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UNHCR joins task force aimed at easing tension between Somalis and locals in South African township
15 Mar 2007 Attacks on Somali traders mid-February in a South African township have focused attention on the problems of xenophobia and tension between the Somalis and locals. UNHCR has joined a task force aimed at finding ways to ease the situation and end violence. -
Somali refugee traders and their South African hosts struggle to get along
13 Mar 2007 UNHCR is concerned about the increase in the number of attacks on Somali refugees, which the Somali Association of South Africa claims have left more than 400 people dead in the past decade. -
Refugee registration in Namibia advances the search for solutions
9 Mar 2007 Refugees will get sophisticated refugee ID cards following a re-registration exercise being conducted by the government of Namibia and UNHCR. A detailed record of all the refugees and asylum seekers is essential for providing current protection and solutions for their futures. -
International Women's Day: A woman in Namibia provides HIV counselling to her fellow refugees
8 Mar 2007 The appointment of a Congolese woman to counsel fellow refugees in Namibia on HIV underlines the efforts by the UN refugee agency to combat the disease among refugees, who have often come from countries where the rates of infection are far lower than among their neighbours in their present homes. -
Flow of asylum seekers to South Africa grows in 2006
2 Feb 2007 Growing numbers of asylum seekers entered South Africa in 2006, with more than a third of applications coming from Zimbabweans. The number of new applicants for refugee status exceeded the government's stepped-up efforts to clear the backlog that had existed from previous years. -
UNHCR gives refugees in Mozambique the skills to be self-sufficient
2 Jan 2007 From eggs to maize, from vocational training to granting small business loans, the UN refugee agency is trying to give some 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Mozambique the tools they need to become self-sufficient. -
Namibian refugees, some in ambulances, repatriate from Botswana
21 Nov 2006 A UNHCR-escorted convoy from Botswana has carried a group of 22 Namibian refugees back to their country. It was the second small repatriation of Namibians from Botswana this year, leaving behind about 1,100 of their countrymen who fled during a secessionist struggle in Namibia's Caprivi Strip in the late 1990s. -
UNHCR prepares for Swaziland to take over all refugee services
9 Oct 2006 Nearly 30 years after UNHCR opened an office in the tiny mountain kingdom of Swaziland to help people fleeing apartheid in South Africa, the UN agency is preparing for the country to take sole responsibility for all refugee services. -
Tension in South Africa as refugees and residents compete
12 Jul 2006 In a poor settlement near Johannesburg, competition between local and refugee traders triggered a demand for the expulsion of all Somali businessmen - one of a number of incidents of xenophobia that UNHCR, the government and other organisations are tackling in South Africa.