LUSAKA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Zambian President Edgar Lungu said on Friday that his government was considering extending a local integration program to refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Lungu said the government will extend the local integration program to DRC refugees who have lived in Zambia for 10 years or more.
The Zambian leader said this during his intervention statement at the Uganda Solidarity Summit on Refugees in Kampala, according to a statement released by his office.
The Zambian leader however did not state when the integration program for DRC refugees will commence.
Lungu left for Uganda on Thursday to attend the summit being hosted by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Secretary-General Filippo Grandi.
In 2012, Zambia started the implementation of the local integration program for former refugees from Angola and Rwanda, in which it targeted the integration of 10,000 former Angolan refugees and 4,000 former Rwandan refugees.
According to government figures, a total of 1,214 resident permits have so far been issued to former Angolan and Rwandan refugees while 13,000 applications were currently being processed.
Lungu told the summit that the local integration program has been designed to mirror the co-existence and good neighborliness that have been the hallmarks of Zambia's asylum policy.
He further commended the UNHCR office in Zambia for the unwavering support in the local integration program through infrastructure development.
Currently, Zambia has 59,213 refugees though the figure had reached 300,000 at one time.
