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{
"id": 1008399,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1008399/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Igembe North, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Maoka Maore",
"speaker": {
"id": 13344,
"legal_name": "Richard Maore Maoka",
"slug": "richard-maore-maoka"
},
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. This is a Bill that should have been enacted on the eve of Somalia fall. We have been having the unfortunate credit of having to neighbour a failed state for close to 30 years. It is important to note that the definition of a refugee and the status that one enters into, as somebody who is running away from conflict, violence or persecution. When you are a refugee, if you are repatriated back to your homeland, there is a threat to your life in very many ways. That is usually the difference between somebody who is seeking asylum and someone who is seeking refugee status. When you look at Africa, we are only second to Ethiopia in terms of the volume of the refugees that we host. So, for us, as a country, the word “refugee” should actually ring a bell to everybody. For that reason, you have seen the influx of the Somali citizens, who came in two different categories that is, the women and children who are vulnerable and were concentrated in camps and there are those who earn money, they came and transformed the lifestyle of Nairobi. For instance, you find that in most estates which they occupied, they were tripling the price of houses, both rental and purchase. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, when we have this scenario of refugees — and this Bill has come at the right time — we know that when the United Nations (UN) security agency that caters for refugees was defining the life of a refugee, it was specifically to help the Europeans who had been displaced by World War II. For that reason, that is why you find that the protection of a refugee is quite a serious affair because it involves the Europeans. Now that the Europeans are far away from that plaque, it is we Africans and most of the other developing countries. You can see what Bangladesh is going through with the Rohingya, the displacement of the war in the Middle East and others for example. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, when we talk about a refugee, he or she is a human being like you and me. It is for that reason, when we have this piece of legislation trying to define and protect refugees, it could not have come at a better time than this time. We need, as a country, to integrate those refugees who are within our borders and provide them with facilities even nearer where they are settled. We know the UN and there is huge money to those who know about those cartels of the UN and others. The money involved is huge. For that reason, you would find that the facilities at the refugee camps are usually better than those of the communities nearby. However, we should always respect, with a lot of dignity, those people who have had the unfortunate status of being refugees. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Bill."
}