The ministry of disaster management and refugee affairs, the UNHCR and UN World Food Program issued the final results of the registration of 57,641 refugees in Rwanda; as one of solutions over possible ration cuts.
These results are published following the completion of the 2011-2012 re-registration and verification exercise which was carried out in all refugee locations in Rwanda.
According to the Permanent secretary in the Ministry of disaster management and refugees affairs, Antoine Ruvebana, The statistics were established with the consideration of age, gender and location.
These locations include the three camps hosting the protracted refugee caseload, namely Gihembe, Nyabiheke and Kiziba camps, as well as the new camp of Kigeme which was established in June 2012 to host the new refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The total number is 57,641 refugees. Although, concerns of these refugees food cutting are maintained, but the WFP says the projected cut of 50percent could positively change.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Disaster Management and refugees Affairs asserts that new results will help all the partners in their everyday tasks. “For the first time in Rwanda, the registration of refugees was carried out through biometrics and finger-printing of every individual. This has avoided false figures that we used to have. In addition, this will help us to establish our planning using real results.”
“The revised statistics will enable all partners who work in the camps to have up-to-date, accurate and detailed information on all refugees in Rwanda.” Ruvebana noted.
The comprehensive registration exercise which aimed at re-registering all refugees in Rwanda as well as verifying their identity and profile, began in July 2011 and was completed in may 2012.
Following the renewed influx of Congolese refugees to Rwanda which begun in the western of Rwanda on April 27 this year, the registration team continued to list new refugees at Nkamira transit centre.
Even though all the partners for the management of these refugees seem to show a positive reaction for the refugees’ welfare, concerns of food shortage in the coming days have not stopped.
The United Nations World Food Program recently warned that it would have to cut rations by 50percent for those thousands of refugees.
The WFP representative Abdulaye Balde has said the problem persists, but new figures can positively change the projected cut.
“We have tried as much as we can to avoid cutting, probably the question is how high the cutting will be, but we will still need to cut. Maybe the projected cut will not be 50percent anymore.
It could be 40percent; it could be 30percent or even 25percent. After reviewing all these new figures and our own management statistics, we will know how big the cut will be”.
On this new refugee’s statistics’ announcement, all the stakeholders were represented at this event. The Ministry of disaster management and refugees affairs, the UNHCR and WFP agreed on these figures and developed and agreed on mechanisms for continuous registration of all refugees.
The total number of the final statistics show there are currently 57,641 refugees living in Rwanda. Of these, 57,216 are from DRC and 55.7percent are women. Children aged 0 to 17 make up 57.3percent of the total population.
There are five refugee camps in Rwanda. Gihembe which shelter 14,135 refugees, Kiziba with 19,954, Nyabiheke has 11,423; Kigeme 13,535 and Nkamira transit camp with 663. There is no refugee camp in Kigali, but the Rwandan capital shelters 1,931 refugees who have jobs and live among Kigali dwellers.
There are also other several countries whose supposed citizens are refugees in Rwanda, namely:
Angola: 4, Burundi: 361, Chad: 7, DRC: 57,216, Eritrea: 1, Ethiopia: 3, Kenya: 1, Somalia: 8, Uganda: 4, and Rwanda: 36
The reason why Rwanda appears on the given list of refugees, 36 Rwandans are the legally married Rwandan spouses of recognized refugees or children of refugee holders of Rwandan IDs who refused to surrender the ID and whose cases are pending.
A number of 278 of these refugees are asylum seekers and their request is under consideration by The National Reconciliation Commission.