PUBLIC Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Priscah Mupfumira has revealed that Zimbabwe is hosting South African and Syrian refugees at Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Although there were many other nationals with the Democratic Republic of Congo having the majority of refugees at Tongogara, it is the South Africans that brewed the shocker considering that millions of Zimbabweans are flocking to the neighbouring country seeking greener pastures and escaping from political violence.
In an interview with NewsDay on Wednesday during an inter-agency appeal for donations for thousands of Mozambican nationals fleeing clashes between the government and Renamo, Mupfumira said the South Africans had gone through normal vetting and, as a result, qualified for refugees.
“We have a significant number from Burundi, Rwanda and we have two from Syria, one from former Yugoslavia and two from South Africa who are at the refugee camp,” she said.
Asked if they were from any political party, Mupfumira said they did not consider political affiliation when taking in refugees.
“We are not into political parties, but all I can say is that we have two South Africans and it’s a process because, like I said, we go through committees and they will go through them to vet and if we find that there is no reason for them to be there, we hand them over to Home Affairs,” she said.
Mupfumira also said the country was ready to welcome more refugees from civil war-ravaged Syria.
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“It’s not about applying. People just come pitching at one of our borders and the ministries responsible for vetting will do so to find out if they are genuine asylum seekers and if they are, we send them to Tongogara while we do profiling,” she said.
“We understand there might be some criminals running away from their countries, so we go through a selection system and profiling to make sure that those who are not genuine refugees we will hand them over to Home Affairs or Immigration to deal with.”
Over three million Zimbabweans are economic and political refugees in the United Kingdom, South Africa, United States and other countries.
