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Government Stands to Benefit From Registering Refugees

The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
February 23, 2006
Posted to the web February 22, 2006

By Judy Wakahiu
Nairobi
The ongoing government registration of refugees is a milestone in the quest for
increased protection of refugees and asylum seekers in Kenya.
It is a departure from what the "eye refuses to see", as scholars have
described it. This refers to refugees who choose to live in urban centres, not
in remote rural settlements and camps.
The Refugee Consortium of Kenya (RCK) supports this move and urges the
Government to keep the promise not to victimise those who present themselves
for registration.
Even without the necessary legal framework on refugees, the RCK has constantly
called on the Government to respect the rights of refugees and asylum seekers,
especially the rights to movement, identification and earning a livelihood.
In our view, screening and registering asylum seekers is far more beneficial
than ignoring the situation altogether.
It has long been recognised by stakeholders that refugees choose to live in
urban areas to avoid the idle life in camps. They are eager to develop
themselves and go out to look for opportunities.
But, due to unfriendly government policies, they avoid making their urban
presence conspicuous.
Registering them, therefore, would for the first time allow government agencies
and NGOs to plan with statistics in mind. Since criminals are not likely to
bring themselves forward, registration provides an opportunity to separate
genuine asylum seekers from cross-border crooks.
Another benefit for the Government would be in the form of revenue from
businesses that have previously fallen outside the tax net because the owners
lack a legal basis- the case of Eastleigh.
These businesses have survived over the years by paying bribes to law
enforcement officers for protection. Registering and legalising these
businesses would earn the Government revenue instead of fanning corruption.
Hopefully, detaining refugees and asylum seekers living outside the designated
camps will be a thing of the past. The past one year was especially
challenging, since police or prison detention cases increased sharply.
The transfer of the refugee department from Home Affairs to the new ministry of
Immigration and Registration of Persons meant that refugees were now subject to
immigration laws and no longer treated as a special category of aliens.
The ongoing screening should, therefore, result in a uniform identification
document for all refugees to end the incessant harassment, hitherto blamed on
the lack of uniformity in UNHCR documents.
The next government step should be to implement a clear policy and legal
framework for regulating and managing refugees. This way, the Government would
be able to negotiate with the international community to invest resources
directly to public infrastructure and development assistance for the local
community and the refugees.
It would also provide a basis for agencies willing to assist refugees to do so
without necessarily being labelled hostile to government policies.
Judy Wakahiu, is Executive Director, The Refugee Consortium of Kenya.

   

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