The\nSpeaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has criticised the international\ncommunity for failing to make good their financial contributions to support\nrefugees in Uganda as they had pledged during the Kampala Solidarity Summit on\nRefugees in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Addressing\nthe 10th Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments and Senates at the\nPan-African Parliament in Midrand, South Africa, on Tuesday, 06 August 2019,\nKadaga said that of the US$15 million that was projected to be collected at the\nsummit, only US$540,000 was realised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\nhad a solidarity summit in Uganda with all the world\u2019s big names and leaders\nfrom the biggest economies but it was quite shocking when such leaders pledged\nvery little sums of money and later even failed to fulfil the pledges,\u201d she\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Uganda,\nbeing the second biggest refugee hosting country in the world and the first in\nAfrica, was selected to host the refugee summit attended by world leaders and\ntechnocrats who included the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio\nGuterres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) June 2018 report shows\nthat Africa has the highest number of forced migrants in the world. The continent accounted for nearly one third\nof the world\u2019s 68 million forced migrants, including 6.3 million refugees and\n14.5 million internally displaced persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Host\ncountries continue to shoulder the responsibility of and facilitating refugees\u2019\naccess to basic needs. However, this reduces the resources and resilience of\nthe host communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSettling\nof refugees comes with a cost to our people because there is a lot of pressure\non the local population to share facilities. In one of our districts of\nAdjumani, 50 per cent of the population is made up of refugees and so there is\npressure on water, schools, health facilities and the environment and this is\nvery costly to the Uganda government,\u201d Kadaga said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaker\nKadaga requested the UNHCR to build permanent structures such as health centres\nand schools in the refugee settlements as a stopgap to support host communities\nthat have co-existed with refugees in the event that they leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kadaga\nproposed that for refugee host countries, there should be inter-ministerial\ncoordination mechanisms to bring together the government, international, local\nand civil society organisations to address the refugee issue from a wider\nperspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\nwant to confirm that refugees living in Uganda are not in camps but\nsettlements, which gives them freedom of movement, access to social service and\nemployment,\u201d Kadaga told the Speakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nSpeaker of the Algerian Parliament, Slimane Chenine, said the increased armed\nconflicts on the continent had worsened the refugee problem over the last two\nyears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo\nresolve this problem, my country has always proposed a holistic approach that\nis balanced and will require solidarity based on human rights, sovereignty and\nnational security,\u201d said Chenine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nhis presentation, George Kachio, the UNHCR Representative for Southern Africa\nrevealed that over 100,000 Africans leave the continent every year for Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking\nas chief guest, the President of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), Gabriela\nCuevas Barron, called on countries of the AU to work together in regard to\ndevelopment, gender equality, youth empowerment, fighting terrorism, climate\nchange, migration and refugees issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe\nsafest countries in the world are those practising democracy. We have the power\nto change the world and we need to give results to our people,\u201d Barron said and\nsignalled out Kadaga for aggressively advocating for an IPU President that\ncould work with Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ntwo-day Speaker\u2019s conference is being held under the theme, “Finding\ndurable solutions to forced migration to accelerate integration and development\nin Africa: the role of National and Regional Parliaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over\n90 per cent of African countries are party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and\nhave passed laws for its implementation. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has criticised the international community for failing to make good their financial contributions to support refugees in Uganda as they had pledged during the Kampala Solidarity Summit on Refugees in 2017. Addressing the 10th Conference of Speakers of African Parliaments and Senates at the Pan-African Parliament in Midrand, South […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27983,"featured_media":10587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n