Government, UNHCR dismiss "opposition" claims

The Eritrean government and UNHCR have denied accusations allegedly from the opposition Sewrawi Democratic Front for Eritrea (SDFE) that the decision to repatriate Eritrean refugees living in Sudan is "short-sighted" and does not care about the future of the returnees. "Organised or spontaneous repatriation has been going on for the past eight years in which some 160,000 people have returned to Eritrea," Eritrean government spokesman Yemane Ghebre Meskel told IRIN on Wednesday. "These people are usually repatriated on a voluntary basis with the help of the government's Commission for Relief and Refugee Affairs and UNHCR," he said. "It has been established that there are about 100,000 Eritreans currently in Sudan but their return all depends on whether they want it or not," he added. Ghebre Meskel also dismissed the whole report as "Ethiopian propaganda" maintaining that there is no "opposition" in Eritrea. UNHCR, for its part, told IRIN that it is planning to go back to the country after being expelled in 1998. "It is true recently UNHCR discussed the return of its staff to Eritrea and about the refugees in Sudan," UNHCR spokesman in Geneva Jacques Franquin told IRIN. "It is UNHCR's mandate to facilitate the return of refugees who indicate the desire to do so on voluntary basis," he said. "It is true we negotiated on the possible return of the refugees, but it is untrue that we are colluding with the government and there is no evidence that the refugees could be forcefully conscripted," he added. He said the agency will redeploy staff and "monitor" the situation in the country before it can possibly facilitate any returns.