Illegal Immigration Still an Issue in Angolan-Congolese Relations

Illegal immigration is no new issue in the diplomacy between Angola and Congo Democratic Republic (CDR). For years, both nations have experienced thousands of aliens crossing their borders. During the Angolan Civil War, which ended in 2003, CDR was one of the most sought out countries for Angolans seeking protection from the generalized violence, and terror, in which their country was immersed. For the Congolese, the reason to make the inverse journey was a different one. As Father Pierre Mulumba of Caritas Luebo explained to IRIN, “[The Congolese] go to live in Angola without documents [and] most spend their time exploiting diamonds as artisanal miners. The women follow their husbands or go to do business and commerce.” In 2009, Chief General of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) reported to “O Pais” a number of illegal Congolese immigrants in Angola of around a million, a number that has since decreased to the hundreds of thousands. From the Congolese part, and according to Céline Smith from the Haut commissariat pour les réfugiés (HCR), there is an estimate of seventy nine thousand Angolan refugees in CDR territory.

Illegal immigration is no black and white issue as it is part of a broader territorial dispute between both nations. According to Angolan-based newspaper “O Pais,” the illegal exploitation of diamonds in Angola has lead to an alleged loss of three hundred million dollars with the Congolese having similar claims to the ones of its Angolan counterpart. The Congolese government has claimed that Angolan oil companies have been illegally exploiting CDR’s oil reserves.

This being no new issue, both nations have, back in 2009, tried to protect their citizens from suffering from it and both governments agreed to "immediately stop the expulsions of citizens of their respective states.” The agreement has not been respected by either nation since, according to UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), an estimated of eighty thousand Congolese were expelled from Angola to DRC between January 2010 and March 2011 alone.

While, according to the report by Congo-based Radio Okapi, forty three thousand from the seventy nine thousand Angolans are willing to return to their country, in the other side of the border the situation seems to be more delicate. The International Committee for the Development of Peoples (CISP) has reported that repatriating the Congolese has been a violent process through and through, the organization reported that the FAA were using extreme violence towards the aliens. IRIN, a service of humanitarian news and analysis of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), transcribed the testimonial of Mwamba Kashane a thirty-year-old Congolese who reported to be, several times, hit with machetes after being pick up in the streets by the FAA. IRIN also reported that, “in the prison and during the journey, returnees also said they were subjected to torture, physical violence, separation of children from their mothers, confinement in overcrowded cells and body searches without gloves in the anus and vagina.”

The Angolan government has denied such accusations and has only admitted to take nonviolent action against those who occupy the diamond reserve areas, not mattering whether they are immigrants or nationals.

Read more at :
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-22-angola-accused-of-border-terror/

http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=93004
http://www.opais.net/pt/opais/?id=1929&det=6120&ss=general%20pakas
http://radiookapi.net/actualite/2011/07/16/kinshasa-le-hcr-et-l%E2%80%99oim-appellent-au-rapatriement-des-angolais-de-la-rdc/
http://www.afriquinfos.com/articles/2011/7/5/congo-181600.asp
http://jornaldeangola.sapo.ao/26/0/ha_milhares_de_estrangeiros_em_situacao_ilegal