16 Jun 2022

Botswana has surpassed international standards in offering basic education to refugees. 

While the standards sets provision  of basic education to refugees at Standard VII, the country offers them up to Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) level. 

“The challenge comes in after Form Five because we are not yet able to sponsor them for university or tertiary,”  refugee management and welfare director Ms Thobo Letlhage said in an interview ahead of World Refugee Day on June 20.

She however said local institutions had been offering refugees full sponsorship to enable them to complete their studies. 

Ms Letlhage said provision of education was in addition to other amenities extended to refugees such as medical services, protection, clothing and daily necessities in collaboration with UNHCR. 

 She said currently, Botswana’s refugee population stood at less than 1 000.

In the past three years, a huge number of refugees was repatriated to Namibia and Zimbabwe while others left for Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Rwanda and Eritrea, said Ms Letlhage. 

She explained that refugee status could be transformed through voluntary repatriation, resettlement in other countries and local integration. 

Botswana, she said, had been offering integration to refugees, adding that Basotho and Angolans had in the past settled in the country. 

Ms Letlhage said the country continued to integrate refugees although on a small scale. 

She said refugees had been received well by local communities noting that some had children with locals while others had married or found employment in Botswana. 

However, she said for a refugee to be employed, he/she had to seek permission first. 

Ms Letlhage, whose department cares for refugees at Dukwi Refugee Camp, said the task had its own challenges. 

“It is not a camp that you find locked or under surveillance, it is a settlement and our challenge is that many would not want to stay in the settlement,” she said. 

Another challenge for the department, Ms Letlhage said, was the high numbers of asylum seekers and what she termed asylum shopping. 

“Majority would be moving from neighbouring countries where they had been granted asylum,” she said. 

According to Ms Letlhage, the majority of asylum seekers did not meet the refugee status granting criteria. 

This year’s World Refugee Day will be commemorated at Dukwi Refugee Camp under the theme: Reaching safety and the right to seek asylum. 

Minister of Justice, Mr Machana Shamukuni is scheduled  to officiate at the event.BOPA