide a forum for them and other stakeholders to discuss the draft legislation.

“Protecting Refugee Rights in East Africa,” the first workshop to bring together members of parliament from around the region to discuss a single legislative issue, is aimed at encouraging MPs from Kenya and Uganda to support the enactment of positive and progressive laws for the protection of refugees in their respective countries. These are desperately needed because despite Uganda and Kenya’s role as hosts to almost half a million refugees, the two countries lack national refugee laws.

This regional approach is particularly important in the context of the recent revival of the East African Community, which brings together Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to cooperate on issues of regional interest, including immigration, trade and communication. “Protecting Refugee Rights in East Africa” will not only influence East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) the body charged with passing laws on major issues for the East African Community legislative discussions on refugee issues, but will set a broader precedent for the way that legislative issues are approached in the region.

At the end of the workshop MPs will be encouraged to support the enactment of strong legislation for the protection of refugee that respects international standards and sets the fair treatment and physical protection of refugees as priorities.

Background

Africa hosts a staggering 3.3 million refugees fleeing war and political persecution all over the continent. East Africa hosts nearly one third – an estimated 1,006,000 - of these refugees.

These masses of refugees often descend upon communities which are struggling simply to meet their own needs, and cannot provide for hundreds of thousands of refugees. Adding to the difficulties in receiving refugees is that the host nation often lacks a legal and procedural framework with which to deal with these populations. As a result, refugees are often unable to meet their basic needs and are forced to live in squalid camps in insecure areas, and with inadequate food and resources.

East Africa is a region with long experience in hosting refugees. During World War II, the three East African countries (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania), hosted about 14,000 Polish refugees. In the late 50’s and early 60’s, ethnic violence forced thousands of Rwandan Tutsi to flee to Uganda and Tanzania. Political exiles were driven to the region from Mengistu’s regime in Ethiopia and Amin’s regime in Uganda in the 70’s and 80’s. However refugee flows to East Africa peaked in 1994 following the genocide in Rwanda that stunned the entire world and led to a massive outflow of refugees. The repercussions of this staggering outflow continue to be felt throughout the region to this day. Today, refugees continue to flee ongoing conflicts in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi and Sudan.

Despite their long experience in dealing with refugees, neither Kenya nor Uganda has a comprehensive legal framework for refugee protection. In Uganda, the administration of refugee affairs is governed by the Control of Aliens and Refugees Act (CARA). Because the legislation, a holdover from the colonial period, is outdated, decisions are generally made on an ad-hoc basis. Similarly in Kenya, refugee policies are developed without a legal code to ensure that refugees’ rights are respected.

Despite these legal obstacles, Kenya and Uganda have both maintained generous policies towards refugees, but these policies have relied on the political will of the government in power, a weak and unreliable basis on which to pin the hopes of millions of refugees. Refugee protection is an internationally recognized body of human rights which all governments are obligated to uphold, regardless of the political climate.

Like most others on the continent, refugees in these two countries are vulnerable to violations of their most basic rights including the rights to life, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and freedom from torture. Many refugees are confined within the perimeters of the camps, where they are prevented from holding jobs leading to recurring cycles of loss, displacement and despair.