Zambia reaffirms refugee open-door policy

Zambian President Edgar Lungu has reaffirmed his government's commitment to maintaining an open door policy for refugees with regard to access to employment and education, his office said on Wednesday.

Lungu said in remarks delivered when he addressed a high-level plenary meeting on addressing large movements of refugees and migrants at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York that his government had put in place measures for refugees to access work and engage in businesses of their choice.

"We are confident that that these efforts will allow us to transform the widely-held perception of a refugee as a burden to a realization that a refugee or migrant is an asset to a country in which they choose to live," he said.

The government, he said, would double its efforts to provide education to refugee children in the settlements, adding that an educated refugee had better prospects.

Zambia has been a longstanding home to refugees from neighboring countries in the region and Lungu said the first refugee settlement was established in the country in 1966 and the second one in 1971.

At the peak of conflicts in the region, Zambia hosted more than 300,000 refugees in six refugee camps, four of which have since been closed, he added.

According to him, more than 210,000 refugees were assisted to return back to their countries between 2008 and 2012.

The government has also integrated 23,000 former Angolan refugees in communities following the expiry of their refugee status while plans to integrated 4,000 former Rwandan refugees were underway.

The government, he said, has provided land for the settlement of former refugees for farming and other income generating activities. Endit