UNHCR steps up repatriation

Due to the onset of the rainy season, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) plans to step up its voluntary repatriation programme for Angolan refugees living in neighbouring countries. The UN refugee agency this week said some 15,000 Angolans had returned from Zambia, mainly from Meheba camp near the border with Angola. "On Saturday [4 October], the first convoy carrying 505 Angolans set out from Mayukwayukwa camp in western Zambia for the four-day trip over 2,000 km to Cazombo in the Angolan frontier province of Moxico. It is the second camp in Zambia where UNHCR is organising return convoys." The organisation noted that it had had to arrange convoys from Mayukwayukwa "because hundreds of Angolan refugees could not wait and have returned spontaneously". Due to the lack of basic infrastructure in some areas of return, the aid agency had decided to organise repatriation to "areas with the capacity to receive the refugees". "Against all odds, UNHCR is continuing efforts to open up new districts in Angola for returns, ensuring that there is water, sanitation, schools, medical services and shelters. In Moxico province - the destination for a majority of refugees and one of the most inaccessible - the agency is developing the more remote districts near the border. Five out of 20 communes in the province have been opened for repatriation from Zambia and the DRC," it said. UNHCR added that in Zaire province in the north of Angola, six of the 10 communes could now receive returnees, and four out of five communes in Cuando Cubango in the south have been prepared for Angolans in Namibia. "Last week the first convoy of about 120 refugees arrived in Calai, near the Namibian border. Five more convoys are expected to follow, carrying between 500 and 900 returnees. An additional 2,000 to 3,000 will return to Cuangar, near Calai," the agency noted. Countrywide, up to two-thirds of the returned families have been able to reach their final destinations in Angola. The rest are still awaiting onward transportation at reception or transit centres. UNHCR has also assisted 17,000 spontaneous returnees - 50 percent of refugees going home on their own in 2003 - with the same package given to those who joined its convoys.