GERMANY has given Zambia a £10 million grant to support refugees’ programmes in the country. And Japan has provided US$500,000 to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) for projects to protect and assist refugees and other persons of concern in Zambia. Officiating at this year’s World Refugee Day yesterday, Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo said the German grant will go towards the implementation of the water, sanitation and hygiene project for Meheba, Mantapala and Mayukwayukwa refugee settlements. Mr Kampyongo said the grant will also cater for Lusaka’s Makeni Refugee Camp.

He said Zambia has continued to record an influx of refugees and is currently hosting more than 80,700. “Over 20,000 of these are former refugees from Angola and Rwanda, while most of the over 45,000 refugees and asylum seekers are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi as well as Somalia,” Mr Kampyongo said. “Majority of the refugees and former refugees reside in Meheba, Mayukwayukwa and Mantapala. In addition, close to 16,000 live in urban areas.”

He called for more donor support from UNHCR and other stakeholders. “Zambia will continue to play her role in providing international protection to those in need in line with the refugees’ conventions to which the country is party,” Mr Kampyongo said. And Japanese representative Toshio Sugiura said Japan has provided US$500,000 to the UNHCR for projects aimed at protecting and assisting refugees and other persons of concern in Zambia. “Japan has further provided US$800,000 to United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security for its project of promoting human security through sustainable resettlement in Zambia,” Mr Sugiura said. M e a n w h i l e , U N H C R representative Pierrine Aylara said Zambia currently hosts about 81,000 persons of concern and has continued to receive small numbers of asylum seekers from the DRC and other countries.

“The recent peaceful transfer of power and reconciliation in the DRC is worth commending as it has prevented a massive influx into neighbouring countries like Zambia,” Ms Aylara said. Commemorations of this year’s World Refugee Day were held under the theme, ‘Take a step with refugees’. A n d a t P a r l i a m e n t , M r Kampyongo said refugees are free to marry Zambians if they so wish as long as there is love between the two people. M r K a m p y o n g o s a i d Government cannot stop two people who are in love from marrying or living together.

He was responding to a followup question in Parliament from Luangeni MP Charles Zulu, who wanted to know if refugees are allowed to marry Zambians. This was after Mr Kampyongo updated the House on the refugees situation in the country