What You Can Do: Urban Refugees Living in Nairobi and Kampala

Inside Kenya and Uganda

1. If you are Ugandan, you can write to your Members of Parliament asking them to pass the Refugee Bill as soon as possible and to provide better protection and assistance to refugees living in Kampala. For more information: http://www.parliament.go.ug.

2a. If you are Kenyan and would like to raise concerns about the treatment of refugees in Nairobi, please write to the office of the Vice President, Ministry of Home affairs. For more information: http://www.vice-president.go.ke/

2b. In the lead-up and after the elections (December 27, 2002), you could also write to your MPs, urging them to better protect refugees in Nairobi and to pass national legislation that fully implements Kenya’s obligations towards refugees. For more information: http://www.parliament.go.ke

Outside of Kenya and Uganda

1. If you live outside of Kenya and Uganda, you can contact your government representatives encouraging them to better assist refugees in Nairobi and Kampala. If you live in a resettlement country such as Canada Australia or Norway:

1. In addition to contacting your government representatives (MPs), Canadians can advocate for more refugee resettlement places. For more information: http://united-church.ca/jpc/migration/impactnewact.asp

2. Canadians could also contact one of these organizations in your home area: http://www.cic.gc.ca/ref-protection/english/infocentre/committees-comites/spo.htm

3. In addition to contacting government representatives (MPs), Australians could write to Department of Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) advocating for more resettlement of refugees from urban centers. For more information: http://www.immi.gov.au/wwi/contents.htm

4. In addition to contacting your government representatives, Norwegians could write to the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, and ask that more refugees at risk in urban centers be accepted by Norway. http://odin.dep.no/krd/engelsk/dep/spm/index-b-n-a.html

5. Americans can write letters to President Bush and their congressional representatives to raise the resettlement quota for 2004. 1. If you would like information on US resettlement program, please go to http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=54

Media

You can hold your local media accountable through your letters and op-eds. Have you heard a biased story, read an inaccurate account or noticed a complete lack of coverage of topics affecting displaced persons? You can bring these issues to the attention of your local editor through your letters and op-eds. For more information: http://www.lirs.org/DonateServe/advocate/RefProg/RefProginfo.htm