BOTSWANA DEPORTS 57 REFUGEES

We have nothing, we don’t even know where to start

After 12 years of living in Botswana as a host country, 57 Zimbabwean refugees from Dukwi Refugee Camp have been repatriated.

The refugees reportedly failed to register for voluntary repatriation hence their forced removal.

Speaking in an interview, the Department of Immigration Public Relations Officer, Greg Kelebonye, explained that there are refugees with family links in Botswana.

“These are Tswana tribes who are Batswana but live in Zimbabwe. These are people who live in border villages like Kweneng and Patse. Refugees who have been repatriated are those from such border villages,” Kelebonye said.

REFUGEES

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees’s External Relations Officer, Kate Pond, argued that the refugees, irrespective of their status, could have been allowed to remain in Botswana as permanent residents.

“UNHCR remains concerned that Zimbabweans who have been in Botswana for over a decade have been removed to Zimbabwe in less than voluntary circumstances. Irrespective of their status they still have certain rights, and UNHCR had aimed for alternative solutions, like those provided to Zimbabweans who have family links in Botswana and may be able to remain in the country as permanent residents,” Pond said.

One of the deported refugees, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they were rounded up and told to board a bus, which took them to the border. They were not even allowed to take some of their property with them, he said.

“We left Botswana on empty stomachs. We were deported to the border and we didn’t get any assistance. We wanted to remain in Botswana, that’s why we did not register for repatriation in the first place. We have nothing; we don’t even know where to start. Our children have been yanked out of school. It will be difficult without documents like passports and identity cards to start afresh. We could not even take our property so other refugees in Dukwi scrambled for our stuff,” said the deported refugee.

Botswana government had warned that refugees who did not register would be forcibly removed.

Last month, Botswana sent back more than 200 Zimbabweans who had registered for voluntary repatriation.

The repatriated refugees had initially refused to do so, citing fears of persecution in their homeland.

Most were opposition activists whose homes were burned down during a bloody presidential election campaign in 2008.