Namibia: Congolese refugees flee Namibia
A group of forty-one (41) Congolese refugees and asylum seekers (men, women and children) have this morning finally fled Namibia for their lives to an undisclosed destination through the neighboring Republic of Botswana. The group includes 23 children between the ages 1 and 17. According to NSHR’s latest information, the group is stranded, without food, in ‘no[wo]man’s’ land between Namibia and Botswana, some 300 kilometers east of the Namibian capital of Windhoek. NSHR has appealed to the Government of the Republic of Botswana to “accord them all the necessary assistance on humanitarian grounds”.
July 7 2009
A group of forty-one (41) Congolese refugees and asylum seekers (men, women and children) have this morning finally fled Namibia for their lives to an undisclosed destination through the neighboring Republic of Botswana. The group includes 23 children between the ages 1 and 17.
According to NSHR’s latest information, the group is stranded, without food, in ‘no[wo]man’s’ land between Namibia and Botswana, some 300 kilometers east of the Namibian capital of Windhoek. This morning NSHR appealed to the Government of the Republic of Botswana to “accord them all the necessary assistance on humanitarian grounds”.
Recently the group has produced documentary evidence of what amounts to death threats. Consequently, NSHR has reasons to believe that these refugees are, indeed, unable and or unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of the Government of the Republic of Namibia—owing to well founded fear of being persecuted, inter alia, for reasons of nationality or membership of a particular social group or political opinion.
Most of the concerned refugees and asylum seekers—some of whom have been residing in Namibia for up to 10 years—are members of the Association of the Voiceless (AV), a non-violent organization established at the Osire Refugee Camp (ORC) to advocate respect for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. The ORC is located in the north-central Namibia, some 220 kilometers northeast of Windhoek.
The group has shown NSHR in this regard documents, to wit, letters addressed to most of them wherein they are told, inter alia, that their human rights activities at the ORC “constitute a threat to peace and security”. However, Article 21(1) of the Namibian Constitution guarantees the rights of “everyone” to freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of association and freedom of assembly as well as freedom of movement. The Namibian Constitution is the supreme law of the country.
Furthermore, these vulnerable foreigners have also made reference to recent violent public statements made by, among others, the Founding Father of the Namibian Nation and the former Namibian President on May 23 2009 when he reportedly threatened inter alia that:
“We will only work together and co-operate with those foreigners who are respecting us and those who do not can pack and go or they will face bullets in their heads.”
In an attempt to urge the Namibian authorities to resolve this evolving crisis, on June 10 2009 NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh addressed an urgent letter to State Secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration (MHAI), Mr. S. H. /Goagoseb requesting him to, inter alia, “address this problem, to respect the rights of refugees by affording them all necessary protection in accordance with our national laws and international obligations”.
Although the NSHR letter concludes with: “We hope that this matter receives your utmost attention, and we are looking forward to your speedy reply”, no answer has so far been received from the MHAI.
Having failed to elicit any reaction from the MHAI through silent communication channels, NSHR on June 11 and 18 2009 issued Press Releases expressing its “disapproval of the manner in which MHAI has allegedly treated” refugees.
The concerned refugees have also made sworn statements in which they are claiming to having received death threats from other Namibian officials at the ORC.
Following such threats and gravely concerned about these helpless refugees and asylums seekers, on June 15 2009 NSHR directed an Urgent Appeal communication to the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions (Mr. Philip Alston) in which the Human Rights Organization expressed concern that the refugees might “face imminent danger of summary execution, enforced disappearance or refoulement to their native Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)”.
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ya Nangoloh at Tel: +264 61 236 183 or +264 061 253 447 (office hours)
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