The Swazi Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze has said
Somali asylum seekers living in the kingdom who complained that they were being
starved and forced to work in fields without pay were lucky they had not been
deported.
The Somalis were also reported to be eating grass and tree leaves as they said they were not given anything to eat at the Malindza Refugee Camp.
The Somalis were also reported to be eating grass and tree leaves as they said they were not given anything to eat at the Malindza Refugee Camp.
The
Somalis became so desperate that in January 2015, they attempted to walk the 3,800 km from Swaziland
back to their war-torn country of Somalia. They were unable to cross the
Swaziland / Mozambique border because they did not have travel documents.
Now, seven refugees have set up
camp outside Ludzidzini, one of King Mswati III’s 13 royal palaces. The Times
of Swaziland newspaper reported they might be seeking Swazi citizenship.
In January 2015, the Swazi Observer newspaper
reported the Somalis had asked the Swazi Ministry of Home
Affairs to assist them to return to their homes in Somalia, ‘stating that they could not take
any more of the hardship they faced at the camp’.
Mowlid
Omer Warsame, one of the refugees, was reported saying the living conditions in
Swaziland were so unbearable ‘they found it better to go and die in the
warfront in their home country than in a foreign land’.
On Monday
(24 March 2015), Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze told the Swaziland Senate that refugees
should respect the laws of Swaziland.
The Swazi
Observer reported him saying if
government was so harsh on the Somali nationals they would have been deported
by now
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