More refugees want to return to Caprivi, UNHCR

The voluntary repatriation of refugees from Botswana to Namibia's Caprivi region has encouraged others to follow suit, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) told IRIN. UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic said the repatriation of eight adults and four children last Friday was the first since 2002. "It broke the ice and now people are signing up for return," Sunjic noted. "This is something we've seen before - sometimes it just takes the first pioneers to break the ice and the others will follow." Since then more than 60 people in Dukwi refugee camp in northeastern Botswana have signed up to make the 450 km journey to Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi region. There are currently 1,200 Namibian refugees registered in Dukwi. They are part of a group of 2,400 refugees who fled Namibia in late 1998 during a wave of violence caused by secessionist fighting in the Caprivi region, on the border with Angola. Jennifer Pagonis, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Geneva, said the refugees were returning in terms of an agreement reached in 2002 between Namibia, Botswana and UNHCR, which incorporates internationally recognised principles of refugee protection, including the establishment of a commission to promote repatriation, cross-border visits by refugee representatives, the simplification of border procedures and access to returnees by UNHCR.