MSF calls for greater assistance to returnees

Médicins Sans Frontièrs (MSF) on Wednesday called for greater assistance to refugees returning to Angola, saying that many had resettled in areas lacking basic services. The MSF-Belgium head of mission in Angola, Fasil Bezera, told IRIN the situation was "extremely difficult" and that more than 60 percent of people who had returned to their areas of origin had no access to medical care, water, shelter or education facilities. The medical relief agency said it had started work in primary health care centres in two transit camps in Moxico Province in the east of the country. "Since the start of the repatriation programme which started in June we have seen more than a 1,000 people. But while we may have access to the refugees when they pass through the transit camps, there are no assurances that people will receive medical care when they leave. In the rest of the province the health infrastructure is nonexistent. Often people in more remote areas are forced to carry their sick relatives over long distances to get to the nearest health facility," Bezera said. Land mine infestation continues to hamper aid delivery in the more remote parts of the province. "Although the main access routes and strategic points such as water resources in the province have been cleared of land mines, our access to remote villages remains limited. We are concerned that during the next rainy season we may even lose the access we have with some villages," Bezera added. Up to 440,000 refugees driven from their homes by 27 years of civil war are expected to return from neighbouring countries over the next few years. According to government figures, 1.8 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have made their way home. The movement of large volumes of returnees to areas of origin began in September last year, including to some locations that did not meet the pre-conditions established in the UN's "Norms on the Resettlement and Return of Displaced Populations". Under these norms, returnees must be given seeds and tools to enable them to start growing food, and the areas in which they are resettled should have basic facilities and be declared free of land mines. "Admittedly the challenges are significant, but the government and donors must make sure that these people have the necessary facilities, so that they can live in dignity," Bezara said.