Norwegian Refugee Council offers Platform to Better Urban Refugee Response.

todayOctober 27, 2022


John Dibaba

Norwegian Refugee Council has asked stakeholders in West Nile to collaborate and cooperate in the response to urban refugee challenges. In a stakeholder consultation in Arua city, NRC urged the different partners to participate in the review of the 2006 Refugee and the drafting of the refugee policy.
Juliet Aryoma, West Nile acting NRC Area Manager, says that there is need to plan for the urban refugees and this may be possible if their number is established. “As NRC, we believe that if everyone is involved, the response to urban refugees will be better.”

During the consultation, the speaker of Arua city council, Teddy Yakko, who represented the city Mayor called upon partners to equally extend services to refugees at urban places. Yako says that such urban refugees exert pressure on the existing services that are planned for the nationals. “We understand that it’s not easy to be a refugee, but partners need to plan for those in urban areas”.

Jena Toma, Deputy refugee desk offer at OPM, says that the current refugee act, allows refugees to stay in urban areas with the consent of the local authorities. She added that those who want changes in the law should participate in the act review so that their views can be incorporated.
At the start of 2022, Uganda was already hosting over 1.5 million refugees, making it one of the most important refugee host countries in the world and the largest on the African continent.


Share this article

Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Facebook
Contacts

APPS & STREAMING