Abstract
The purpose of this research was to delve into the challenges that refugees in protracted refugee situations in Uganda face under the current refugee progressive policies that guarantee refugees the right to work, the freedom of movement, the freedom to establish businesses, and access to land. We used Focus Group Discussions to collect data from refugees in Arua city/District. The findings showed that despite refugee-friendly policies enacted and implemented by the Ugandan government; protracted refugees are confronted with challenges such as access to post-secondary school education, labor market integration, youth unemployment, high youth crime rate within the settlement areas and outside, the lack of elderly support, congestion in the settlement areas, urban integration challenges, overstraining of the environment and unpredictable relationship with the host communities. These challenges stand as a bottleneck to the promotion of the “Self-Reliance Strategy” and the integration of refugees in Uganda Key words: Refugees, refugee challenges, protracted refugee situations, Uganda.
Highlights
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), protracted refugee situations are situations where refugees have spent 5 years or more living in the host country (Milner and Loescher, 2011; Milner, 2014)
A village is headed by a Refugee Welfare Committee 1 (RWC1), a cluster is headed by a Refugee Welfare Committee 2 (RWC2), the RWC 2 reports to the Refugee Welfare Committee 3 (RWC3) which is the overall leadership committee of the settlement
Refugee challenges grow from the immediate challenges that the refugees are confronted with in their initial settlement in host communities; upon being settled in a settlement or upon entering the host country, refugees aspire to live like the natives and build their dreams as the nationals do
Summary
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), protracted refugee situations are situations where refugees have spent 5 years or more living in the host country (Milner and Loescher, 2011; Milner, 2014). The UNHCR specifies that it involves at least 25,000 refugees from the same country staying in a single country for a period of 5 or more years. Conflicts or civil wars account for a large number of refugees in the world (Kawaguchi, 2020; Lischer, 2017; Salehyan and Gleditsch, 2006). In Africa, the refugee crisis has increased since most African countries attained independence; this is because the continent has witnessed several conflicts (Blavo, 2019; Ogata, 2000).
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