19 000 applicant refugees approved
In a bid to create a database, the refugees repatriated to Namibia in 1989 have registered and 19 000 have been approved to date.
The committee of the Namibian Refugees Repatriated in 1989 (NRR) has approved 19 000 applicants during their mass registration period which took place between June and September this year.
The mass registration was aimed at registering all the Namibian refugees countrywide that were repatriated in 1989 and enable an online database to be created for the sake of reference.
The chairperson of the Namibian Refugees Repatriated 1989, Ueshitile Shekupe, who was speaking at the media briefing in Windhoek on Friday, said the database will include information on the number of female, male and orphaned refugees in each region and the year they went into exile, and for how long.
“We want the data to stay forever and for the new generation to know the people who have been in exile. We don't want our history to just vanish like that,” he said.
Shekupe said that more applications will soon be approved upon verification of some pending issues and a second round of registration will be announced, to include the 111 refugees that are in prisons countrywide, those in hospitals and those who could not make it to the registration points during the first round of registration.
He said during the registration period they discovered that after 28 years of independence, disabled war victims are still traumatised and live without proper access to important facilities.
Shekupe explained that current conditions of the orphans, born within and outside the country by refugees, were more severe as they had no specific family to look after them.
The committee further called for intervention of the United Nations as the institution responsible for their repatriation. They are, however, still waiting on the audited report they requested for, in a petition they submitted to the UN, in November last year.
NAMPA
The mass registration was aimed at registering all the Namibian refugees countrywide that were repatriated in 1989 and enable an online database to be created for the sake of reference.
The chairperson of the Namibian Refugees Repatriated 1989, Ueshitile Shekupe, who was speaking at the media briefing in Windhoek on Friday, said the database will include information on the number of female, male and orphaned refugees in each region and the year they went into exile, and for how long.
“We want the data to stay forever and for the new generation to know the people who have been in exile. We don't want our history to just vanish like that,” he said.
Shekupe said that more applications will soon be approved upon verification of some pending issues and a second round of registration will be announced, to include the 111 refugees that are in prisons countrywide, those in hospitals and those who could not make it to the registration points during the first round of registration.
He said during the registration period they discovered that after 28 years of independence, disabled war victims are still traumatised and live without proper access to important facilities.
Shekupe explained that current conditions of the orphans, born within and outside the country by refugees, were more severe as they had no specific family to look after them.
The committee further called for intervention of the United Nations as the institution responsible for their repatriation. They are, however, still waiting on the audited report they requested for, in a petition they submitted to the UN, in November last year.
NAMPA
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