Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za

2-minute read
21 June 2023 | 11:27 CAT

Image: University of Pretoria

Each year on 20 June, the world celebrates World Refugee Day, the international day to honour people forced to flee.

Commemorating World Refugee Day, Doctors Without Borders have launched the Tonogogara Refugee Camp in the southeast of Zimbabwe. This camp hosts around 15-thousand-600 refugees, with more than 85% of this population hailing from the DRC and the rest from Mozambique, South Sudan, Somalia and Rwanda. It also reminds South Africans about the rise in xenophobia and, in many cases, how it deals with refugees and asylum seekers.

Many residents of Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge, Zimbabwe — home to nearly 15,000 refugees — have endured conflict, loss and trauma. A Doctors Without Borders mental health intervention seeks to build resilience and healthy coping mechanisms among residents through psychosocial and recreational activities.

Radio Islam International spoke to Dr Callixte Kavuro, a postdoctoral fellow in Law in the Faculty of Law and the University of Stellenbosch and an expert on the matter.

There have been increased xenophobic attacks on asylum seekers and immigrants in South Africa. All the ills we face, be it a crime or inadequate treatment in our hospitals, are always put at the door of refugees and immigrants.

According to Dr Kavuro, the main reason is Refugees and Asylum seekers are entitled to the same services as citizens, hence an increase in competition over available opportunities.

“There is a lack of awareness. Many people understand that refugee and Asylum seeker groups do not enjoy the same rights as ought to, forgetting that the framework of the Refugee Act allows for refugees and asylum seekers access to health care facilities and to find unemployment,” he says.

Refugee status means that a person has the protection of the South African government and can only be forced to return home once it is deemed safe to return. ‘Refugee status’ is designed to assist people whose lives have been in danger in their own country.

Listen to the full interview on Your World Today with Muftin Yusuf Moosagie.