![[OPINION] Refugees in Africa faced bitter disappointments in 2016](https://i.headtopics.com/images/2019/3/19/ewnupdates/opinion-refugees-in-africa-faced-bitter-disappointments-in-2016-1108010622698971136.webp)
Five African countries made the list of the top 10 major refugee-hosting countries in the world this year.
This year, 471,000 refugees from the Central African Republic voted in presidential elections. They voted even though most of them live in exile in Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo and Chad, having fled an ongoing civil war which began in 2012.
The biggest drivers of these high numbers were conflict, political persecution and general instability. People fled to Malawi. From mid-December 2015 to February 2016 more than 6,000 Mozambicans arrived in Malawi. Today Malawi gives shelter to more than 25,000 asylum-seekers and refugees. Most are settled in Dzaleka camp, 35 kms from Lilongwe. Resources to assist new refugees are very limited.The presence of Nigeria’s militant Islamist group Boko Haram in the North East of the country has created huge instability: bombings, assassinations and abductions.
This has been heavily taxing on the host countries. The UNHCR requested $175 million for the Burundi humanitarian response in 2016. To date they have received only $4.7 million, or about 3% of what they asked for.After Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, Eritreans were the fourth most common group of refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in 2015.
The task is immense. There are increasing claims that the repatriation taking place is not “voluntary”. There are also concerns over the refugees’ safety due to ongoing insecurity in Somalia. Other obstacles to reintegration include limited personal connections to the country and a lack of access to land.While the challenges are great, 2016 did also have moments of spontaneous and genuine efforts to support the continent’s refugees – on both a large and a small scale.
And in September the UN General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. This is a huge step that expresses the political will of world leaders to protect the rights of refugees and migrants, and to share responsibility.
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