Challenges facing Rwandese asylum seekers in Uganda

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Date
2011-06
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Publisher
Kampala International University,College of Humanities and Social Science
Abstract
This study entitled “Challenges facing Rwandese asylum seekers in Uganda” aims at identifying and assessing challenges encountered by Rwandese asylum seekers in Uganda. The high rejection rate of Rwandese asylum seekers in Uganda and some loopholes in Uganda Refugee regimes dictated the selection of three specific objectives of the present work. The latter consist in establishing the enforcement of asylum seeking procedures by the government of Uganda, examining how Rwandese asylum seekers cope up with the challenges and establishing the role of UNHCR and other partnering NGO5. Questionnaire, interview and observation were used to interact with refugees and asylum officials in Uganda. The researcher interacted with 317 refugees comprising 245 men and 72 women. Besides, there were 7 officials selected using respectively probability technique and purposive sampling. The research used non-descriptive method to interact with Rwandese refugees! Asylum seekers and other stakeholders including Uganda Office of Prime Minister (Directorate of Refugees), UNHCR and its implementing partners. The study discovered that there is no clause in Uganda refugee legislation catering for special asylum seekers. It also found out that Uganda provides, to some extent, food, accommodation and other assistance. But it unearthed, inter alia, challenges of underfunding, the payment by asylum seekers of interpreters and translators at the Old Kampala police station and lengthy Refugee Status Determination. To these challenges, some recommendations have been proposed. They include, among others, the respect of the time frame for asylum application, operationalization of Refugee Appeal Board, effective and efficient harmonization and coordination of stakeholders’ activities, research and monitoring of the implementation of refugee regimes in Uganda
Description
A thesis Presented to the school of Postgraduate studies and research Kampala international university Kampala, Uganda. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Human Rights and Development
Keywords
Rwandese asylum seekers, Uganda
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