UNHCR to repatriate Angolan refugees

The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia expects to repatriate about 40,000 Angolan refugees next year. UNHCR Zambia spokesman Kelvin Shimo told IRIN that the voluntary repatriation was likely to begin when the rainy season ends. Prospects for voluntary repatriation of refugees were good following the signing of a ceasefire agreement between the Angolan government and former rebel group UNITA on 4 April, he said. "UNHCR in Zambia is working closely with other UNHCR offices in the region to put together a plan for voluntary repatriation. We've projected [voluntary repatriation is] likely to commence next year April, after the rainy season, as it's very difficult to move people during the rainy season," Shimo said. UNHCR estimates there were about 100,000 Angolan refugees in camps in Zambia. "Our projections are that we'll move about 40,000 refugees next year and in 2004 we expect about 30,000 refugees will be moved [back to their places of origin]," Shimo said. Presently, Zambia hosts refugees from Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region. Many of these refugees have spontaneously settled in villages and on land in Zambian territory bordering their own countries. "According to government figures, there are 124,000 Angolans who spontaneously settled within the Zambian border, in villages etcetera," but UNHCR was only repatriating refugees in camps, Shimo explained. "We are still working out our budget, which will probably be consolidated into a regional budget. Meanwhile, the office in Zambia has already started to [engage] the donor community and all the various stakeholders, including the Zambian government, on this matter," he added. An estimated 9,000 refugees, 4,000 of them from Meheba and Mayukwayukwa camps in northern and western Zambia, and others spontaneously settled along the border, have crossed back into Angola since the end of Angola's long civil war. UNHCR projects "that another 5,000 may repatriate spontaneously to Angola ... bringing the estimate of spontaneous repatriation to about 15,000 this year for Zambia," Shimo had earlier told IRIN.