Report on the Commemoration of the World Refugee Day in Kalemie City, Tanganyika Province, the Democratic Republic of Congo held on Thursday June 26th, 2025.
Background information
The City of Kalemie is on the shores of Lakes Tanganyika and hosts the provincial institutions of the Province. This city also hosts refugees from Rwanda, Burundi and many others but who remain unknown. Like others in the entire DRC, nowhere you will find a report on the situation of these refugees, apart from what we are presenting now.
Basing on this we decided that we should work more on the visibility of refugees in DRC, alongside other forced migrants who are in similar situations. At this time Kalemie also hosts thousands of Internally Displaced Persons who fled the ongoing war in Kivu.
Statistics
During our meeting UNHCR officers refused to tell us the exact number of refugees in this province but through other sources we were informed that 6,000 refugees are registered in Tanganyika. But a big number of others are not yet registered especially refugees from Rwanda, the UNHCR registration exercise was linked to forced repatriations which stopped many refugees from claiming the refugee status up to now and actually many are still in hiding and do not want to disclose that they are refugees because they fear being deported or repatriated by force. We estimate that more than 70,000 refugees are in this Province.
The challenges of UNHCR and CNR
The National Commission for Refugees is the DRC body in-charge of refugees and is currently not operating in Kalemie, so all refugees have to seek services from UNHCR. The challenges is that refugees have a negative perception towards UNHCR which is viewed as being there to repatriate refugees by force, but also the CNR has not its own policy towards the protection of refugees, CNR relies on the direction from UNHCR and the only service available to refugees is repatriation. This makes it difficult for both UNHCR and CNR to get the exact number of refugees and to know the real problems refugees are facing.
Problems of refugees in Kalemie
During our meetings with refugees we observed that they were highly discriminated, excluded and marginalized from accessing services. For example someone has to prove that he/she is a Congolese in order to access medical treatment, education and livelihood opportunities. Refugee documents were not being recognized by various stakeholders like security services, the Banks and Communication Companies among others, and refugees could not access land, operate only informal businesses and lack relief aid.
In order to address these problems we, organized the world refugee day, and this dialogue focused on solidarity with refugees.
The main objectives were to challenge these structural barriers and put in place a coordination team that can intervene when there are problems.
Participants
We planned for 45 people but more 71 people attended from the Civil Society (SOCICO, NDSCI, NSC, SCC, PESC), Province Authorities (Minister of Education and her Team, Minister of Health and Her Team, Minister of Social Affairs and her Team, representatives from the Division of Plan, Migration, Intelligence Services, the Mayor of Kalemie, Local Councils, Cultural Leaders, refugees representatives, the media and human rights defenders.
Absent:
UNHCR, OCHA, IOM, the Governor, the Minister of Internal Affairs (this one had an issue in the Parliament), the Police, The National Commission for Refugees and the Army.
Activities
Welcome remarks by the President of SOCICO Ilunga Robert and introduction of participants. In his speech he thanked the participants for honoring the invitation and for showing solidarity with refugees, also the host communities for welcoming refugees and helping them when they come. He also briefed participants of what do we expect from the word solidarity but also for joining the rest of the globe to think about refugees.
Kulihoshi Musikami Pecos presented on the general situation of refugees in DRC, and in the Province of Tanganyika focusing on who are these refugees, when they came, why they came, how they living, why are they there, what challenges they are facing, what should be done, and the current political leadership, also exchanged on opportunities linked to refugees and the challenges that the province is facing. He pointed out some positive steps the province has done and what should be done more.
Refugee presentations
Three refugee leaders presented on issues about their security, protection, health, education, economic opportunities, and the lack of relief aid. This helped the participants to get very the message from people themselves.
Debate
During the discussions questions were asked and clarifications were made, people exchanged among themselves, and agreed to improve where there are challenges.
Team work
Participants were put in five groups on debate and make recommendations on security and protection, refugee integration, access to health services, refugee education, and refugee documents.
Outcome of the dialogue
The Minister of Education pledged to remove the barriers for refugee children, the Minister of Health also pledged to remove the barriers to access health services, the security services pledged to improve and discourage threats against refugees, and the migration pledged to work with various actors to ensure asylum seekers are not deported.
A team of people to coordinate all actions and follow-up was put in place, and other participants pledged to share the information with their head of departments for actions. People committed to share information and key advocacy points were developed from the five groups.
In conclusion
The Dialogue achieved its objectives at 70% and more work remains now to ensure that what was discussed is implemented. So far we proud for this debate with is unique, the mere fact of having this activity is in itself enough, the mere of various authorities receiving invitation about this activity is enough, and the mere fact of bringing all these people together was enough a sign of solidarity and beginning.
We thank all our partners especially COHERE for the financial contribution, GlobalGiving and Children Rights Innovation Fund who are supporting our activities currently.
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