THE REFUGEE DEPARTMENT
The situational reports which were presented by different countries, gave rise to planning, evaluating, advising and supporting action to meet prevailing needs. This resulted in the establishment of different departments within the IMBISA Secretariat, namely: Refugee Service, Social Communications, Theological Reflection and Exchange, Biblical Pastoral Ministry and now Translations service and Justice and Peace Desk. One of the projects envisaged but never realized has been a Centre for Research and Planning.
REFUGEE SERVICES:
IMBISA has “had a continuing concern for refugees and migrant workers.” Information had been shared and considerable co-operation achieved especially between neighbouring countries and through co-operation with CARITAS. The Society of Jesus was requested to help in coordinating the care for refugees in the IMBISA region, an offer made by Fr. Pedro Arrupe SJ at the SECAM Plenary Assembly in Yaoundé Cameroon.The Refugee Department was established in 1987. The mandate of the department was to provide pastoral care for the refugees in the region. For greater effectiveness the department began to network with other ecumenical bodies like Christian Care. In the case of Zimbabwe, the influx of refugees from Mozambique in the 1990s made the department realize that there was a need for both pastoral and development projects. Aid was therefore given in the form of health care, shelter, and skills training in the camps.
As of now the department; coordinates, animates, motivates, mediates, encourages and supports the pastoral care and development work for refugees, migrants, asylum seekers and internally displaced people within the region itself as well as in neighbouring countries where refugees from the IMBISA region have found refuge.
The department almost facilitates sending financial requests for project monies to foreign funding partners when local church is unable to secure assistance to address other non material needs of refugees e.g. social, spiritual, and cultural and education needs.
It also engages in advocacy work on behalf of refugees and displaced persons and conscientise the local Church and its communities on their responsibilities towards refugees., gives assistance to the member conferences and their agencies in resource mobilization (human and financial)
The Department organises programmes for Church Personnel in the Ministry with refugees and uprooted people, identify together with the local Church authorities, the pastoral care and development needs of the homeless and displaced people within the region and networks with other organisations regard to the phenomena of mass movement of populations across borders.
15TH ANNUAL REGIONAL CONFERENCE, MAY 2010
“GOOD WORK ETHICS IN THE PROVISION OF SERVICES TO REFUGEES, MIGRANTS, ASYLUM SEEKERS AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA.”
Introduction
On 18th to 21st May 2010, the Refugees Regional Coordinator, the National Coordinators of Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced (IDP) converged at Mumemo in Maputo, Mozambique. Also present were; the Bishop President of the IMBISA Refugee Services Department , Bishop Patrick Z. Mvemve, and the Bishop in charge of Refugees in the Mozambique Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Adriano Langa. The IMBISA Region is made up of nine (9) member countries namely Mozambique, Lesotho. Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, São Tome e Principe, South Africa and Zimbabwe. These make up six (6) Bishops’ Conferences. All but one country were represented with the group being able to hear issues of concern from different countries. The meeting was of a unique nature in the midst of a lot of excitement with the coming of the World Cup and the talk about Human Trafficking being the topical issue whose effects will affect everyone in the region. The meeting agreed that the present human trafficking issue will be on our plate once the World Cup is over as many people will be stranded as they will discover that the so called greener pastures in South Africa are not green at all, they will be refugees and the current number will bulge.
Ethics – a set of values, involving the right attitude, correct behavior, respect for others & effective communication.
In his welcome remarks, the Bishop President, Bishop Patrick Mvemve, noted that the 15th Refugees Annual Conference is coming at the opportune time after the II Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops. Proposition #28 is specifically for migrants and refugees where the Church Fathers are challenging governments, the world over, not to discriminate against Africans at border posts or airports. The Church needs to provide pastoral care for migrants and refugees. He also challenged the group to think of carrying out well researched activities and to partner with those organisations that carry out research so that they can help us with research work. The world is fast changing and to keep pace with these changes, it is best to do research in order to be more effective in our ministry.
In absentia, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, His Excellency Antonio Maria Vegliò, sent a message to encourage us as people who work with vulnerable people. He described work ethics as, ‘…… a set of values, which involve the right attitude, correct behavior, respect for others and effective communication. It regulates what to do in different situations in the working milieu’. He ascertained that work ethics come from within each individual which, entails honesty, integrity, doing a job well and being accountable and above all dedication in our service and good treatment of others.
Presentation on Good work ethics
Ms Marivic Garcia Mall, who works with traumatized people providing counseling services at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa, gave an enlightening presentation on the theme for the 2010 Conference. She defined a number of terms that we, as service providers to migrants, come across quite often. For instance, she defined violence as the violation of an individual’s rights and it is also an abusive or unjust exercise of power which results in pain and hurt. In our ministry, we encounter people coming from different backgrounds, who have migrated due to violence, economic crackdown and are seeking better or friendly living conditions and probably employment opportunities, evading from crime and are traumatised by the sense of loss they have experienced. Migrants feel that their dreams are shuttered and are overwhelmed by a sense of insecurity, abandonment, feel threatened and lonely as they find themselves in a foreign land, separated from the familiar environment.
It is inevitable that we are caught in between conflicting values in our provision of services to migrants. It is in this situation that people who work with migrants are called to be ethical, review our operations and service delivery, our attitude and behavior in the face of these people whom the situation has brought so low. We need to give them hope, lobby host governments for flexible laws which are more refugee/migrant friendly (Proposition #28 of the II Synod), eradication of all kinds of discrimination against them and assist them in the acquisition of legal documents and integration into the host society to re-build their life, assist them to make clear well informed decisions for their life. Of great interest to note as helpers of migrants are the following:
- As we work with these vulnerable people, who are in pain and have had pain inflicted on them by other human beings, we should avoid generalisations e.g. all refugees or migrants are a problem or violent, instead each individual must be treated as an individual
- Everyone is a human being, with his/her own specific background and life events and with different coping abilities of the present situation
- Help the individuals or families in this kind of situation to make thoughtful decisions about their new way of life
- Facilitate access to helping systems to make thoughtful decisions
- Each decision we make in our activities must be guided by ethical considerations and we need knowledge and skills in order to make ethical decisions
- There is need for monitoring skills and knowledge development, regular supervision, training and capacity development in our operations and service delivery
It is important to note that as a Church organisation, there is no way ethical issues are at war with the Church. What the Church upholds as values, so are the ethical issues that respect the sanctity of human life that abhors the abuse of power that leads to the loss or degradation of human dignity and poverty.
Bishops’ Conference of Angola and São Tomé e Principe (CEAST)
The Church in Angola experienced a severe blow in October 2009 when a massive number of Angolans (65 000) were expelled from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Congo Brazzaville. The people had been in these countries for a number of years, close to four decades during the civil war in Angola and some of the young generation that was expelled had never set foot in Angola. This caused loss of property, jobs, studies and separation of children from their parents and break of family life as the law states that if the mother of the child is from DRC, she remains in DRC with the children and the father should go back to Angola. Out of rage and anger, this sparked violent attacks on the Congolese. The expelled lot group of people required immediate aid in terms of food, shelter, health facilities and clothing as well as transport to ferry aid to the people. The Church, through her various structures and organisations such as the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Migrations, Caritas Angola, Jesuit relief Services (JRS),Justice and Peace Commission, Catholic Women’s’ Organisation, pulled resources together and provided assistance to the expelled people.
The Church worked to establish a Solidarity Commission in each diocese in order to collect goods and money for the deported people. The Church managed to respond to the situation without asking for any external help. All the donated goods were to be accounted for with acquittals for all the cash used. To spiritually support the repatriated people, the Church through the migration desk, organized prayer moments and held vigils for the displaced people. The government also assisted through the Ministry of Defense with trucks that carried the goods to the camps.
Future Plans
To team up with CEAST Commissions in order to assist returnees
- To continue to promote awareness and actions among the dioceses, parishes, Religious Congregations, companies, schools and singular persons towards solidarity with the returnees
- Strengthen participation of the Ministry of Defense and collaboration of other Christian denominations and to utilize mass media in the campaign process.
- Call for more volunteers for the work .
Challenges
The Church however, encountered a number of challenges in the process.
- The difficulties in establishing coordinated activities among the dioceses
- Lack of establishment of Solidarity Commissions in some dioceses
- Difficulties in communication and the withdrawal of some participating organisations during the campaign.
- The opening of camps by Muslims to lure young people into the Islamic religion
- of air flights from Angola to DRC
- It is difficult to repatriate people back to Angola as conflicts are erupting between returnees and those they find on the place.
Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference ( SACBC)
The refugee activities in South Africa are commonly done in the dioceses of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Tzaneen, Durban and Cape Town, which are the favourite destinations for most migrants and asylum seekers. Most refugees and asylum seekers into South Africa are from Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Somalia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Burundi and the actual figure of refugees and asylum seekers in the country is unknown, and most of these people are political and economic refugees. These refugees, sad to note, have suffered severe xenophobic attacks from the society in South Africa.
It is commendable however, that the Church is assisting migrants to acquire documents, provision of temporary shelter, food through the ‘Soup Kitchen’ and lobby the government for better treatment of Zimbabwean nationals in South Africa. In Johannesburg, the Scalabrinian Sisters cater for the Spiritual wellbeing of migrants and teach women technical skills such as sewing and computers. While in Cape Town the Scalabrinian fathers work with refugees providing counseling and skills training and advocate for better treatment of refugees by the South African law enforcement agents.
In light of this, with the coming of the World Cup, human trafficking is the whole region’s eye sore. All countries are affected and awareness campaigns are to be run in all our regional countries, it is a serious issue and many young people are lured with the prospects of better living conditions and employment opportunities in South Africa.
Swaziland continues to host refugees and asylum seekers mainly from the Great Lakes region, i.e Burundi, Rwanda, DRC and other countries. Caritas Swaziland is the only implementer of refugee programme and offers assistance to refugees in areas such as: health care where they have lobbied for the refugees to be referred to government hospitals, education for children and currently about 100 children are going to school on scholarships from primary school level right up to university level, legal protection where refugees are assisted to obtain identity cards to help then to travel without difficulties, self help projects where a second hand clothing market stall has been opened and refugees can sell clothes, employment where 50 French teachers have been employed to teach the French language, food, blankets and shelter are provided to new arrivals. In cases of death/bereavement, Caritas assists in order for the deceased to have a dignified burial. The refugees are at the temporary shelter for about three months before they move on to seek employment and integrate into the host society. A chaplain has been appointed to cater for the Spiritual wellbeing of refugees and he conducts regular Church services. Currently the number of refugees totals (about) 1 400.
The organisation has not sent any refugees back to their countries instead some refugees have settled into the Swazi community and are running small businesses such that they feel comfortable in Swaziland than to return home. Refugees are allowed to bring their families if they can locate them. But there is a bit of friction from the host community as they feel that there is preferential treatment for refugees than themselves, especially on the second hand clothing market stall for refugees. The unsettling issue is on the future of Rwandese who are said to be losing the refugee status by January 2011 as there will be need to lobby the government to grant them citizenship status or give them permits to be free to live in Swaziland.
Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC)
Tongogara Camp hosts more than 3, 200 refugees mainly from the Great Lakes region and of late a significant number from the horn of Africa are trickling and most of them would like to cross over to South Africa in search of better employment opportunities. The Church in Zimbabwe opened a refugee desk in 2009 under Caritas Zimbabwe to which the responsibility of running the camp was officially handed over by IMBISA Secretariat in the same year. A considerable progress has been noted by Caritas since it took over. There has been ground work to strengthen the newly established desk despite finance problems to run the projects at the camp. The critical problem areas include health, security, water and sanitation as well as income generating projects for refugees to supplement the hand outs they receive.
Caritas is also faced with a problem f Internally Displaced People (IDP) as a result of the 2008 post –election, the 2005 Operation Restore Order and of late the fresh farm invasions in the country and resources are limited. It is however worthy noting that despite the current ‘bad’ picture that Zimbabwe has been portrayed, it still remains a favourite destination for some migrants who find Zimbabwe as having more refugee-friendly laws which enable refugees to automatically acquire refugee status and identification cards for temporal use once they arrive into the country. The refugees’ status enables the refugees to enjoy the freedoms like any other ordinary Zimbabwean without discrimination such as access to health care facilities, free education, free movement and to work. Some refugees have acquired skills such as sewing, building, carpentry and ventured into income generating projects. But the living conditions are still of low standards.
Due to South Africa’s harsh laws on migrants, there have been a lot of deportations and returnees of Zimbabweans back home also as a result of xenophobic attacks. Caritas Zimbabwe is trying to assist the deportees and they seem to be coping with the situation / cope with the situation. They have set up commissions near border posts to assist returnees. Now there is a need to carry out awareness campaigns in light of human trafficking issues during the World Cup and to expect a bulge in the number of returnees after the World Cup tournament. Caritas feels that the Church in Zimbabwe is not offering adequate support.
Lesotho Catholic Bishops’ Conference (LCBC)
Lesotho has the smallest number of refugees who are just about 64 mainly from Congo, Rwanda and Zimbabwe. The reason for such a small number is the relaxed law that states that after five years of living in Lesotho one is eligible to apply for citizenship. The majority of refugees have also integrated themselves into the Basotho community. From June 2009, the needs of refugees have been catered for under the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP). The commission through the help of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the government of Lesotho has managed to carry out the following activities for refugees:
- remove the pigs and goats from the living area for refugees that has enabled the people to grow their own vegetables on the land
- distributed food and none food items
- ensured that social security grants, that include now the dependents, have been paid on regular basis since the beginning of 2010
- lobbied for refugees to be charged at local rates at hospitals not as foreigners
- assisted a woman together with her children one of whom is disabled, to be resettled in the USA
- The current challenges that face refugees in Lesotho are:
- The living conditions are still very poor and would require a lot of repair and maintenance
- After living in the camp for about 2-5 years, refugees still find it difficult to get employment to supplement government grants and to reduce their dependency on the government, as there is failure by the government to recognize their professional qualifications, like teachers and nurses living in the camp and language barriers.
- Difficulties in integrating into the society due to insecurity and fear of xenophobic attacks
The Dukwi Camp in Botswana has more than 3,000 people mainly from Namibia, Angola, Burundi, DRC, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Among these, some have been in the camp for more than twenty years. This poses a question as to why people are staying in the camp for so long with the hosting government not doing something to change their status and grant them permanent residence. They have spent most, if not, all their life in the foreign country, could they not be granted citizenship status instead of refugees? The church needs to lobby the government to ensure that the camps are specifically for emergency purposes and after a certain specified time, people should be integrated into the society and granted permits and treated with equality as residents/citizens.
The Church in Botswana is involved in the provision of Pastoral Care and basic needs for refugees in the camp. The Church also caters for the health needs of refugees through the provision of ARV’s. The refugees have been sensitized on the human trafficking issues at the dawn of the World Cup in South Africa. Workshops have been conducted with refugees on sexual and gender based violence. The following projects have been started at Dukwi Camp:
- Children’s Club – this is a sporting club for all children at the camp to help them develop skills and talents. The children are given food and bible studies at the end of their sporting activities.
- Tailoring Project – through the machines and materials from the Vicariate of Francistown, a skills training project for women has been started at the camp.
- Beads Project – the women are being trained to use scrap material to make beads that they sell and earn some money for their families.
- Catechetical and Bible Lessons – four people were trained to teach catechism and they prepare catechumens, both adults and children, for baptism and first Holy Communion.
The actual number of refugees in Mozambique is not really known but migrants residing in the country are many. The majority of migrants are mainly from Somalia and DRC as a result of war and political unrest. However, due to the Zimbabwean economic crack down, some Zimbabweans have manipulated the situation and gone to live as refugees in Mozambique and yet in actual fact they do not qualify for the refugee status. This is a cause for concern as the Zimbabweans are excluded from some benefits and rights enjoyed by their counterparts and they are mainly in Chimoio, a small town close to the eastern border of Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
The Church in Mozambique, through the help of Scalabrinian priests and sisters, is working to develop a pastoral plan for refugees and displaced people in Mozambique. They have established a good working relationship with the UNCHR as well as Refugee University students where they hold an annual discussion on different topics on migrants and refugees. They have cultural programmes for refugees which helps them to keep in touch with their culture even while living in foreign land.
In Nampula, the commission for refugees visits the International Centre to support the sub-commission and a parish for refugees has been established. In Chimoio, the national commission for refugees has met with the diocesan commission to map the way forward as to offer humanitarian assistance to Zimbabweans who have long lost their refugee status. But it is sad because in Zimbabwe, with the current dollarization system, things have improved and goods are available and the economy is on the recovery side.
The National Commission for refugees has been able to visit Mozambican nationals living and working in the mines of South Africa and there has been a long standing spiritual support for these people from the Mozambican Church. The commission succeeded to repatriate some refugees, i.e. 16 Pakistan nationals, one person from Papua New Guinea and one from Tanzania back to their countries. Through the help of some organisations such as Caritas Italia, women have been assisted to acquire skills in sewing and computers. Human trafficking is a major concern for the Church in Mozambique as it is reported that about 300 Mozambicans are trafficked into South Africa the majority of whom are women and children for sexual abuse and body parts exportation. The commission has embarked on sensitization programme against this social ill and it is also noted, with sadness, the ill treatment of Mozambican nationals by South African government whereby nine (9) buses carry deportees back into Mozambique every Thursday, but they still find them back into South Africa in search of employment.
Acknowldgements
The Refugees Department would like to acknowledge with gratitude the following:
- The funding partners of this project without whose help this Conference would not have been a success of special mention are The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, The Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
- The IMBISA Bishop President of Refugees, Bishop Mvemve, President of the Refugees Department in Mozambique, Bishop Adriano Langa and the Archbishop of Maputo Francisco Chimoio.
- Ms Marivic Garcia Mall for the input on Good work ethics.
- The national coordinators for their presentations and fruitful participation at the conference
- The Mozambique Bishops’ Conference for hosting the 15th Annual Refugees Conference and all who made this project come to fruition.
“GOOD WORK ETHICS IN THE PROVISION OF SERVICES TO REFUGEES, MIGRANTS, ASYLUM SEEKERS AND INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA.”