The exercise, which will help secure their stay in Cameroon, kicked-off in Douala on January 18, 2016.
Some 10,000 refugees from 25 countries in the Littoral Region will soon have new identification documents, including Refugee Identity Cards and Attestations, thanks to biometric registration. Given the current state of insecurity in the northern part of the country, the United Nation High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, thought it wise to put in place a viable and efficient identification system.
Thus, biometric registration was introduced in December 2015 in Yaounde and will run for a year in the country. The exercise started in Douala yesterday, January 18, 2016, with some 500 refugees already registering. The exercise, which concerns only those registered four years ago, according to Chrislain Fogan, UNHCR staff in charge of Registration and Documentation, will not only give the exact number of refugees in Cameroon, but will identify them the world over. “With the digital information, including photographs, it is easier to identify them anywhere in the world and the country they were registered,” he emphasised.
The good news is that the registration will reinforce the 2005 Law on Refugees that grants them right to education, health and work.
Mylène Ahounou, Senior Protection Officer, said the biometric exercise will help the UNHCR to identify the refugees’ needs in order to better assist them. Since taking care of refugees singlehandedly is difficult, the Cameroon Red Cross has been hailed for assisting through the construction of boreholes, latrines and provision of foodstuff. Apdalfamofalap Elssazi and Beyo Edmond, refugees from Sudan and the Central African Republic respectively, saluted the hospitality of Cameroonians, but regretted that getting jobs was difficult.
About 7,717 of the 10,000 refugees in Douala are from the Central African Republic, 394 from Chad and 318 from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 7,717 refugees from CAR will be registered from January 23 to February 3, 2016. The exercise was conducted in Yaounde in December 2015, and saw over 11,000 people registered. After Douala, the team will proceed to the South West, North West, East, Adamawa and Far North Regions.
