As a country that has enjoyed social stability for many decades, Cameroon is a frequent destination for refugees from Central Africa. In its report published on January 31, 2018, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that the number of refugees living in Cameroon was 665,947. 

These figures, rising steadily, are an indication of the vast numbers of refugees crossing over into the West African country where they see the humanitarian situation as being better than where they are fleeing from. There are a total of eight refugee camps in the country. Minawao in the Far North Region, Gam and Borgof in Adamaoua, and Gado-Badzez, Timangolo, Mbile, Lolo and Ngari-Singo in the East Region.  

According to the UNHCR, the Gourenguel Transit Center (Far North Region of the country) has continued to see an increasing number of newcomers to Cameroon, due to the resurgence of extremist religious terror group Boko Haram attacks.   

On January 31, 2018, the UNHCR also announced the launch of biometric registration at Minawao Camp, which has the highest concentration of Nigerian refugees.   

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and United Nations Development Program Resident Representative for Cameroon Allegra Baiocchi has launched a $10-million appeal for funds to assist refugees. The refugees and asylum-seekers in Cameroon originate from countries such as the Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

Finding safe places  

Since the 1970s, Cameroon has always been open to refugees, and Chadian refugees fleeing civil war between northerners and southerners fled into the country. Given the scale of the phenomenon, a UNHCR camp was created to better manage Chadian arrivals. Then, it was followed by the Rwandan and Burundian crises, the ethno-religious tensions in Sudan, the coups in Sierra Leone, the long war in Liberia, the discrimination in Equatorial Guinea, the Congolese and Central African mutinies and the civil war in Angola, which brought large numbers of refugees to Cameroon.  

The Minawao Camp in the Far North Region of the country, located near the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, is a safe haven for fleeing Nigerians escaping the horrors of Boko Haram.  At the entrance of the camp is a security post of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, elite unit of the Cameroon Defense Forces, acting as a front line facing Boko Haram. The Rapid Intervention Battalion’s members interview and assess all refugees entering the cantonment.   

Close to the checkpoint stands a hospital built by Cameroon, not only to ensure the care of refugees, but also to prevent the outbreak of epidemics. Potable water tanks and ablution facilities are part of the integrated infrastructure vital for the care of the refugees.   

Job creation  

As most of the refugees there are women and children, measures have been taken to improve their capacity for future development.  

Schools built in the camp ensure that the children of refugees receive an education. As far as the eye can see, neat rows of tents, stamped with the logo of the UNHCR, provide the temporary homes for families who try to reconcile their new lives with those they left behind.  

According to Baiocchi, building schools can improve literacy rate among children so that they can have a better future.  

Another important aspect of the refugee program is providing skills training and work for women. The Cameroonian Government Support and Refugee Integration Program, established in the capital Yaoundé, trains women how to make smoked fish as well as manufacture cleaning products, fruit juice and soy products. These are important training courses enabling women to gain autonomy and thereby better integrate into the local job market.  

There is a noticeable change in the care of refugees in Cameroon, where the government, in collaboration with UNHCR, has launched an empowerment program to address the funding problems that are required to assist these communities. This project is mainly dedicated to refugees and asylum-seekers, residents of Yaoundé and people in other major Cameroonian cities including Douala, the economic capital.   

The refugees involved are mainly Central Africans, Chadians, Congolese, Ivoirians and Togolese.   

More external supports needed  

Cameroon has also invited the international community to provide financial support to countries receiving refugees on their soil. This funding can help solve the difficulties of access to drinking water, hygiene and sanitation of refugee shelters as well as health problems.   

The appeal is much needed as Baiocchi said Cameroon had the least amount of humanitarian funding in Africa in 2018.   

“This situation is unacceptable. Donors need to do more,” she said. According to her, in the eastern part of the country, Cameroon has welcomed 250,000 new refugees from the Central African Republic, because the volatile situation there has not changed. “It is impossible to rely only on the Cameroonian Government.”  

(Reporting from Cameroon) 

(Comments to niyanshuo@chinafrica.cn) 

Ethiopia’s Revises Refugee Law  

Refugees in Ethiopia received some good news on January 17 when the country’s parliament adopted revisions to its existing refugee law which allows refugees in Ethiopia to benefit from a range of new opportunities, the most notable being the right to obtain work permits.    

The Ethiopian Government’s Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA), working in conjunction with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), was involved in the drafting process of the refugee law revision.  

Other benefits of the revision include access to primary education, obtaining drivers’ licenses, legally registering life events such as births and marriages and opening bank accounts.   

The revision addresses the wider solution of being more inclusive for refugees in the national systems of health and education rather than creating parallel systems at additional cost. By providing legal permission to find employment, it also helps make refugees more self-reliant and, in return, contribute to local economies through consumption and tax, which benefits the host country.  

Commenting on the landmark legislation, Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the passage of this historic law represents a significant milestone in Ethiopia’s long history of welcoming and hosting refugees from across the region for decades.  

“By allowing refugees the opportunity to be better integrated into society, Ethiopia is not only upholding its international refugee law obligations, but also serving as a model for other refugee hosting nations around the world,” said Grandi.  

On its official Facebook page, ARRA said that Ethiopia is one of the largest refugee hosting countries in the world and the second largest in Africa after Uganda. As of October 2018, there were 926,263 refugees in Ethiopia. More than 99 percent of the refugees in the country originate from four countries: South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan.  

Ethiopia has a decades long history of hosting refugees and continues to employ an open-door asylum policy, which offers a safe haven for those seeking refuge.   

According to the UNHCR, Ethiopia’s refugees are housed in 26 refugee camps which have inadequate services and prospects, and depend mainly on humanitarian assistance. The country is also one of the first five African countries to participate in the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework, a set of commitments set out by the UN General Assembly in its 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, designed to improve ways of protecting people on the move.   

Ethiopia’s revision of its refugee law comes just a month after the UN General Assembly agreed to the Global Compact on Refugees on December 17, 2018. Part of the compact’s pledge to joint action entails addressing the specific challenges faced by developing host countries.