Lusaka, Zambia (PANA) – The Zambian government announced on Friday that it had granted permanent residency permits to 11 former Angolan refugees, marking the start of a process that will lead to 10,000 Angolans allowed to permanently live in the country.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has welcomed the development as a landmark in bringing hope and consolidating lasting solutions for former Angolan refugees who have opted to remain in Zambia after the end of the voluntary repatriation.
Zambia’s deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Nickson Chilangwa, presented the 11 permanent resident permits to the Angolans on Friday at a ceremony witnessed by the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Alexander Aleinikoff.
Chilangwa expressed Zambia’s commitment to the local integration, commending the governments of Denmark, Japan, Canada and the United States for contributing initial funds to the local integration programme.
The Deputy Minister urged other donors to come forward in supporting of the programme by funding socio-economic developments in the hosting and resettlement areas.
Zambia has pledged to locally integrate 10,000 eligible former Angolan refugees and 4,000 Rwandans. So far, close to 6,000 Angolans who applied for local integration, under various immigration categories, have been screened and are eligible.
Some of the eligible Angolans have been living in Zambia for 48 years. In December 2012, the Zambian government granted permanent residency to three Angolans from the same family to mark the start of the local integration process.
The UN deputy High Commissioner for Refugees, Aleinikoff, who is in the country to meet with authorities regarding the implementation of the Strategic Framework for the Local Integration of Former Refugees in Zambia, described the occasion as very important in moving the local integration programme forward, and urged the Angolan and Zambian governments to scale-up the processing of necessary documentation for the issuance of the residency permits to all eligible Angolans.
Zambia currently hosts 54,046 refugees and other persons of concern.
