Africa Refugee Day is both a happy and sad occasion happy because it serves as a reminder of the decision in the summit of the Organization of African Unity in 1969 to welcome refugees, and sad because in the continent today there still are many people who find themselves in situations that leave them no option but to seek refuge outside their country. In fact, Africa is the continent with the largest number of refugees 6.7 million. In addition, the number of persons displaced in their own countries continues to increase, as it does worldwide. The recent plight of Liberian asylum seekers aboard leaky boats forced to turn away from port after port showed how much pressure is being brought to the asylum regime as refugee problems often continue to defy solutions. Host countries and donor governments have shown impatience at the continued presence of some 1.7 million Rwandan refugees in ecologically and economically fragile communities.
Burundi refugees fleeing terrible violence have difficulty in finding safety abroad.
However, the picture is not only bleak. Where the underlying problems have been addressed, the refugees have gone home. Refugees from Togo, Mali, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia also are returning home. It is in education that we begin to understand and give meaning to values of tolerance that allow people to live together in harmony. This year s theme for Africa Refugee Day Save the Environment to Safeguard Asylum is appropriate.