Sun, 01 Oct 2017 09:28:30 +0000
By KALOBWE BWALYA
THE number of people seeking asylum from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into the country has increased and government has tightened security in all border points of entry to avoid unscrupulous people entering, says Home Affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo.
The minister also said the government had also placed screening teams at all the points of entry.
Mr Kampyongo explained that the number of refugees entering the country had reached over 3,000 and that the number was growing.
He said his ministry was working in hand with the Ministry of Health and other health organisations to ensure that refugees were screened before entering the country especially that they were coming from Ebola prone areas.
Mr Kampyongo said the screening exercise was an on-going process, and thanked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCR) for working with Government to ensure that the humanitarian’s crisis was addressed.
He warned of stern action against individuals breaking the law with impunity in the name of seeking asylum in Zambia as it was a country of laws.
He said police officers were working tirelessly to ensure that no criminal activities was committed by asylum seekers including the citizens.
“As we speak now we have received in excess of 3,000 refugees and more are still trickling in, but we have screening teams from joint security wings and the ministry of health to ensure that we don’t allow undesired elements to take advantage of the situation,” said M r Kampyongo.
Mr Kampyongo observed that there was urgent need to start preparing new sites so that the refugees were kept in one place. This would ensure that once the situation normalized, no one would run away from being repatriated.
President Lungu expressed his concern when he attended a high level side meeting called by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the SADC Troika to discuss the situation in the DRC last week.
