KIRYADONGO SETTLEMENT

INTRODUCTION TO KIRYADONGO REFUGEE SETTLEMENT

“I'm Catula Pross, assistant protection officer. Right now I'm talking to you as the officer in charge in the absence of Patricia, due to the leave of office.Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement is, I think, area-wise, is among the smallest, but population wise it's not that small because we have about 73,000 refugees as of this month and asylum seekers. Of the refugees, only about 30 are asylum seekers. The majority, actually 99%, is from South Sudan. These ones mainly fled South Sudan from 2013, that was the most recent, if I may call it that,the recent influx. Before that we had another population here, which was mixed, but also mainly,then they were being called the Sudanese because it had been separated from the North Sudan. A few from other countries, Congo, Burundi, Rwanda. From 2007, it had a boost, the Kenyan refugees.”

“As of today, following the repatriation to Kenya in 2015, we have what we call the old case load, the older population, which has been here since that time of 1990. There are about 4,050. Kiryandongo was opened in mid 1990, I think it was around July. Although there were some few refugees here before then, but officially it was opened in July, 1990. It was open due to the relocation of LRA, Lord's Resistance Army, which was attacking the north area, northern Ugandan area, including Kitgum where there was a settlement there called Achol-Pii which was, I think, 100% inhabited by the Sudanese then, the South Sudanese. Though they were relocated here for their safety, because they were being getting attacked a lot by the LRA. That's how it started to be recognized as a settlement.”  

“In Uganda we have two land ownership, if I may call it that, for refugees. There is where the people give land to host refugees, and there is where the government designates land. Kiryandongo is a government designated land type of settlement. Uganda, we don't have camps. That one is also another difference. We have settlements. People live like any other national in that area. Kiryandongo is a settlement. Governing of the settlement is usually by government of Uganda and the office of the prime minister and UNHRCR, we offer support to government. World Food Program gives food, and other partners come in with their different technical expertise.”

“Kiryandongo has two main ranches. We call them ranches, they would generally be like zones. We have ranch one and ranch 37. There is also ranch 18 B, which is still being assessed to see if it can host some refugees also, but for now we have only two and 17 clusters. Clusters would be like villages. That's what we have in Kiryandongo. The total land area that is inhabited right now is 27 square miles. But if we include 18 B, it would be 31 square miles. That's basically that. UNHCR, we do the mandated international protection.”

“We provide assistance, like I said, but we also have partners who bring in assistance. But every partner who comes in, of course, needs to work through OPM, and sometimes with UNHCR. I say sometimes because sometimes we fund those partners and sometimes we don't. You will hear people say implementing partner, operational partner. We no longer say that. For us, everybody's a partner whether we are funding you or not funding you. The two terms mainly meant implementing, basically UNHCR is giving you money to do your business, or operational, you are coming in and you have your money, but we agree you can do A, B, C, D. That's where we are as of now. That is, I think, that summary.”  

“I can give you the bearings. Obvious I think we are very close to the main road. We are not near any border point, and sometimes, of course, it's a question, how do refugees come to go into? This is almost central. It's quite a distance from the border points. The categories of refugees we've hosted, the Kenyans were also relocated here. They didn't just find themselves here. They were moved from their border point to here, the same with South Sudanese who are mainly brought in from Achoripi. Then the rest, the current ones we have now, we believe they had their reasons for coming here because of that location, because others maybe knew before they repatriated in 2006 plus. They have reasons. Others maybe we believe they come for education, because this is a bit more developed than Northern settlements, so they come to access better education. It is on the main road from South Sudan to Kampala. They have their different reasons for coming here. But we believe that mainly it's because of family unifications, past time they were here before, so they are more comfortable in a place they know. Education mainly plays a big big role in that. Then, of course, the accessibility to those movements.”

PROCESS OF RECEIVING AND SETTLING REFUGEES

“Now, one thing I need to point out is Kiryandongo hasn't been receiving since September, 2016. It was declared closed, because, at that time, the land we had was almost exhausted. Because it's a settlement type of setting, each family that is received is given piece of land. If you don't have land, it's difficult to receive people. In September, 2016, it was closed. When they come for visit, Kiryandongo is far, they find their way, or, in very rare cases, they're transferred here. We have a reception center where they come in, they are given hot means. They are basically given the basic need. Basic, as I mean soap, water, a basin, some few key basic non-food items to help them settle in. Then they are given a hot meal for three days as registration and all these other processes take place.”  

“After they have registered, they are given cards, they are recognized as refugees as well, they are then relocated to their different plots of land. When they are located, they're issued a standard shelter construction kit. They do their own construction and they settle in like any other human being. When they are relocated, then they are now transferred from the hot meal to a month ration which is given by WFP. For Kiryandongo,where we are no longer receiving new arrivals, we have people who come. Sometimes they are located, for instance, on prediction grounds. They've been staying, maybe, at that border, and for some reason it's considered they shouldn't stay near the border. They need to come much more inland or far from where they come. Those ones can be brought in. Sometimes they come in when they're already registered, or already even given a sign up. Sometimes when they are not registered and they come in with their cover stories, we can do the registration here. Even if they are registered, we still do some other level of registration, because they would be registered maybe with a different address, but now they need a county of asylum or place of asylum address. There are some levels of registration we still undertake. When they come in they are still put at the reception center where they are received.”

“Currently, because of COVID, of course, they undergo the quarantine of 14 days. Then, sometimes also depending on where they're coming from, we do that test. There's also a medical place. During those days we have a medical team also on the ground to do that. By the time they are taken to the community, they are considered safe and free of disease. That's basically what happens. The hot meal, once again, is also given by WFP. What we do as UNHCR, we only provide the support towards preparing it. The last group we received was about 70 something formerly M23 soldiers who came in this year from around April. They came in around Easter there, yes. That's basically what happens in the receiving process.” 

“The registration is, of course, biometrically done. First of all, registration is solely under the government. We've given them training in the past and now OPM fully takes on the registration. We only offer technical support for them, and, of course, the material support to do that, for instance, ration cards, printing and all of that. Generally, the registration is a government policy side. So far we are not complaining. Our legal land is under OPM. It's OPM that does the registration and also the land allocation. For us, we come in to do the assistance, giving the [INAUDIBLE] and that. Like in any other population, there are always those people who are very vulnerable and they cannot manage on their own. For such, we work with our partners. This time it is DRC huts which does the projection and we construct for them houses, more shelters.”

MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES AMONG REFUGEES

“Generally speaking, if anyone has been in a place of trauma, they get a lot of things when you receive new arrivals. We sometimes receive people with physical wounds, which would be easier to see and quick to treat, if I may use that term. But there is also a group, usually some individuals who have mental problems that are not easily visible or easily treated, if I may say that, because they manifest in different ways. Sometimes you find that with such groups you may find people who are very anxious. We find people who are – I don't know, they have a phobia. They're afraid. For instance, some children are visibly very sad, maybe they've lost their parents or they don't know where the parents are. Then, of course, there are those survivors. We call them survivors of sexual violence and torture. Some of those ones, they are depressed. You always get those, whatever.”  

“Then, of course, you have people who manifest through substance abuse. You find a population has a population has a serious warp of people becoming serious alcoholics, serious serious alcoholics. You have people who are mentally ill. Sometimes, of course, you don't know if it's because of that trauma or whatever, or they were like that before. But you also have such. I think in lay language, that's what I can say. But the scientific whatever, I know they use words like bipolar. Of course, there are people who are epileptic. Those ones I wouldn't put it on the trauma related, but, of course, it's included objectively. Then, of course, they use terms like PTSD, Post-traumatic stress disorders, that one appears a lot in our protection work. We usually provide that. Although of recent we are being asked to tell, how did come? Who diagnosed that? When it becomes a bit scientific, I am not. But those are the cases just for the layman's assessment, what I I know some of my people. I think the issues manifest in different ways. Some just come and talk and talk, then after some time you realize, "Okay, I don't think this person is okay." Then we refer them to partners and they start treatment. Others are identified from the communities by the partners. We've come across them, because, as protection, people usually approach us. Because I think a lot of our job is to talk and listen. They usually approach as and, based on my layman's assessment, I sometime refer. Well, sometimes I feel even things pass through because you don't know what you're looking out for.”

UNHCR’S ROLE AND PATNERSHIP

“Internationally, refugee prediction is the role of governments, of the host governments. But sometimes you find that governments are not able to take on that role fully because funding, because of inability. You know Africa, sometimes we are not able. When such happens, governments invites UNHCR, because it's international mandated to take care of refugees, asylum seekers under the, what we call, other persons of concern, to fill in that gap. When we come in, especially in Uganda where I have explained the setup, where refugees have settled like any other refugees, we don't only concentrate on refugees. We also include the host communities, what we call host communities.”  

“Now, the definition of host communities varies, because some people would say, for instance, Kiryandongo district is a host community. Then, in some areas they say, "No, we are going to take only Mutunda," because that's where the settlement sits. It may vary depending on the context of that area. In Kiryandongo now we also include the population of the, right now, host subcounties, which is Bweyale town council and Mutunda. Of recent the district has also been saying that the settlement also touches a bit on Kiryandongo sub county. But for now that's still, I think, under discussion. What we come in to do is in lay man's language we do what government would have done in a normal host community. The services that government delivers is what we deliver. We just come in to fill a gap of government.”  

“The only thing that we do that government doesn't do is the international protection, because these people are not Ugandans. They are from another country. We maintain the links with host countries to see is it safe enough for them to return? Is any support needed there? For instance, you have students coming in with an Arabic, let's say, senior four certificate, but that person wants to continue education. Uganda is an Anglophone country, they are not going to just open their doors and start taking in Arabic. UNHCR would fill in that gap to see how you would link this child, who has come in with an Arabic background, into the Anglophone set up. We get in, we go into the equation of the certificates, equating their certificates to Ugandan system. We get in to see which level actually they are at, because sometimes the education systems are totally different, where to place this child, how to continue making sure that this person access education. That's some of the ways we come in. We call it general assistance, and it covers everything a human being would need. That's what we do.” 

“What happens with UNHCR, we work through partners who have the technical expertise, because we do not have it all. We acknowledge that we do not have it all, so we tap into the expertise of partners to come in and fill those gaps. For instance, we are a refugee agency, but we are not a health agency, WHO is. Even among the UN we have different whatever. When we get to health, we need to get a partner whose strength is health. We get into a partnership with that together with government and have, for instance, IRC now managing our health systems. Then, we do that for all the areas, water, protection. Even protection where it is our key, to spread the risk, may I say, we still need to get a partner to do that. We just offered guidelines on how it should be, the sustainable operating procedures, memorandums of understanding, that's how we usually work. I don't know if it has expressed the role,it is actually to bring structure into the whole process so that things flow.” 

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON REFUGEE COMMUNITIES

“Personally, I have only managed to sit in this office this week. It's that's bad. I'm a protection person, I'm actually the head of protection in Kiryandongo, but since March 2020 I was not able to interact with refugees. If you know protection, it is basically interaction with refugees on a daily, I was not able to do that, because we have systems and whatever and I was put on teleworking, underlying medical causes and all that, medical reasons. I was not able to do that. I had to do everything from my home. It's extremely frustrating. Extremely. You can't talk on phone. Even as you came in I was trying to connect with a refugee. The phone I was on, I was trying to connect with a refugee and I can't. The network is crazy, I couldn't hear half of what he was trying to tell me. I still haven't been able to attend to her problem because I don't even know.”  

“Under normal circumstances, I would be out there. It was quite a difficult. But what we did as UNHCR, we maintained presence in the ground. In the field we still managed to find ways of reaching out to refugees. Like I said, we had phones. We had, what we call, FRM feedback mechanisms, response mechanisms, so that we can get ways of communicating, keeping in touch with our communities. We enhanced community structures. We worked with the leaders, the community leaders, and gave them smart phones. We reached that level of giving smart phones, ensuring they have some data and airtime. We gave out a lot of bicycles to refugee communities so that they can move out in their communities easier than us. We worked, of course, with radios. We did a lot of radios through partners, of course, because, like I mentioned, for us our radio communication, media communication, is very complex, but we did it through partners.” 

“There are some things which we could do without physical contact with refugees, we did. For registration, we stopped the biometric registration. The fingerprint registrations, the Iris scans, we stopped that. But we continued doing registration based on their own photographs. We reduced numbers. For instance, at the registration you would always find that place fully packed, we limited it. We would limit in, I think, at first, only 20. We found ways of doing that. Of course health continued. They had nothing to do. They continued, and, unfortunately, they were badly hit. The good news is that we didn't lose anyone. We didn't lose anyone here in Kiryandongo. At least we didn't lose anyone, but we got very many positives. It would interrupt programs.”  

“We started doing things virtually, like refugee health, the refugee engagement forum, they have the quarterly meetings nationally. We did all those virtually now. The refugee leaders would come here. We would connect them in different rooms. We put this perplex all over. We would bring refugees, refugees would sit on our desks, we give them laptops and they connect with whatever. I think since March 2020 they've gone the first day, I think, last month to do a physical again. But the meetings continued. The meetings and the engagements continued. You all know, we did the Teams, the Zoom. It was crazy. I sat on my butt for the past, I don't know, many months. I was telling your colleague today I've developed knee problems because I was usually an outside person. My lower back now, actually I'm due for an MRI to see if I'm – it's crazy this COVID. I put on, I don't know, six kilos. I've not added any kilos in the past 20 years. I put on six kilos because I sat. I've never sat this long in my entire life. It affected us generally, it affects everybody.” 

“Of course the movements, we saw increasing in refugees also getting frustrated, the movements. The children being left alone. We have had a lot of children being abandoned. Maybe not abandoned abandoned, but maybe affected by lock downs, the parents were away, so we had to find ways of making sure these children are surviving, especially with food. But now when it comes to life, we've seen a high increase now in child pregnancies, teenage pregnancies. They've been affected. We don't know, school we've had a lot of youth being very aggressive. We've had several serious fights that led to fatalities. I think we lost four youth in fights during the lockdown, yes, about four. The first one two and then others, four people, four or five. There was also another two that died. Basically, it was not okay. I don't think that was normal. They usually fight, yes, but I think sometimes it would be frustration, lack of what to do, so they do what they were born seeing happening, they fight. We are still going through it, but it hasn't been easy.”  

“We've also had some suicide cases and attempted suicides, which was not common for Kiryandongo. But we also saw some numbers going up. Sometimes, of course, you never know the actual reasons, but some of them where we have followed up were related to the lock down, a sense of hopelessness, people don't know what to do. There was one who committed suicide in Bweyale because the person who was taking care of them in Canada, who was sending them some money, told them that they have COVID. The moment this person here knew, he committed suicide. I think, to him, COVID meant they're dead, they're going to die. If they die, what happens to them? Those are the few we know, what about what we don't know. It must be quite a lot out there. We will get to know, I think, when we are now freely interacting. But for now I have a feeling there is quite a lot we don't know yet. The way communities are, they try to manage on their own.”  

“Even the teenage pregnancies, we get to know either during the antinatal clinics, that's when we get to know the numbers have increased. Or when this so-called wife now gets problems with whatever, that's when you get to know that actually at 15 now she's married. I'm sure within the next two years, three, we are now going to start seeing the impact of COVID. I think now we don't know yet. I don't think we know. We have now the tip of the iceberg, but we haven't really got to know what is actually happening on the ground. We will know when they get problems now, when they come and starting, "During COVID maybe we didn't have food and now my family–" Stories will start coming. But right now I think we don't know the gravity of that matter. That's what I believe.”