Maravi

25,000 Zimbabweans fleeing South Africa head for Zambia

25,000 Zimbabweans fleeing South Africa head for Zambia
By Bivan Saluseki
Wednesday May 28, 2008 [04:00]

ABOUT 25,000 Zimbabweans fleeing the xenophobic violence in South Africa are headed for Zambia. Information minister Mike Mulongoti yesterday confirmed that the government was making arrangements to receive them. The Zimbabweans are headed for Zambia via Botswana in order to avoid passing through Zimbabwe.

Mulongoti said under the international law on migration, it made it obligatory for a UN member state to receive those seeking asylum. He said Zambia, as a UN member state, was under obligation to offer asylum to refugees.

Red Cross Society (RCS) director for Southern Africa, Francoise Le Goff, told AFP on Monday that RCS teams in Zambia were expecting the arrival of 25,000 Zimbabweans, or 5,000 families.

“At least 5,500 Zimbabweans have had assistance to Mozambique," she added, and 342 had been received in centres near the border with Botswana. About three million Zimbabweans are believed to be in South Africa.

And Mulongoti said Zambia was dismayed at the unwarranted attacks reported in the Zimbabwean government media recently.

Recently, Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice Patrick Chinamasa expressed disappointment with President Mwanawasa's failure as SADC chairperson to call on Britain and its Western allies to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Mulongoti said Zambia had stood by Zimbabwe's side bilaterally as well as within the framework of SADC, the African Union and internationally.
Mulongoti said President Mwanawasa had expressed solidarity with Zimbabwe by ensuring that President Mugabe attended the Africa-European Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

Labels: SOUTH AFRICA, XENOPHOBIA, ZIMBABWE

posted by MrK @ 3:21 AM