Displaced Angolans caught in Namibia's immigration gap

An estimated 1 000 Angolan nationals have been returned to their country over the past few years after being found in Namibia without valid immigration documents, with Amnesty International questioning whether drought-displaced women and children are being individually assessed for protection.

The figure is contained in Amnesty's new report, The Drier It Gets, The Longer You Have To Walk, The Deeper You Have To Dig, which examines drought-induced displacement from southern Angola into Namibia between May 2024 and May 2026.

The report argues that people crossing the border because of drought are falling into a gap in Namibia's immigration and protection system, leaving some vulnerable to arrest, detention and deportation despite moving in search of food, water and other basic needs.

“There are no realistic, human rights-based or humanitarian pathways through which Angolans displaced by drought can regularise their stay in Namibia,” the report states.

Moreover, “drought is not treated as a recognised basis for protection,” the report adds.

“Namibian authorities must establish a rights-based approach to migration, ensuring that people displaced by drought and other natural disasters can access basic rights, including registration and documentation,” Amnesty regional director for East and Southern Africa Tigere Chagutah said.

Namibia's immigration control programme reported this year that more than 1 000 Angolan nationals had been returned to Angola after being found in the country without valid immigration papers. The exact timeframe for the figure is unclear.

The organisation has raised particular concerns about how authorities handle women and children during such returns.

Amnesty says it witnessed an incident in Opuwo on 4 June 2025 in which Namibian authorities gathered about 40 Angolan nationals, including women and children, at a community centre before transporting them more than 100 kilometres to the Ruacana border.

The report states that they were handed over to Angolan authorities without individual screening, information about asylum or other protection options, or an assessment of the risks they could face after returning.

Amnesty argues that the absence of individual assessments raises concerns about collective expulsion and the principle of non-refoulement, which generally prohibits returning people to places where they could face serious human rights risks.

It also raises questions about the treatment of children, saying there is insufficient publicly available information to establish whether safeguards, including assessments of children's best interests, were followed in some cases.

Drought pushes families

The returns are taking place against years of drought-related movement from southern Angola, particularly the provinces of Cunene, Huíla and Namibe.

Amnesty says recurrent droughts, worsened by El Niño, have damaged pastoralism and subsistence farming, with families losing crops and livestock and struggling to find water.

People have consequently crossed into Namibia seeking food, water, grazing land, healthcare, employment and support from relatives.

Between January and July 2021 alone, more than 7 000 Angolans, mainly women and children, crossed into northern Namibia following years of drought and food insecurity, the report says.

Movement continued during subsequent droughts, including severe conditions in 2023 and 2024, although the actual number of people displaced remains unknown because there is no comprehensive system for receiving, registering and tracking drought-displaced people.

While Angolan passport holders can enter Namibia visa-free through official border posts for limited periods, Amnesty says this does not give them the right to work or remain in Namibia long-term, nor does it provide a dedicated protection mechanism for those displaced by drought.

Many people from drought-affected rural communities also lack passports or other documentation and cross through informal routes.

Amnesty interviewed at least 167 people for the report and documented families living in makeshift shelters, as well as overcrowding and inadequate access to water and sanitation.

Healthcare was another concern. Amnesty says undocumented Angolans were charged higher hospital fees than Namibian nationals, contributing to some delaying treatment or avoiding health facilities.

Children were also reported to face barriers to education, healthcare and legal identity documents. Almost none of the children in the communities studied had birth certificates, whether born in Namibia or Angola, the organisation said.

“The protection of already marginalised Angolans who are forced to move to Namibia in search of livelihoods is not just a humanitarian concern. This is a human rights crisis that demands international solidarity, including legal protection against refoulement,” Chagutah said.