Angolans Stuck in Namibia Experience Severe Human Rights Abuses

Author: Aahana Nagwekar

September 5, 2026

HRRC condemns the harsh protocols used on Angolan migrants trying to seek shelter from national disasters within their home country. Clear guidelines and appropriate legal protection must be implemented by the Namibian government.

[Image credit: RNW.org/ Flickr]

In recent days, hundreds of Angolan civilians fled into Namibia as a result of extreme droughts. These Angolan climate refugees are faced with a problem: their dislocation is not welcomed by Namibian officials, and the forcible deportation of these migrants back to Angola highlights barriers in safe and legal migration pathways back to their home country.

Between May 2024 and May 2026, Amnesty International interviewed over 160 people, including displaced persons, community leaders, government officials, civil society representatives, academics, and many others. These individuals shed light on the harsh journey out of Angola and displacement into Namibia, as well as what local civilians were calling for to resolve this problem. Southern Angola’s Cunene, Huila, and Namibe provinces have been hit hardest by natural disasters in the nation, with El Niño intensifying the region’s drought cycle. Amnesty International presents that roughly 11.1 million Angolans, around 28% of the Angolan population, depend on rain-fed rural livelihoods, despite Angola's being one of Africa’s leading oil and diamond producers; regardless of Angola’s wave of industrialization, about a third of its population reside below the World Bank poverty line.

Rather than to provide protection, the Namibian government had increased border enforcement to ensure that many of the Angolan climate refugees  entering into Namibia faced deportation back to Angola. Namibia has returned more than 1000 Angolans this year after finding them without proper immigration status. In June 2025, Namibian authorities rounded up roughly 40 Angolan nationals, including women and children, and transported them to the border. Children have been forcibly returned without clear public information on what safeguards were applied, such as confirmation of a caretaker in the returning country.

Amnesty International’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, called this issue  a human rights crisis and demanded international solidarity for the innocent Angolan civilians, in addition to calling for legal protections to be given to the Angolan climate refugees against deportation by Namibian officials. Namibia is facing increasing pressures from activist groups and civilians to adopt a rights-based approach, developing policy with the primary interest of protecting any and every persons’ human rights in order to ensure that displaced people can access the proper legal immigration channels to escape the Angolan climate crisis. As of right now, Namibian officials have not responded or made any public statements on their unjust treatments of helpless Angolan refugees.

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Glossary

Displacement – the act or process of removing from an office, status, area, or job

Drought – a period of dry weather, especially a long one that is injurious to crops.

Drought cycle – a recurring natural pattern of below-average precipitation and high temperatures that leads to water shortages and environmental stress

Safeguard – something that serves as a protection or defense or that ensures safety