(Pictured: No where to go A family sits in the open with their possessions after their home was pulled down by police bulldozers during operation Murambatsvina (File pic) HARARE The UN refugee agency says more than 100 Murambatsvina victims are living in squalid conditions in a disused council beerhall in Mutare, almost five years after they were displaced under a controversial slum clearance programme in 2005.
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said the displaced families have been living in a large former bar owned by the Mutare City Council.
UNHCR and Christian Care are helping the more than 100 displaced people who are sheltering there, the refugee agency said.
Most of the displaced persons at the Mutare beerhall lost their identity documents or had them stolen during displacement and are being assisted to replace them by the two organisations.
The UNHCR said people without birth certificates or national ID cards are at risk of statelessness, particularly if they are of foreign origin.
The delay in finding alternative accommodation for the Murambatsvina victims is an indictment of the governments social welfare programmes.
Local human rights groups say many victims of Operation Murambatsvina are still without accommodation and some houses which were built for the victims are yet to be occupied.
The former opposition MDC-T of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said the slum clearance exercise conducted in its urban strongholds – was targeted at its supporters, who have voted against President Robert Mugabes Zanu (PF) party since 2000.
Mugabe defended the bulldozing of slums as necessary to snuff out thriving black market trade in scarce foreign exchange and other commodities that were in short supply.
Post published in: Politics