HARARE The Registrar Generals Office is allegedly frustrating efforts by aid agencies to facilitate the issuance of identity documents to internally displaced persons housed at camps in Harare who lost their particulars during last years political upheavals, humanitarian groups said.The RGs office in Harare has not responded to a request by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) months ago for a mobile registration exercise to cater for individuals at three informal settlements housing internally displaced persons in the capital.
The Registrar Generals office in Harare is yet to provide feedback on the possibility of conducting a mobile registration exercise for people with identified documentation needs at Hatcliffe Extension, Hopley Farm and Bellapaise Farm settlements, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Hundreds of people who fled their homes in different parts of the country to escape Zanu (PF)-led violence are temporarily sheltered in camps in Harare and other provinces.
Most of them had all their belongings looted or destroyed in arson attacks by marauding gangs of Zanu (PF) youth militias and so-called war veterans who accused them of voting for the MDC.
The UNHCR and its non-governmental organization (NGO) partners were working with displaced and returnee communities in the Midlands, Mashonaland East, Mashonaland West, Manicaland and Harare provinces.
In September the NGOs assisted 327 internally displaced persons in Manicaland province to obtain basic civil registry and identity documentation through the RGs regional office.
Of these, 239 received birth certificates and 88 national identity documents.
The Registrar Generals office in Mashonaland East province has agreed to assist 70 people in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe (UMP) district with personal documentation through a mobile registration visit, following a request by members of the protection cluster, OCHA said.
Durable solution needed
The humanitarian agencies, however, voiced concern over the plight of hundreds of former farm workers displaced when a farm in Odzi district in Manicaland was acquired under the governments controversial land reform programme.
The agencies said a durable solution was needed for the displaced farm workers following the confirmation of the relevant eviction order by the High Court.
The displaced persons, evicted from the farm more than three months ago living in make-shift shelters along the Mutare-Harare road without access to basic services.
The advocacy efforts undertaken by several national NGOs and negotiation with the district authorities have failed to identify appropriate durable solutions for this particular group, OCHA said.
Cases of gender-based sexual violence as well as high rates of school drop-outs are reported to be rife in the make-shift camps.
Post published in: Politics