Thousands of Ethiopian and Somali {www:asylum seekers} trying to make their way to South Africa have been {www:marooned} in overcrowded camps in northern Mozambique since the government introduced measures limiting their movements.
The Maratane Refugee Camp in Nampula Province, which normally accommodates around 5,500 long-term residents from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, now has a population of over 10,000, while an additional 1,000 asylum seekers are staying at a temporary site in the coastal town of Palma, near the border with Tanzania.
“We did our best to expand facilities – building additional shelters, [drilling] boreholes, and by procuring food and non-food items, but given the sheer volume of the numbers, we’re obviously overwhelmed,” said Girma Gebre-Kristos, country representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Mozambique.
A steady stream of Ethiopians and Somalis started arriving in Mozambique in 2010, mostly by boat, but as long as the number of new arrivals at the Maratane Camp roughly equalled the number of departures, authorities were able to cope, Gebre-Kristos told IRIN.
However, this changed unexpectedly at the beginning of 2011, when the number of new arrivals increased significantly and the government of Mozambique put in place strict measures controlling the movements of asylum seekers outside the camp.
Gebre-Kristos said groups of Somalis and Ethiopians making their way south towards the border with South Africa had been picked up by police and returned to Maratane.
Aderito Matangala, acting head of the National Institute for Refugee Assistance (INAR), the local government counterpart of UNHCR, explained that while the law in Mozambique allowed asylum seekers freedom of movement, they first had to complete a registration process at the camp, which took three months.
“The existing law gives [asylum seekers] freedom of movement even before being granted refugee status,” Matangala told IRIN, and many Somali and Ethiopian asylum seekers chose to come to Mozambique because of its reputation for treating refugees well.
“My personal view is that not all of them want to go to South Africa,” he said, noting that some of the new arrivals were economic migrants rather than genuine asylum seekers.
Reports in recent weeks that the local police commander in Palma had deported about 150 Somali and Ethiopian asylum seekers to Tanzania, and that four Somali asylum-seekers were shot dead by border police on 29 April in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s most northerly province, suggest that police and immigration officials are not always aware of their country’s obligations to asylum seekers. The government is investigating the shooting and the deportations.
UNHCR and INAR are appealing for help to deal with the food, shelter, water and sanitation needs of the new arrivals in Maratane and Palma. So far the World Food Programme and the Mozambique Red Cross have stepped in with contributions of tents and food.
However, the situation in Palma remains dire. The camp is located next to a swampy, mosquito-infested area with no potable water, but Gebre-Kristos said an alternative location had been identified and would be ready soon.
Besides a lack of infrastructure, the Maratane Camp is struggling to balance the needs of the new arrivals with those of more established residents from the Great Lakes region, many of whom are involved in self-reliance projects and no longer need food assistance.
By contrast, said Gebre-Kristos, the newer residents were often “frustrated and angry young men who think their journey to South Africa has been interrupted”.
(Source: IRIN)
12 thoughts on “Ethiopians overwhelm Mozambique refuge camps”
While Ethiopian oppositions and movements keeping talking the talks for the sake of talking as an end in itself for the last 20 long years the cunning fox Wayane brutal tyrants dressed in sheep skin are emptying the human, financial,material and other resources from the country as well as sending Ethiopians to jail, killing fields and refugee camps.
For us, it is enough to seat back like Fat DUCKS and narrate about the bygone Ethiopian patriotism, civilization, “never colonized” “Ethiopiawi chewanet” etc., while our current actions and the actions of the last 20 years speaks LOUDER than our words.
“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always some one to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end REQUIRES COURAGE.” Ralph Emerson stated. Emphasis mine.
I just wait the intervention of the mighty God since we are left as a sub human race in the eyes of the united nations.They have got the blessing to rule over the other races according to the ancient biblical holy text.They are capable to avoid all the bloodshed and the presecutions going on among the sons and daughters of Kush, the brother of three But I doubt that blessing was wrongly directed in the early morning hour with unrecoverd mind from heavy drunk.
Let God have mercy on my soul for daring to say this!
Though, there a problem with ethnic based government in Ethiopia, in most part Ethiopians would have chosen to migrate legally or illegally to any part of the world looking a better life. Look the number of young women going to the Gulf states to sell themselves as well as, being a convert to Islam for the sake of money, which otherwise would have been impossible for them to make it in Ethiopia.
All these migration business came about since there no job creation in Ethiopia, which favors the Ethiopian people in general, ever since the Ethnic government took over, the favored ethnics group of people are their own ethnics, hence the whole sale of migration, which most of them experiencing a terrible dehumanizing situation, since they are migrating with out any information or idea what they are going to face.
Correction my brother, It was not kush and his children who were cursed by Noah. It was Ham(Kham)’s youngest son (ke ne an) and his offsprings (who by the way were inhabitants of todays palestine). We Ethiopians are descendents of kush and shem. So, there is no other human race that has God’s blessing to rule over us. Stop looking for excusses for our weaknesses and let us try to eradicate evil from Ethiopia.We can do it! God is on our side. Stand up and fight for your God given right,Or be quiet and be a good slave and obey your masters.
sad man,
The Ethiopian situation is really sad and as such makes all of us very sad indeed.
But the truth and the stark reality is that neither the United Nations, the Great God or any one else will ever come to liberate us.
Liberation comes from the determination of own selves by getting together and forming unities with in diversities just like the Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans, etc. 21st century generation.
Sustained determination to rise up and get rid of the roots of all the ongoing evils in Ethiopia which is the tplf elite brutal dictatorship will usher in the bright future and optimism.
Then we will have a vibrant good government and good governance which will bring back all the educated, less educated as well as uneducated Ethiopian refugees from all over the world, place them within their families, communities, social environments under the great sun and the great country to freely work and produce for the free and great new Ethiopia.
God have mercy on sad man, and God have mercy on the low IQ leaders of Africa who kept the black race in a preptual darkness so they may rule until they die. Africa is a toilet because of its sub-human leaders.
I’m concern why Anyuaks,Oromo, Beneshingul, Ogadeni, Afar, and all southern people become ethiopia political victim? Are they the ethiopians who fight for freedom? Right now, hundred Oromos are being jail. what’s going on? Are we united ethiopians or not?
#7. Gemechu,
You are asking the MOTHER OF ALL QUESTIONS. But the reality is that all the tyrannical elite ruling dictators have been artfully dividing and dehumanizing the Ethiopian people down the line simply for the purpose of robbing and perpetuating injustices. The long standing divisions these spineless tyrants have have planted among the good but victimized population have been preventing them from uniting against the criminal tyrants up to this very moment.
But in the light of the Tunisian, Egyptian, Libyan, Syrian, etc. 21st century unity within diversity effective uprisings we will slowly but surely learn to net work, unite, stand together and bring about true democracy,justice and freedom for all. IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING!
We want justice! We want justice! We want justice!
Ethiopians,strictly speaking,we have let down our future generation,not fair for Ethiopia because the enemy is swallowing our children alive.let’s speak our true feelings and minds.Are we waiting until one person is left in Ethiopia? Let me tell you,we have to either cut off ourselves from Ethiopia or save our young generation and make Ethiopia a home for those Ethiopians the minority rulers chasing them out.
You know Ethiopians,the enemy,it has been what it is and still is what it is.When the enemy entered Ethiopia,so what had happened? It began looting and murdering Ethiopians,and still is.
Yes,Ethiopians,the enemy is glancing at the clock because the clocking is ticking and the end of the mnority rules is very,very close.Yes,if we intesify our ongoing struggle far and deep against the enemy,the enemy will crush to its eternal defeat.Can we do it?,yes we can.
Ethiopians,we have been bearing the cost for the last twenty years since the enemy invaded Ethiopia,but for sure,the enemy will pay the dreast price.Today,everything and anything that is available in the hommeland is owned,controlled,and run by the minority rulers and all have accumelated enormous wealth at the cost of Ethiopia and Ethiopians.Fellow citizens,the enemy has many millions of gallons of blood in its hand.Murder,looting;murder,looting,and murder,murder.
Oh! No.We’ve got to stop it now!
Will our priceless children go home? yes,but if and only if we completely remove our common enemy from the surface of Ethiopia forever and ever.
Supplement to Mr.Zemedkun, denomination in history has taught that blacks are descendants of Cain and Ham. Ham is described in Genesis 9 as son of Noah who had seen his father nacked. Ham himself was not punished but his son Canaan was cursed. Genesis 9:25-27. The Church collaborated by promoting the idea that blacks were descendents of Ham. His skin was blackened and was cursed by Noah. They promoted the idea that blacks were savages and didn’t have a soul. And Mormons believed that black people couldn’t get into heaven.
To come back to the point, Egypt and Ethiopia were mentioned both in new and old testament.Egypt is mentioned in the bible over a thousand times and Ethiopia is mentioned many times as well. Both Abraham and Moses wives were from Ethiopia. Ethiopia was also the first nation to adopt christianity. Moses was born and spent most of his life and was educated in Africa.
During Trojan War, Ethiopia was assisting Troy and even sent armies to fight. Because the ruling family of Troy came from Ethiopia. Memnon, a member of the royal family in Ethiopia, was the king of Troy,Memnon brought ten thousand soldiers from Ethiopia to assist his uncle Piram,King of Troy which was black leader in India.
Egyptians were having black skin and wooly hair. they were not light skened at all. According to Herodotus, the father of the history.
From language analysis, Professor Obenga demonstrated that Wolof, a language spoken in Senegal today, and Coptic, a language spoken in Ethiopia, are a part of the some language family as the language used by the Ancient Egyptians.
Also, Moors who ruled much of Spain and Portugal from AD700 to 1490 were black people. Today, the human variation, Civilization, Christianity around the world orginated from the great Africa. Therefore, My brother, there’s no need to condemn that we black people have weakneses but a matter of time just be brave and keep yourself busy that what how can you bring the change to the world. leave Ethiopia alon, we will rule the worl again in the future. The so called supermacy will reversed back to Africa were its came from.
I’m proud to be Ethiopian born.
I tell you none of you know what is about to happen…May 21 is Judgment day…
The only way out of poverty, suffocation and slavery is the will to give one self for the good and better of the the country man. Pleas do not make any excusses on GOD and the angels for not saving you from the tyrants or MAFIA. Trust in your self and make sure you put the country man first before your self and dedicate your life for the coming generation not for yourself. That is the only way to bring change about not by sitting idle and crying for change to come from the sky, for it will never come and it has never happened in humna history. SACRIFICE is the word my country man/woman..