Week 3 - Kampala's Urban Refugees

Location: Kampala, Uganda

Background

Even before learning that I had been accepted to this program, I knew that my independent research project would in some way focus on refugees. Since 1990 alone, Uganda has hosted an estimated 200,000 refugees (Orach, Dubourg, and De Brouwere). Given Uganda’s status as a ‘haven’ for displaced persons and asylum seekers, I have been presented with and invaluable opportunity to learn from and interact with refugees from all over East Africa. Though individuals from neighboring Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda comprise the vast majority of said refugees, recent years have seen an increase in refugees from Burundi, Kenya, and Somalia as well (UNHCR).

Though the majority of refugees in Uganda—around 80 percent—live in “post-emergency phase settlements” in the West Nile districts of Adjumani, Arua and Moyo, my research for this project caused me to become intrigued by those who have chosen to defy this trend. With numbers surpassing 15,000, these urban refuges (largely escapees from wars in Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, the DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia) are becoming an evermore-visible feature of Kampala (Orach, Dubourg, and De Brouwere; Macchiavello).

First Impressions of InterAid Uganda

After an arduous struggle with the “refugee bureaucracy” that is headed by UNHCR and the Office of the Prime Minister, I was finally granted permission to observe the activities of InterAid Uganda. As its implementing partner, InterAid Uganda LTD provides the services to Kampala’s refugees that an already overextended UNHCR simply does not have the capacity to deliver. As InterAid is technically a non-governmental organization, I was surprised that I had to jump though so many governmental hoops to gain this approval. Nonetheless, I am relieved that I have at last found an NGO that can assist me in my quest to learn about the struggles of urban refugees.

Among many other services, InterAid provides its clients with counseling on the process of gaining asylum, medication, skills training, and small loans. Though I wholeheartedly believe that InterAid is doing great work, the process by which it carries out its work troubles me in a way. In order to keep certain groups from feeling underserved, InterAid designates a specific day of the week to each refugee nationality. For example, the InterAid Urban Refuge Programme Office will only receive Congolese on Mondays (there are exceptions in cases of emergencies) while it will only see Eritreans and Sudanese on Wednesdays. Though InterAid seems to be trying its best to manage its extremely limited resources, this system leaves Kampala’s large Congolese population at a disadvantage. In order to make sure that they may be seen on their designated day, Congolese refugees must arrive at the Urban Refuge Programme when its doors open at 8:00AM, meaning that they must skip out on work and other obligations so that they can wait all day without any guarantee of being seen. If they are unable to get helped during their designated time, they must wait until the next week so that they can play the waiting day all over again. Though this study is still at an early stage, the difficulties faced by the urban refugees and the aid workers serve them in Kampala are already becoming very apparent. This project is picking up speed, and I look forward to continuing my research at InterAid.

References

-Macchiavello, Michela. "Livelihoods strategies of urban refugees in Kampala." Forced Migration Review 20 (2001): 26-27. Print.
-Orach, Christopher Garimoi, and Vincent De Brouwere. "Integrating refugee and host health services in West Nile districts, Uganda." Health Policy and Planning 21.1 (2005): 53-64. Print.
-UNCHR. "2010 UNHCR country operations profile - Uganda.". UN. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.