The experts in the justice, law and order sector have called for increased numbers of female police officers in refugee camps to handle female suspects. The experts during a dialogue at Arua High Court hall said there is a need to strengthen integrated systems to enhance access to gender, youth, and child justice in refugee hosting districts of the West Nile Region.
The discussion was embraced by experts from the Uganda Police Force- UPF, the Directorate of Public Prosecution- DPP, the Uganda Prisons Service-UPS, the judiciary, the probationary office, Legal aid, and representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister -OPM.
Superintendent of Police -SP Josephine Angucia, the West Nile regional police spokesperson, said the call to increase female police officers’ numbers in refugee camps was based on the fact that the majority of the refugees are always females and children. Other than the insufficient numbers of female police officers in refugee camps, the challenges faced in transporting female suspects to and from courts were also deliberated on.
“Some of the challenges discussed included the need for more women police officers to handle female suspects at the refugee camps, and the need for more officers to work at the police posts at the camps. There is the need for more motor vehicles and fuel to transport suspects to court and child remandees to Arua children’s remand home, and a need for facilitation to summon witnesses to testify in court,” SP Angucia said.
Other issues that were extensively discussed, according to SP Angucia are; a need for reception centres to keep remandees pending transportation to prison instead of keeping them in police as if they are suspects. SP Angucia who represented the regional police commander informed participants that there was a need for GBV centres at police stations in order to keep and counsel victims of the same cases.
“The participants also discussed the need for interpreters on refugee languages, the need for mobile courts at the camps, and other issues which were raised in the justice law and order sector. The stakeholders agreed to communicate with their top management and also lobby from other organizations and ministries to fill the gaps,” SP Angucia said.
Other experts and technical people that participated in the dialogue came from United Nations High Commission for Refugees- UNHCR. Uganda has over 1.4 million refugees from countries such as South Sudan, Eritrea, and The Democratic Republic of Congo- DRC.