ABSTRACT The Protracted Refugee Situation (PRS) in Nakivale camp in Uganda continues unabated, with the camp hosting more than 100,000 refugees from ten different countries who fled their home country in search of safety. The camp is run by the collaboration of the Uganda’s Office of Prime Minister (OPM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Eradicating the Protracted Refugee Situation in Nakivale Camp – Fredrick Shema
The issue of PRS is linked to the weak policies that are set up in the camp that do not equally favor these refugees. The UNHCR and OPM need to improve the Self-Reliance Strategy and create working groups to educate refugees about voluntarily repatriation as well as providing humanitarian assistance to refugees willing to return back home. They also need to resettle the vulnerable refugee populations to a third country and collaborate with other stakeholders at the camp, including the Refugee Law Project (RLP) to handle issues of land policies.
BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW For the purposes of this review, a Protracted Refugee Situation (PRS) is one where refugees find themselves in a long-lasting and intractable state of limbo. After years in exile, a refugee in this situation is often unable to break free from enforced reliance on external assistance.1 The Nakivale refugee camp is located in the western part of Uganda, Isingiro district more than 100 miles away from Mbarara, the second largest city in Uganda. Nakivale camp, a home to over 100,000 refugees fleeing from over 10 countries, is one of the oldest refugee camps 1
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Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, “Protracted Refugee Situations” (EC/54/ SC/CRP.14, Standing Committee 30th meeting, June 2004), 1.
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