Date of publication:

10/12/2026

Zambia

Do domestic laws and policies provide for the continued protection of refugees for whom special arrangements have been made?

ANALYSIS

Assessment by population

Refugees
Asylum-seekers
Analysis

Article 1D 1951 Refugee Convention includes a section on persons protected by or receiving assistance from another UN agency. It states:

‘This convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance.

When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Convention.’

Article 1D 1951 Refugee Convention is only partially domesticated in the 2017 Refugees Act. Section 14(1)(d) 2017 Refugees Act defines that persons “receiving protection or assistance from an agency of the United Nations, other than UNHCR” are to be excluded from protection under the Act. However, there is no provision for such a person to be considered an ipso facto refugee under the 2017 Refugees Act once the protection or assistance afforded by another UN agency, inter alia the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), has ceased. According to section 14(2) 2017 Refugees Act, they need to apply for asylum again, resulting in a deviation from the 1951 Refugee Convention. This would result in a protection gap for persons previously afforded protection or assistance by another UN agency. There is no provision in law which creates a difference in treatment among refugees.

    LAW & POLICY

    Related provisions of domestic law or policy

    The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees

    Legal provision

    Article 1(D) - Definition of the term "Refugee"

    D. This Convention shall not apply to persons who are at present receiving from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees protection or assistance. When such protection or assistance has ceased for any reason, without the position of such persons being definitively settled in accordance with the relevant resolutions adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, these persons shall ipso facto be entitled to the benefits of this Convention.

    THE REFUGEES ACT, 2017

    Legal provision

    Section 14 - Exclusion or refusal to grant recognition as refugee

    14. (1) The Commissioner shall exclude a person or asylum seeker from recognition of refugee status under this Act if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person or asylum seeker— (a) has committed a crime against peace, a war crime or crime against humanity; (b) has committed a serious non-political crime outside Zambia before that person's arrival in Zambia; (c) has engaged in subversive acts against any State; (d) is receiving protection or assistance from an agency of the United Nations, other than the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; (e) is a combatant or continues to take part in armed activities; and (f) has committed acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations or the African Union. (2) Where the protection or assistance referred to in subsection (1)(d) ceases without the person's position being definitively settled, that person may apply for recognition as a refugee under this Act. (3) The Commissioner shall not grant a person or asylum seeker refugee status under this Act if that person or asylum seeker— (a) having more than one nationality, had not availed oneself of the protection of one of the countries of which the person is a national, and has no valid reason, based on well-founded fear of persecution; (b) has been granted refugee status or asylum in another country before that person's entry into Zambia, except that a person arriving from a territory where there has been serious breach of peace shall have that person's application for asylum considered; and (c) has before that person's entry into Zambia transited through one or more countries and is unable to show reasonable cause for failure to seek asylum in those countries. (4) The Commissioner shall, where the Commissioner refuses to recognise a person's status as a refugee, state the reasons for the refusal and shall inform that person of the right to appeal to the Minister.