IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED AT REFUGEE CAMP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000586 SIPDIS SIPDIS AF/S FOR B. NEULING NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE USAID/AFR/SA FOR E. LOKEN PRM/AF FOR M. LANGE E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREF EAID ZI SUBJECT: IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED AT REFUGEE CAMP Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i., Eric T. Schultz for reasons 1.5 b/d -------------- Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) During poloff's May 10 visit to the remote Tongogara Refugee Camp, home to approximately 2,300 of the 12,300 refugees Zimbabwe hosts, UNHCR officials lamented budget challenges to camp operations and outlined areas of need, such as water distribution and opportunities for self-sufficiency. The camp provides the refugees, most of whom are from the Great Lakes region, with all basic needs. The camp will require expansion if the GOZ follows through on indications that it intends to move the remainder of its refugees into the camp. UNHCR officials reported good relations with the GOZ. End summary. -------------- Background -------------- ¶2. (U) Tongogara Refugee Camp was established during the 1980s to host refugees from Mozambique. It is located near Chipinge in the southeast of the country. The camp closed in 1995, but UNHCR reopened the camp in 1999 to house an influx of refugees from the Great Lakes region. As of the date of the visit, the camp was home to 2,322 refugees, primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo (1,484),Rwanda (438), and Burundi (346). There were also small numbers of refugees from Sudan, Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda. The GOZ Department of Social Welfare and the NGO World Vision manage the camp, and there are three UNHCR staff on-site. -------------- Tongogara's Budget Woes -------------- ¶3. (U) UNHCR Chief of Mission Girma Gebre Kristos told poloff that camp facilities provided a relatively good standard of living compared to other refugee camps but were far from ideal. UNHCR wished to make but could not budget for several needed improvements. UNHCR Zimbabwe's 2006 budget was cut by 20%, creating additional shortfalls. Four-digit inflation and a more than 100% gap between the official foreign exchange rate at which UN authorities must access local funds and the so-called parallel exchange rate at which imported goods and services are priced further strained UNHCR resources. Girma said UNHCR was seeking additional donor commitments to make the desired improvements. -------------- Basic Needs Met -------------- ¶4. (U) The camp's structures are mostly permanent. UNHCR added some semi-permanent structures when the camp had to expand quickly to accommodate refugees who lost homes in Zimbabwe during Operation Restore Order, the GOZ's so-called urban clean-up campaign that the UN estimated displaced 700,000 people. There are two wells with electric pumps that distribute water to taps throughout the camp and one backup well with a diesel pump for use during the frequent electricity outages. The water distribution system was built when the camp was first opened, and it is now corroding. The water has recently tested positive for e. coli. Some, but not all buildings have electricity. ¶5. (U) In addition to accommodation, UNHCR provides food, health care, and schooling at the camp. UNHCR provides monthly rations to camp residents, including commodities and HARARE 00000586 002 OF 003 hygiene products. The refugees have vegetable gardens near their homes to supplement their rations. UNHCR and World Vision also fund a well-supplied on-site clinic with five nurses providing basic health care, child immunizations, and treatment for the camp's most common ailments, such as malaria. The clinic also accepts Zimbabweans from the community surrounding the camp. Patients with more serious needs are referred to a clinic in nearby Chipinge or the regional hospital in Mutare. The camp offers a half-day preschool and a primary school. About 20% of the students at the primary school are children from the surrounding community. Previously, UNHCR sent children of secondary school age to boarding schools but now, due to prohibitively high costs at boarding schools, supports a nearby Catholic secondary school, where refugees make up approximately 50% of the student body. The preschool building is crumbling, poorly ventilated, and cannot accommodate all pupils. The secondary school suffers from a shortage of classroom space. All three schools have long wish lists for electricity, equipment, and furniture. UNHCR is able to provide university scholarships to just a few secondary school graduates. -------------- Self-Sufficiency the Aim -------------- ¶6. (U) Girma said the camp currently provided refugee families with all basic needs, but UNHCR was striving to create opportunities for self-sufficiency. The camp includes a "Fifth Avenue," a strip of stalls where refugees operate small stores and businesses. World Vision has also begun a pilot agricultural project on 20 hectares of land just outside the camp. Two hundred families were allocated small plots to grow cash crops. Camp management plans to allocate some of the plots from an expanded program to local residents, to build goodwill and ensure that the local community has a stake in protecting the land from wandering cattle. -------------- Camp Expansion May be Needed -------------- ¶7. (C) Girma said the camp was likely to require additional upgrades. Much of the camp's infrastructure, such as the water system, needed improvement. Many individuals had lived at the camp for years and had poor prospects for repatriation. The majority of residents were from Kivu in the DRC, which remained unstable. Recently, UNHCR assessed that Rwanda was safe for repatriation, but Rwandan refugees -- the "hard core" refugees, who fled this far -- were reluctant to return. Some camp residents were eligible for resettlement, but the majority would remain in the camp for the foreseeable future. Girma said refugees also faced increasing resentment from local residents as Zimbabwe's economy deteriorated and resources became scarcer. ¶8. (C) Girma said the camp might face a sudden influx of refugees from Zimbabwe's cities. A total of 13,850 refugees -- including Tongogara's residents -- were registered in the country. Although Girma suspected that many had moved on to South Africa, several thousand remained in the country outside of the camp, most living without legal status in cities where they were eking out a living. Previously, the GOZ took no active steps to seek out these refugees, but GOZ tolerance appeared to be waning. Police were conducting periodic sweeps of urban centers for refugees and illegal immigrants. The GOZ refugee committee was also becoming increasingly reluctant to grant work permits to skilled professionals, even in areas such as medicine, where Zimbabwe is experiencing a shortage of qualified professionals. Girma HARARE 00000586 003 OF 003 was concerned that the GOZ might start an operation aimed at relocating all of the refugees to the camp or refugees would relocate on their own due to the deteriorating economy. The temporary expansion of the camp during Operation Restore Order had posed significant problems. A greater expansion would create a crisis. -------------- Good Relations with GOZ -------------- ¶9. (C) Despite signs of a potential crackdown on refugees, Girma said that UNHCR's relationship with the GOZ was very good. Unlike many countries, Zimbabwe had a very clear Refugee Act and a specific Commission for Refugees that made asylum decisions and granted work permits to selected skilled workers. When police detained refugees living in cities, they always informed UNHCR immediately so the refugees could be relocated to Tongogara. There had been claims that refugees had been abused during Operation Restore Order. Girma said the refugees living in areas affected by the Operation indeed had been displaced, but they had all been relocated to Tongogara and refugees had not been targeted during the Operation. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶10. (C) With the rapidly deteriorating economy and deepening GOZ insecurity over prospective urban unrest, Girma's fears of an influx of refugees may indeed be realized. We understand that UNHCR Zimbabwe should be able to access emergency funds in such an event. In the meantime, it is clear that without some improvements, particularly in the water distribution system, the camp risks a serious deterioration in health and living standards. Post has submitted to PRM a proposal for World Vision to expand and improve the water system and encourages PRM to give the proposal its highest consideration. SCHULTZ