UNHCR to close two border refugee sites

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has announced that it is "set to close" two temporary border sites in western Burundi that had been sheltering at least 10,000 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since October 2002.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said on Friday at a news briefing in Geneva that the sites would be closed "over the next weeks". The measure is to be taken following the transfer of all Congolese refugees from the border sites to Cishemeye, farther inland in Burundi. The Cishemeye camp, in the northwestern province of Cibitoke, is some 40 km from the Burundi border with the DRC, and holds some 5,746 Congolese refugees.

Redmond said that at Rugombo, the other site slated for closure, UNHCR had dismantled all but two hangars that had been set up to shelter up to 6,000 refugees at the peak of the influx in November 2002.

"The last two hangars will be taken down and the site closed after the transfer of some 140 people who were not registered with us as refugees," he said.

Their records were being verified before possible transfer to Cishemeye.

Gatumba was the second site to be closed, he said, and all its inmates had been transferred. He said this site would be closed as soon as the nearly 600 Burundian returnees - who returned from South Kivu Province, DRC, during the conflict in October 2002 - were reintegrated in their home districts.

"We are talking with government authorities about their reintegration," he said. Meanwhile, he added, "We continue to see some spontaneous returns to the South Kivu region."

During the last few weeks, he said, nearly 500 Congolese had returned to the Uvira area in the DRC, "which is relatively calm".